The Iranian EFL Journal

The Iranian EFL Journal August 2013 Volume 9 Issue 4

ISSN On-line: 1836-8751 ISSN Print: 1836-8743


Chief Editors Dr. Paul Robertson Dr. Rajabali Askarzadeh Torghabeh

Iranian EFL Journal

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Publisher Dr. Paul Robertson Time Taylor International Ltd.

Senior Associate Editor Dr. Rajabali Askarzadeh Torghabeh Ferdowsi University of Mashhad Mashhad, Iran

Dr. Roger Nunn The Petroleum Institute Abu Dhabi UAE

Dr. John Adamson Shinshu Honan College Japan

Professor Dr. Z.N. Patil Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages Hyderabad, India

Senior Statesmen

Professor Rod Ellis University of Auckland New Zealand

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Associate Editors

Professor Dr. Dan Douglas Iowa State University USA

Dr. Reza Pishghadam Ferdowsi university of Mashhad Mashhad, Iran

Dr. Behzad Ghonsooly Ferdowsi University of Mashhad Mashhad, Iran

Prof. Dr. Rana Nayar Panjab University India

Dr. Abdolmahdy Riazi Shirza University Iran

Dr. Mahmood Reza Atai Tarbiat Moallem University Tehran, Iran

Editorial team

Dr. Pourya Baghaii Islamic Azad University, Mashhad Branch, Iran

Dr. Zohre Eslami Rasekh Texas A & M University USA

Dr. Azizullah Fatahi Shar-e Kord University Iran

Dr. Mohammad Reza Hashemi Ferdowsi University of Mashhad Mashhad, Iran

Dr. Parvaneh Tavakoli University of Reading, Humanities and Social Sciences Building Whiteknights England

Dr. Seyyed Ayatollah Razmju Shiraz University Iran

Dr. Shamala Paramasivam University of Putra Malaysia

Dr. Manizheh Yuhannaee University of Isfahan Iran

Dr. Antony Fenton Soka University Japan

Dr. Esma’eel Abdollahzadeh Iran University of Science and Technology Iran

Dr. Ingrid Mosquera Gende Bettatur University College of Tourism Tarragona, Spain

Dr. Rajabali Askarzadeh Torghabeh

Dr. Christopher Alexander University of Nicosia Cyprus

Dr. Robert Kirkpatrick

Shinawatra International University, Thailand

Ferdowsi University of Mashhad Mashhad, Iran Dr. Abbas Zare’ee Kashan University Iran

Dr. Masoud Sharififar

Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman Kerman, Iran

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The Iranian EFL Journal Press A Division of Time Taylor Publishers QC Pavilion Cebu http://www.Iranian-efl-journal.com [email protected] This E book is in copyright. No reproduction may take place without the express written permission of the Iranian EFL Journal No unauthorized copying All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Iranian EFL Journal.

Chief Editor: Dr. Paul Robertson Senior Associate Editor: Dr. Rajabali Askarzadeh Torghabeh, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.

ISSN On-line: 1836-8751 ISSN Print: 1836-8743

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Table of Contents Foreword: Dr. Paul Robertson and Dr. Rajabali Askarzadeh Torghabeh

7-8

1- An Investigation of Speaking-associated Problems from Students and Instructors Perspectives Alireza Hojati and Akbar Afghari 9 - 31 2- Consciousness-Raising on Preposition-Stranding Jabar Mirani and Khosro Soleimani

32 - 41

3- Writing Skill in ESP Classes and Genre-based Approach Nayereh Bedad Fard

42 - 51

4- The Effect of Gender on EFL Achievement Testing Pre-university Schools in Iran Gholamreza Akhoondali

52 - 70

5- Contrastive Analysis of English Language and Persian Language Prepositions Farzaneh Aminzadeh Arkhodi

71 - 82

6- A Student-Centred Literature Class: A Step towards a Less Stressful Literary Experience in Language Classes Parviz Birjandi and Sarvenaz Khatib

83 - 93

7- A Cross-Disciplinary Analysis of Thematic Structure of Dissertation Abstracts Saleh Arizavi, Hossein Shokouhi and Seyyed Ahmad Mousavi

94 - 112

8- English Globalization Issues, Impacts and Challenges as to Culture and Language in Islamic contexts especially Iran Abbas Paziresh, Fereshteh Shojaie and Rana Shokrollahi

113 – 126

9- Epistemic Modality in Academic Discourse: A Cross-Linguistic and Cross-Disciplinary Study Motahareh Sameri and Manoochehr Tavangar 127 - 147 10- On the Relationship among Language Learning Attitude, Academic Motivation and language Proficiency of Iranian EFL learners Jahanbakhsh Langroudi and Nasibeh Amiri

148 - 166

11- The Effect of Different Text Types on Cognitive and Metacognitive Listening comprehension Strategy Use among Iranian EFL Learners Anis Behzadi

167 - 183

12- Text Linguistics and Systemic Functional Grammar: Platforms of Reform in Literacy Maryam Eftekhari

184 - 193

13- The Effects of Brain Compatible Vocabulary Learning Strategy Instruction on EFL Students Seyed Mahdi Araghi and Alireza Navid Moghaddam 194 - 206

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14- Sacrificed Elements of TEFL in Secondary Education of Iran Fatemeh Poorebrahim and Mohammad Reza Talebinejad

207 - 219

15- The Use of Annotations and Pictures in Storytelling Classes and Their Impacts on Critical Thinking and Writing Abilities of Young Iranian EFL Learners Mojgan Rashtchi and Samaneh Gorji 220 - 240 16- A Comparative Genre Analysis of English and Persian Business Letters Moharram Sharifi and Ali Sharifi

241 - 258

17- A Study of Low and High Proficiency EFL Learners’ Preferences for Teacher Talk Mojtaba Soleimani Karizmeh and Mahdi Taherkhani

259 - 279

18- Process-Product Approach to Writing: the Effect of Sampling on EFL Learners' Writing Performance, Measures of Complexity and Fluency Parastou Gholami Pasand 280 - 286 19- The Role of Cultural Nativization in Comprehension of Short Stories in Intermediate EFL Learners Farzaneh Emadian Naeini and Razie Alishvandi 287 - 298 20- The Relationship between Verbal Creativity and Speaking Skill of IELTS Candidates Samira Baghaei and Mohammad S. Bagheri

299 - 310

21- The Effect of Task Types (Static and Dynamic Contexts) on Listening Comprehension in an Information Processing Perspective among Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners. Anis Behzadi and Gholam Reza Haji Pour Nezhad

311 - 324

22-The Effect of Different Online Planning Conditions on EFL Learners' Writing test Performance in Terms of Complexity, Accuracy and Fluency: The Concept Mapping Strategy in Focus Najmeh Farshi, Mansoor Tavakoli and Saeed Ketabi 325 - 345 23- Translation of Idiomatic Expressions in Subtitling Sima Ferdowsi

346 - 365

24- A Survey of Definite Article Usage Errors among Faculty Members of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences Marjan Gholami and Maryam Gholami 366 - 382 25- The Relationship among EFL Learner’s Critical Thinking, Tolerance of Ambiguity and Reading Comprehension Nasim Shangarffam and Hedyeh Hosseinnejad

383 - 397

26- Translation of English Epistemic Modals in Orwell’s Animal Farm Habibollah Mashhady and Masoumeh Yazdani Moghadam

398 – 411

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Foreword Welcome to volume nine and the fourth edition of 2013. Statistically, readers of our journal are coming from almost eighty countries; and The Iranian EFL Journal has had strong growth over the last few years with a monthly readership now exceeding 2500 readers. For a journal examining the topics of EFL/ESL, Literature and Translation studies, the growth and readership has been pleasing. The bi-monthly Iranian EFL Journal has attracted many readers not only from the Middle East but also from different parts of the world and in this way; the number of our reviewers has also increased. We have increased the number of our reviewers and now, more than ninety five reviewers are cooperating with the journal and evaluate the articles. In this edition, we have presented twenty six articles, discussing different issues of EFL/ESL, literature and translation studies. In the first article, Alireza Hojati and Akbar Afghari present an investigation of speaking-associated problems

from students and instructors perspectives. In the second article of the issue, Jabar Mirani and Khosro Soleimani have studied consciousness-raising on preposition-stranding. In the third article of the issue, Nayereh Bedad Fard presents writing skill in ESP classes and genre-based approach. In the next article, the effect of gender on EFL achievement testing pre-university schools in Iran is presented by Gholamreza Akhoondali. In the fifth article of the issue, Farzaneh Aminzadeh Arkhodi presents contrastive analysis of English language and Persian language prepositions. The next article which is about a student-centred literature class: a step towards a less stressful literary experience in language classes is done by Parviz Birjandi and Sarvenaz Khatib. In the seventh article of the issue, Saleh Arizavi, Hossein Shokouhi and Seyyed Ahmad Mousavi have presented a cross-disciplinary analysis of thematic structure of dissertation abstracts. In the eight article of the issue English globalization issues, impacts and challenges as to culture and language in Islamic contexts especially Iran is done by Abbas Paziresh, Fereshteh Shojaie and Rana Shokrollahi. In the next article, epistemic modality in academic discourse: a cross-linguistic and crossdisciplinary study is studied by Motahareh Sameri and Manoochehr Tavangar. In the tenth article of the issue, Jahanbakhsh Langroudi and Nasibeh Amiri have studied on the relationship among language learning

attitude, academic motivation and language proficiency of Iranian EFL learners. In the eleventh article of the issue the effect of different text types on cognitive and metacognitive listening comprehension strategy use

among Iranian EFL learners is studied by Anis Behzadi. In the twelfth article of the issue, text linguistics and systemic functional grammar: platforms of reform in literacy is presented by Maryam Eftekhari. In the next article, Seyed Mahdi Araghi and Alireza Navid Moghaddam have presented the effects of brain compatible

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vocabulary learning strategy instruction on EFL students. In the fourteenth article of the issue, sacrificed elements of TEFL in secondary education of Iran is studied by Fatemeh Poorebrahim and Mohammad Reza Talebinejad. In the fifteenth article of the issue, Mojgan Rashtchi and Samaneh Gorji present the use of annotations and pictures in storytelling classes and their impacts on critical thinking and writing abilities of young Iranian EFL learners. In the next article, a comparative genre analysis of English and Persian business letters is studied by Moharram Sharifi and Ali Sharifi. In the seventeenth article of the issue, Mojtaba Soleimani Karizmeh and Mahdi Taherkhani have presented a study of low and high

proficiency EFL learners’ preferences for teacher talk. The next article which is about process-product approach to writing: the effect of sampling on EFL learners' writing performance, measures of complexity and fluency is presented by Parastou Gholami Pasand. In the next article of the issue Farzaneh Emadian Naeini and Razie Alishvandi have presented an article entitled the role of cultural nativization in comprehension of short stories in intermediate EFL learners. In the twentieth article of the issue, the relationship between verbal creativity and speaking skill of IELTS candidates is presented by Samira Baghaei and Mohammad S. Bagheri. In the next article, the effect of task types (static and dynamic contexts) on listening comprehension in an information processing perspective among Iranian intermediate EFL Learners is done by Anis Behzadi and Gholam Reza Haji Pour Nezhad. In the next article of the issue Najmeh Farshi, Mansoor Tavakoli and Saeed Ketabi have studied the effect of

different online planning conditions on EFL learners' writing test performance in terms of complexity, accuracy and fluency: the concept mapping strategy in focus. In the twenty third article of the issue, translation of idiomatic expressions in subtitling is presented by Sima Ferdowsi. In the next article, Marjan Gholami and Maryam Gholami have presented an article entitled a survey of definite article usage errors among faculty members of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. In the next article of the issue, the relationship among EFL learner’s critical thinking, tolerance of ambiguity and reading comprehension is presened by Nasim Shangarffam and Hedyeh Hosseinnejad. In the last article of the issue, translation of English epistemic modals in Orwell’s Animal Farm is studied by Habibollah

Mashhady and Masoumeh Yazdani Moghadam. We hope you enjoy this edition and look forward to your readership.

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Title An Investigation of Speaking-Associated Problems from Students and Instructors Perspectives Authors Alireza Hojati (M.A) Amin Higher Education Institution, Fouladshahr, Iran. Akbar Afghari (Ph.D) Sheikhbahaee University, Isfahan, Iran.

Biodata Alireza Hojati M.A in TEFL and is currently a lecturer at Amin Higher Education Institution, Fouladshahr, Iran. He has taught reading comprehension, ESP, teaching methodology and grammar courses at university level. His research areas include error analysis, euphemisms and critical discourse analysis. Akbar Afghari Ph. D in applied linguistics, and is currently an associate professor at Sheikhbahaee University, Isfahan, Iran. He has taught various courses at under-graduate and post-graduate levels. His areas of research interest include language testing, pragmatics, discourse analysis and sociolinguistics.

Abstract The skill of speaking in English as a non-native language is arguably an important and challenging one which is affected by a substantial number of linguistic and non-linguistic factors. This study sought to elicit and compare perspectives of a group of Iranian EFL students from three Iranian universities and their professors teaching them an advanced lab course on some linguistic problems facing students in lab classes. To this end, a number of data-collection tools including open-ended and close-ended questionnaires were employed by the researcher. Having collected the data, the researcher reported them in percentage terms, tabulated and then analyzed them based on statistical figures. The comparison of opinions of the Iranian EFL Journal

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two groups revealed notable points, including the convergence of professor and student opinions on one linguistic area, i.e. grammar, and the divergence of opinions of the two groups on other linguistic areas. To further investigate the linguistic area on which opinions were convergent and collect some objective data on it, a standardized test of grammar and IELTS interviews were administered to one-third of the students. The exam results were analyzed with the help of two TEFL professors and a statistician. The analysis revealed that, while some scores were notably high and some notably low, most scores were close to the average score. The speaking interviews were conducted using topics and questions of previously-administered IELTS tests and their contents were rated by two professors. The agreement between the two raters was calculated using Kendall's Coefficient of Concordance, which yielded the figure 0.40. The interview results illustrated that most students were either limited or modest in their English speaking skills. Keywords: EFL Speaking Problems, Learner/Instructor Perspectives

I. Introduction 1.1. Background Speaking is arguably one of the elemental ways of communication between human beings and plays a crucial role in maintaining social bonds between people inhabiting the Earth. Levelt (1993) has summed up the importance of speaking as an often takenfor-granted entity as follows; "Talking is one of our dearest occupations. We spend hours a day conversing, telling stories, teaching, quarreling … and, of course, speaking to ourselves. Speaking is, moreover, one of our most complex cognitive, linguistic and motor skills" (1993, p. xiii). The position of the English language in the modern era in a unique one. One recurring theme around which many debates on the status of English revolve is the global spread of English. This theme is so outstanding that a good deal has been written about it. For instance, Seidlhofer (2003), Ferguson(2006), Cummins and Davison (2007), Goss(2009) and McKenzie(2010) have dedicated substantial portions of their recently-published books to the transformation of English into a global language. There are different linguistic and non-linguistic factors which influence learners’ speaking Iranian EFL Journal

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in English as a non-native language. Each factor can constitute a facilitating factor or a problem

for

learners’ speaking

in

English.

Different

learners

from

different

geographical entities and linguistic backgrounds face different problems in their efforts aimed at achieving a measure of proficiency in the skill of speaking in English. Farsi-speaking EFL learners and students in the Iranian context face their own unique set of linguistic and non-linguistic problems while striving to come to grips with English language skills, including the skill of speaking. In the area of grammar, Yarmohammadi (2005) , in an apparent critique of the status of English language education in Iran, has suggested that Iranian high school graduates entering Iranian universities have numerous problems in different areas of grammar including gerunds, infinitives, conjunctions, subordinations, relatives, prepositions and affixes (2005, p.13). Also, Golshan and Karbalaei (2009) have reported the existence of a large number of both major and minor grammatical errors falling into the categories of prepositions, articles, tenses, verb groups, word order, tense sequences, incorrect use of plural morphemes, parts

of

speech, Persian

constructions

and

relative

clauses

in

the

compositions produced by subjects of their study, all of whom undergraduate students of English in the Islamic Azad University. 2.1. Purposes of the Study The primary purpose of the study was the elicitation of the views of both EFL students and their university instructors in relation to speaking-related problems in order to have two separate sets of accounts which can then be juxtaposed and compared with each other. Another purpose of the study was determining the extent to which the most frequently- cited speaking-associated problem reported by student participants of the study is serious and in need of academic attention. 3.1. Research Questions 1. What is/are the most frequently-reported linguistic problem/s facing Iranian EFL student participants of the study from their own perspective? 2. What is/are the most prevalent and frequently-reported linguistic problem/s facing the student participants of the study from the perspective of their Lab(4) professors?, 3. How deep is one of the most frequently-cited linguistic problems facing participants of the study?, 4. What level of English speaking proficiency do the participants of the study have?, 5. How do the views of students and professor participants in the study compare?

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2. Methodology 1.2. Participants 1.2.1.Student Participants A total of 120 Iranian students specializing in TEFL in three universities of Isfahan Province were randomly selected and included in the initial phase of data collection. The vast majority of the participants, 102 out of 120, were females. All the participants were sophomores taking lab courses entitled ‘Language Laboratory(4), rendered into Persian as ‘(۴) ‫ ’گفت و شنود‬, in English departments of their affiliated universities during the second semester of 1389-90 academic year. The three universities from which subjects were selected were Sheikhbahaee University, Isfahan University and the Islamic Azad University of Najafabad. As relates to the institutional affiliations of participants, 40 students were selected from each of the above-mentioned universities. With regard to the level of English language proficiency of participants, one criterion, the length of exposure to English at the tertiary level, viz. roughly three semesters and two months, was taken into account. 90 students, who had completed and delivered their copies of the open-ended questionnaire to the researcher, were included in the second phase of data-collection. 30 students, 27 females and 3 males, from among the 90 participants were randomly selected and included in the third phase of data elicitation. 8 of the randomly-selected students were from Isfahan University, 13 of them were from Sheikhbahaee University and the remaining 9 students were from the Islamic Azad University of Najafabad. 1.2.2. Professor Participants Five EFL professors from the above-mentioned universities participated in the study. Two of them were affiliated with the Islamic Azad University, Najafabad Branch, one of them with Sheikhbahaee University and another two with Isfahan University. All the five professors in question were females and were engaged in the teaching of the course ‘Language Lab(4)’ to student participants of the study during the second semester of 1389-90 academic year. 2.2. Materials 2.2.1. Questionnaires Three types of questionnaires, one open-ended and two close-ended, were used in the study. The following sub-section gives detailed data on the questionnaires constructed and used in the research. Iranian EFL Journal

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2.2.1.1. Open-ended Questionnaire The open-ended questionnaire was designed and used by the researcher as a tentative instrument for eliciting data from student participants. Prior to his embarking on the task of preparing the questionnaire, the researcher had hoped he would find a validated and standardized open-ended questionnaire for his initial data-collection. But, having failed to find a questionnaire meeting the necessary standardization and validation criteria, he started the task of preparing the questionnaire himself. 2.2.1.2. Close-ended Questionnaires Data derived from the open-ended questionnaire were subjected to statistical analysis and the frequencies of responses to questionnaire items were reported in percentage terms. After analyzing the percentages, the researcher noted that six questionnaire items had frequencies of less than 30%. Having consulted a statistician, he decided to remove items with frequencies of less than 30% from the questionnaire. After eliminating lowfrequency items, the format of the open-ended questionnaire was changed in order to develop close-ended questionnaire. 2.2.3. Grammar Sub-test of Oxford Placement Test In order to objectively examine and document some of the problems reported by the student participants, the researcher used the trusted and recognized grammar sub-test of Oxford Placement Test(OPT) as another tool with which to collect relevant data. 2.2.4. IELTS Interview Topics Another set of data-elicitation tools used in the research was a group of 20 IELTS interview topics and related questions. Given the unreliability of some commercially developed test materials, the researcher used speaking topics and questions of some previously-administered IELTS examinations published by Cambridge University Press. 2.3. Procedures 2.3.1. The Administration of Questionnaires 2.3.1.1. Administration of Open-ended Questionnaire Having developed the open-ended questionnaire, 120 copies of it were produced and then distributed

to

120

students

with

the institutional affiliations cited in the

‘Participants’ sub-section of this chapter. In two out of the three universities from whose students data was collected, viz. Isfahan University and the Islamic Azad University of Najafabad, the questionnaire copies were given to students between the 10th and 15th of Esfand, 1389 (1th and 6th of March, 2011). In Sheikhbahaee University,

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however, the distribution of open-ended questionnaire was delayed till the 15th of Farvardin, 1390 (4th of April, 2011). All the students receiving questionnaire copies were asked by their lab(4) professors to complete them and then deliver them in a week’s time. However, most of them, particularly those of Sheikhbahaee University, failed to deliver questionnaire copies on time and the researcher had to wait for two more weeks to receive the questionnaire copies from them. 2.3.1.2. Administration of Student Version of Close-ended Questionnaire The student version of the close-ended questionnaire, which had 21 items, was distributed to 90 students between the 5th and 11th of Ordibehesht, 1390 (25thApril and 1th May, 2011). Given that, unlike the open-ended questionnaire, answering items of the close-ended questionnaire did not take a lot of time, the researcher asked the respondents to complete their questionnaire copies within 30 minutes. 2.3.1.3. Administration of Professor Version of Close-ended Questionnaire Copies of the close-ended questionnaire developed for eliciting data from professors were submitted to the five professors between the 7th and 11th of Ordibehesht, 1390(27th April and 1th May, 2011) during their office hours. The researcher asked the professors to deliver questionnaire copies to him at the earliest possible time. Three of the professors delivered the completed questionnaire copies to him less than three hours after receiving them. Two of them, however, cited their being busy dealing with affairs relating to mid-term examinations at that time and delivered the completed questionnaire copies to the researcher roughly a week after receiving them. 2.3.2. Administration of Grammar Sub-test of OPT In an attempt to objectively examine whether grammar was a common and notable source

of

speaking-related

problems

facing

student

respondents, the

researcher

administered the grammar sub-test of grammar to his sample of 30 students.

The

examination was conducted on three separate occasions as it was not possible for the researcher to bring all the 30 students with three different institutional affiliations together in one place for the exam. The test was administered in the presence of the researcher in English Departments of Sheikhbahaee University, Isfahan University and the Islamic Azad University of Najafabad on the 20th, 24th and 27th of Ordibehesht, 1390(10th, 14th and 17th May, 2011) respectively. 2.3.3. The Use of IELTS Interview Topics

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In order to have objective data on the overall speaking ability of the 30 students included in the third phase of data collection, the researcher conducted interviews with them using twenty IELTS speaking topics included in ‘Cambridge IELTS 3-7’ books. Given the practical difficulties of the task of conducting a 14-minute interview with each of the 30 sample members, the researcher conducted the interviews during a twoweek period commencing on the 31th of Ordibehesht (21th of May).

3. Results Table(1). Cross-tabulation of students’ and professors’ responses to items of close-ended questionnaires Insufficiency of students’ vocabulary knowledge for

Item(1)

Total

1

2

3

4

0

0

2

3

5

.0%

.0%

40.0%

60.0%

100.0%

3

17

59

11

90

3.3%

18.9%

65.6%

12.2%

100.0%

3

17

61

14

95

3.2%

17.9%

64.2%

14.7%

100.0%

speaking G

1.00

2.00

Total

Count

Count

Count

Students’ problems relating to

Item(2)

speaking about some vogue topics G

1.00

2.00

Total

Count

Count

Count

2

3

4

0

1

4

5

.0%

20.0%

80.0%

100.0%

9

25

56

90

10.0%

27.8%

62.2%

100.0%

9

26

60

95

9.5%

27.4%

63.2%

100.0%

The failure of students to retrieve needed vocabulary items G

1.00

2.00

Total

Count

Count

Count

Item(3)

Total

1

2

3

4

0

1

1

3

5

.0%

20.0%

20.0%

60.0%

100.0%

32

21

25

12

90

35.6%

23.3%

27.8%

13.3%

100.0%

32

22

26

15

95

33.7%

23.2%

27.4%

15.8%

100.0%

Students’ confusing of words with spelling, semantic and

Total

Item(4) 1

2

Total 3

4

phonological similarities

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G

1.00

2.00

Total

Count

Count

Count

0

0

2

3

5

.0%

.0%

40.0%

60.0%

100.0%

25

23

31

11

90

27.8%

25.6%

34.4%

12.2%

100.0%

25

23

33

14

95

26.3%

24.2%

34.7%

14.7%

100.0%

Problems with the past and pastparticiple forms of some irregular

Item(5)

Total

1

2

3

4

0

0

0

5

5

.0%

.0%

.0%

100.0%

100.0%

6

15

42

19

82

7.3%

18.3%

51.2%

23.2%

100.0%

6

15

42

24

87

6.9%

17.2%

48.3%

27.6%

100.0%

verbs G

1.00

2.00

Total

Count

Count

Count

Problems with complex

Item(6)

grammatical structures including

Total

2

3

4

0

0

5

5

.0%

.0%

100.0%

100.0%

8

54

28

90

8.9%

60.0%

31.1%

100.0%

8

54

33

95

8.4%

56.8%

34.7%

100.0%

relative clauses and phrases G

1.00

2.00

Count

Count

Count

Total

Problems associated with English

Item(7)

Total

tenses, specially progressive, continuous and perfect ones G

1.00

2.00

Total

3

4

1

4

5

20.0%

80.0%

100.0%

22

68

90

24.4%

45.6%

100.0%

23

72

95

24.2%

75.8%

100.0%

Count

Count

Count

Problems with English articles and prepositions of high

Item(8)

Total

2

3

4

0

0

5

5

.0%

.0%

100.0%

100.0%

10

15

65

90

11.1%

16.7%

72.2%

100.0%

frequency G

1.00

2.00

Count

Count

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Total

Count

10

15

70

95

10.5%

15.8%

73.7%

100.0%

Problems with type(3)

Item(9)

conditionals G

1.00

2.00

Total

2

3

4

0

0

5

5

.0%

.0%

100.0%

100.0%

6

15

69

90

6.7%

16.7%

76.7%

100.0%

6

15

74

95

6.3%

15.8%

77.9%

100.0%

Count

Count

Count

Problems with countable and

Item(10)

uncountable nouns G

1.00

2.00

Total

Count

3

4

1

1

3

5

20.0%

20.0%

60.0%

100.0%

16

28

46

90

17.8%

31.1%

51.1%

100.0%

17

29

49

95

17.9%

30.5%

51.6%

100.0%

Problems with English causative

Item(11)

constructions G

1.00

2.00

Total

4

0

5

5

.0%

100.0%

100.0%

26

64

90

28.9%

71.1%

100.0%

26

69

95

27.4%

72.6%

100.0%

Count

Count

Count

1.00

2.00

Total

Total

3

Problems with indirect questions

G

Item(12) 4

1

4

5

20.0%

80.0%

100.0%

19

71

90

21.1%

78.9%

100.0%

20

75

95

21.1%

78.9%

100.0%

Count

Count

Problems with the assignment of

G

1.00

Count

Total

3 Count

primary word stress

Total

2 Count

Count

Total

Item(13)

Total

1

2

3

4

0

1

1

3

5

.0%

20.0%

20.0%

60.0%

100.0%

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17

2.00

Total

Count

Count

4

10

23

53

90

4.4%

11.1%

25.6%

58.9%

100.0%

4

11

24

56

95

4.2%

11.6%

25.3%

58.9%

100.0%

Problems with the pronunciation

Item(14)

of words whose spelling and

Total

2

3

4

0

0

5

5

.0%

.0%

100.0%

100.0%

18

29

43

90

20.0%

32.2%

47.8%

100.0%

18

29

48

95

18.9%

30.5%

50.5%

100.0%

pronunciations vary significantly G

1.00

2.00

Total

Count

Count

Count

Problems with the pronunciation of consonant clusters G

1.00

2.00

Total

Count

Count

Count

Item(15) 1

2

3

4

0

1

1

3

5

.0%

20.0%

20.0%

60.0%

100.0%

6

40

16

28

90

6.7%

44.4%

17.8%

31.1%

100.0%

6

41

17

31

95

6.3%

43.2%

17.9%

32.6%

100.0%

Problems with the observing of intonation patterns of English

Total

Item(16)

Total

2

3

4

0

1

4

5

.0%

20.0%

80.0%

100.0%

32

21

37

90

35.6%

23.3%

41.1%

100.0%

32

22

41

95

33.7%

23.2%

43.2%

100.0%

sentences G

1.00

2.00

Total

Count

Count

Count

The negative influence of Farsi on students’ pronunciation of

Item(17)

Total

1

2

3

4

0

0

1

4

5

.0%

.0%

20.0%

80.0%

100.0%

58

14

11

7

90

64.4%

15.6%

12.2%

7.8%

100.0%

58

14

12

11

95

61.1%

14.7%

12.6%

11.6%

100.0%

English words and sentences G

1.00

2.00

Total

Count

Count

Count

Halting the flow of speaking

Item(18)

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Total

18

when facing a linguistic problem G

1.00

2

3

4

0

0

5

5

.0%

.0%

100.0%

100.0%

13

22

55

90

14.4%

24.4%

61.1%

100.0%

13

22

60

95

13.7%

23.2%

63.2%

100.0%

Count

2.00

Count

Total

Count

Making short pauses which last 2-3 seconds when speaking G

1.00

2.00

Total

Count

Count

Count

Item(19) 1

2

3

4

0

0

0

5

5

.0%

.0%

.0%

100.0%

100.0%

10

38

31

11

90

11.1%

42.2%

34.4%

12.2%

100.0%

10

38

31

16

65

10.5%

40.0%

32.6%

16.8%

100.0%

Making long pauses which last more than 3 seconds when

Total

Item(20)

Total

2

3

4

2

2

1

5

40.0%

40.0%

20.0%

100.0%

6

25

59

90

6.7%

27.8%

65.6%

100.0%

8

27

60

95

8.4%

28.4%

63.2%

100.0%

speaking G

1.00

Count

2.00

Count

Total

Count

Table(2). Scores of 30-student sample on grammar sub-test of OPT(0-100) and their frequencies Scores Frequencies 43

1

44

1

45

1

46

2

47

1

48

1

49

2

50

1

51

2

52

2

53

1

54

2

55

2

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19

56

1

58

1

59

3

60

2

62

1

64

1

65

1

68

1

Table(3). Mean, standard deviation and range of scores on the grammar sub-test of OPT Mean Standard Deviation Range 53.80

6.58

25

Table(4). Scores given to 30-student sample on IELTS interviews by the first rater and their frequencies Scores Frequencies 4

7

4.5

8

5

7

5.5

6

6

2

Table(5). Mean, standard deviation and range of scores given to students by the first rater Mean Standard Deviation Range 4.8

0.62

2

Table(6). Scores given to 30-student sample on IELTS interviews by the second rater and their frequencies Score Frequency 4

4

4.5

6

5

11

5.5

5

6

3

6.5

1

Table(7). Mean, standard deviation and range of scores given to students by the second rater Mean Standard Deviation Range 5

0.64

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2.5

20

5

4

Frequencie s

3

1

0 40.00

45.00

50.00

55.00

60.00

65.00

70.00

Scores Graph(1). Scores of the 30-student sample on grammar sub-test of OPT(0-100)

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10

8

Frequenci es

6

4

2

0 3.50

4.00

4.50

5.00

5.50

6.00

6.50

Scores

Graph(2). Scores of the 30-student sample on IELTS speaking interview by the first grader

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12

10

Frequencies

8

6

4

2

0 3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

7.00

Scores Graph(3). Scores given to 30-student sample on IELTS interview by the second rater

4. Discussion and Conclusions This chapter focuses on answering the above-presented questions by invoking statistical data presented in the preceding chapter. Regarding the first research question, as Table (1) indicates, student participants of the study reported having problems with all the four categories of vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and fluency. However, notable differences can be observed in the percentages of responses which correspond to different problems falling into different categories. As Table (1) indicates, the most frequently-reported problems in the area of vocabulary were those associated with the insufficiency of lexical knowledge for having flexible oral communication, and the inadequacy of lexical knowledge for speaking about a number of vogue topics such as environmental issues. As relates to the first problem, 65.6% of the respondents indicated they partly agreed they had the problem and 12.2% strongly agreed they faced the problem. Regarding the second problem, 62.2% of respondents strongly agreed it was a problem facing them and 27.8% of the them partly agreed it constituted a vocabulary-related problem facing them.

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Table (1) also shows that the majority of student respondents reported having problems with all the grammatical points included in the close-ended questionnaire. 51.2% of respondents partly agreed that they had problems with the past and past participle forms of some irregular verbs, and 23.2% of them strongly agreed they had such problems. As relates to the area of complex grammatical structures, 60% of respondents partly agreed they had problems with such structures and 31.1% of them strongly agreed complex structures were problematical for them. With regard to countable and uncountable nouns, 51.1% of respondents strongly agreed they had problems with countability and 31.1% of them partly agreed they had problems with the countability of nouns. As relates to other grammar-related points included in the questionnaire, the frequencies of responses provided by

student respondents were notably higher than

those of previously-cited grammar points. 75.6% of respondents strongly agreed that they had problems with English tenses and 24.4% of them indicated they partly agreed they had such problems. Regarding the area of prepositions and articles, more than two-thirds (72.2%) of respondents strongly indicated they had problems with English articles and prepositions and 16.7% of them partly agreed they had problems with them. Further, 76.7% of student respondents strongly agreed they had problems with type(2) and type (3) conditional sentences and 16.7% of them indicated their partial agreement with having problems with the foregoing English conditionals. In relation to English causative structures, 71.1% of student respondents strongly agreed that they found them problematic and 28.9% of them partly agreed they faced problems with such structures. With respect to the last grammar point included in the close-ended questionnaire, as Table(1) shows, 78.9% of respondents strongly agreed that they faced problems with indirect questions and 21.1% of them partly agreed they found them problematical. In relation to pronunciation-associated items of the questionnaire, Table (1) shows that the most frequently-reported problem falling into this category was the assignment of primary stress to English words. As the table indicates, 58.9% of the student respondents strongly agreed they had difficulty with the assignment of primary stress and 25.6% of them partly agreed they had problems corresponding to the foregoing point. Another frequently-reported problem in this category was the pronunciation of words

with

challenging

orthographies

which

are

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sharply

different

from

their 24

pronunciation. Roughly half of the respondents (47.8%) indicated they strongly agreed having problems with such words and roughly a third of respondents (32.2%) indicated they partly agreed they had problems with them.

Regarding the last

category of questionnaire items, viz. fluency, figures presented in Table (1) illustrate that the most frequently-reported problems were those relating to halting one’s flow of speech when coming across a linguistic problem and making long pauses of more than three seconds while speaking. Figures in Table (1) indicate that roughly two-thirds (61.1%) and roughly a quarter (24.4%) of respondents indicated their strong and partial agreement with the point respectively. In relation to making long pauses, 65.6% and 27.8% of respondents indicated their strong and partial agreement with the point respectively. As Table (1) and the enumeration of high-frequency responses presented

above

reveal to us, all grammar-related items of the close-ended questionnaire were reported by the majority of student respondents as problematic points. This illustrated to the researcher the need to devote particular attention to his linguistic area by examining the responses of students’ lab professors and administering a credible test of English grammar to students.

In regard to the second research question, it has to be noted

that the responses provided by professor respondents were more or less convergent on most questionnaire items. The most frequently-reported vocabulary-related problem of students reported by professor respondents was the insufficiency of students’ lexical knowledge as relates to a number of vogue topics commonly talked about in lab classes. Table (1) shows that 80% of professor respondents strongly agreed with the point and 20% of them partly agreed with it. In

the area of grammar, the convergence of professors’ opinions is striking. As

Table(1) illustrates, all the professors unanimously agreed that their students had problems with the past and past participle forms of some irregular verbs, complex structures including clauses and phrases, tenses, prepositions and articles, type(2) and type(3) conditionals

and

causative

structures. Moreover, broad agreement

can

be

observed in professors’ responses to items relating to countability and indirect questions. The responses elicited indicate that 80% of professors strongly agreed the foregoing points were problematic for their students and the rest of them partly agreed they were troublesome for their students.

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In the area of pronunciation, opinions were to some extent

divergent on

mostitems. However, complete agreement can be observed between professors’ opinions as relates to the pronunciation of words whose pronunciation and orthographies vary considerably. Further, broad agreement can be observed in professors’ opinions on students’ problems with English intonation patterns and the role of their mother tongue in giving rise to pronunciation-related problems. 80% of professor respondents indicated their strong agreement with the above-cited points and 20% of them indicated that they agreed with them up to a point. As to the area of fluency, professor respondents had complete agreement on two problems facing their students, namely halting one’s oral communication to ask for help from professors and classmates, and making short pauses lasting less than three seconds. As relates to other fluency-related points, however, as table(1) shows, professor’s opinions were sharply divergent. With respect to the third research question, as Graph(1) and Tables(2) and(3)illustrate, the mean of students’ scores on the test of grammar was 53.8 and the standard deviation of scores was 6.5. What these two figures tell us is the average performance of students on the grammar test was neither too good nor too bad as the mean,53.8 , indicates that, on average, more than half of the questions were answered correctly by most students. They also tell us that the mathematical distance between the mean and most scores was substantial with some scores notably lower than the mean and some notably higher than it. Further, as Graph(1) indicates, half of the scores were below the mean and half of them were above it. Therefore, it can be said that the distribution of scores around the mean was even. One noticeable point touched on earlier is the mathematical distance between the scores achieved by students. The distance between the lowest score,43, and the highest one, 68, which is 25, shows that the distance between some scores is appreciable and this point deserves more academic attention. The following paragraph focuses on the examination of the foregoing point. As Table (2) shows, the lowest scores achieved on the test of grammar were 43, 44 and 45 and the highest scores were 64, 65 and 68. The numerical distance between these figures 25, the range, 21 and 19 respectively, can highlight the existence of a substantial distance between the lowest and highest scores. What this point and the ones presented above serve to draw attention to is that in order to have a truly interpretative picture of the performance of students on the grammar test, we need to

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pay attention not only to the mean of their scores, but also to their standard deviation, range and the distance between them. The final point regarding the third research question is that, although most scores achieved by students on the test of grammar were not very high and only four out the total of thirty scores were above sixty out of one hundred, we need to take into account the level of English language proficiency of students before being tempted to leap to the conclusion that, broadly speaking, students’ level of grammar knowledge was not very high. The fact of the matter is that, as far as the researcher is aware, more than three quarters of students were doing an advanced-level grammar course during the second semester of the 1389-90 academic year, when the grammar test was administered to them, and, therefore, they were not expected to score very high on the test. Their lab professors also predicted that students’ scores on the grammar test would not be very high and indicated to the researcher that they would regard scores higher than 55 as satisfactory. However, scores lower than 50, namely 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48 and 49, illustrate that roughly one-third of students were weak in the area of grammar. Bearing in mind that all students had done two grammar courses prior to taking the grammar test of OPT, it can be cautiously stated that grammar-related problems facing one third of students were serious and in need of academic attention. In relation to the fourth research question, as stated earlier, two raters graded the speaking test and, therefore, there were two separate sets of scores which ought to be examined here. The scores given to the 30-student sample by the first rater ranged from 4 to 6 out of nine. As Graph(2) and Tables(4) and (5) show, score 4.5 had the highest frequency, viz. 8, and score 6 had the lowest frequency, viz. 2 among the scores. Further, scores 4 and 5 had the second highest frequency, namely 7, and score 5.5 had a frequency of 6. Further, as Graph(2) illustrates, the mean of scores given to students by the first rater was 4.8 and the standard deviation of scores was 0.62. The mean of scores shows that most students were modest in their English speaking skills, whilst five of them were notably weaker than the rest

in their

speaking and another two were notably stronger than the rest with respect to their speaking. The standard deviation and range of scores, 0.62 and 2.5 respectively, show that most scores hovered around the mean, while some were relatively distant from it. The scores given to the thirty students by the second rater ranged from 4 to 6.5. As figures presented in Graph(3) indicate, score 5 had the highest frequency, while Iranian EFL Journal

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score 6.5 had the lowest frequency among scores given to students by the second rater. Also, as the graph illustrates, scores 4.5 and 5.5 had frequencies of 6 and 5 among respectively and score 6 had a frequency of 3. As Tables (6) and(7) show, the mean of this batch of scores was 5, which is slightly higher than the mean of the first batch of scores. Likewise, the table shows that the standard deviation of the second group of scores, viz. 0.64 is slightly higher than

that of the first group of

scores. Given the subjectivity involved in the scoring of the speaking test, something the above-mentioned figures attest to, Kendall’s coefficient of concordance formula was used to mathematically determine the degree of agreement between the two raters. The calculation yielded the figure 0.40. What the figure shows is that the degree of agreement between the two raters was relatively low, though the two sets of scores, their means and standard deviations were not widely different from each other. As to the qualitative analysis of speaking scores, score interpretation information presented on the official website of IELTS and

in books ‘Cambridge IELTS 3-

7’indicates that the band score 4 on the speaking test of IELTS shows the candidate is a “limited user” of English, the band score 5 shows the candidate is a “modest user”, the band score 6 shows the candidate is a “competent user” and

the band

score 7 shows the candidate is a “good user”. Invoking the above-presented interpretation-related data, it can be stated that the scores given the 30-student sample by the first rater illustrate that 7 students were limited users, 8 were between limited and modest levels, 7 were modest users, 6 were between modest and competent levels and 2 were competent users. Further, it can be said that, based on the scores given to students by the second rater, 4 students were limited users, 6 were between being limited and modest users, 11 were modest users, 5 were between being modest and competent levels, 3 were competent users and only one was between being a competent and a good user. As Graphs (2), (3) and explanations presented earlier show, most participants were neither limited nor competent users and were either modest users or between levels of being limited-modest/competent users. The point which must be borne in mind is that, although both sets of scores relating to the speaking ability of students tell us the vast majority of them did not have highly developed speaking skills, one should not be tempted to jump to the conclusion that they were necessarily weak in speaking. The reason is that all the students were in the fourth term of their studies and some Iranian EFL Journal

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of them, who had failed to pass one advanced grammar course, were doing a grammar course during the second semester of 1389-90 academic year, when they took the speaking test. Therefore, realistically speaking, there were not expected to achieve high scores on the speaking test and their professors believed the score of 5.5 should be seen as a good one for most of them. However, it has to be noted that given that students were doing the last lab course of their BA programme and were expected to be able to deal with more advanced courses from the fifth term on, their speaking needed to be given more attention and emphasis in the lab class. As to the fifth and final research question, responses provided to the first and second research questions help us discern and statistically compare areas of convergence and divergence of opinions of student and professor participants of the study. In the area of vocabulary, as Table(1) illustrates, while student and professor opinions had a large degree of convergence on the first two questionnaire items, namely the insufficiency of students’ vocabulary in for speaking in general and for speaking about a number of vogue topics in particular, they were sharply divergent on other items, viz. the confusion of words and the failure to remember needed lexical items. The point which deserves more attention in relation to convergent responses is that the opinions of students and professors were more convergent on the inadequacy of students’ lexical knowledge for speaking about trendy topics than they were on the overall insufficiency of students’ lexical knowledge. What this point highlights is that the speaking problems of students relating to speaking about vogue topics such as environmental ones need to receive more attention by lab professors and lexical items needed for speaking about them ought to be brought together by consulting different sources and presented to students. Another notable point regarding the area of vocabulary is that opinions of students and professors were least convergent on the failure of students to retrieve needed lexical items. Admittedly, the complex and somewhat murky nature of the problem in question and its multiple possible causes contributed to the low degree of concordance of responses to this point. What this divergence suggests is that this point can be picked over and scientifically examined by other researchers involved in memory research. As relates to the area of grammar, both student and professor respondents believed that all the points included in their questionnaires were problematical for students in lab classes. In this relation, the unanimity of professors’ opinions on five Iranian EFL Journal

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out of eight points is particularly notable. The comparison of percentages corresponding to responses of students and professors in the area of grammar reveals that opinions were more convergent on questionnaire items 7, 8, 9,11 and 12, which dealt with English tenses, prepositions and articles, type(2) and type(3) conditionals, causative structures and indirect questions respectively. One other

point relating to the area of grammar is that student and professor

opinions were least convergent on the fifth questionnaire item, which dealt with problems relating to English irregular verbs. While there was unanimity on the part of professor respondents that students had problems with some irregular verbs, student respondents were far from unanimous in their responses with less than a quarter of them completely agreeing with the point, roughly half of them partially agreeing with it and roughly a quarter of them disagreeing with it. In the area of pronunciation, as Table(1) shows, student and professor opinions were notably divergent on many points included in the questionnaire. The most convergent opinions of the two groups related to the assignment of primary stress to English words, while the most divergent opinions were related to the role of students’ mother tongue in both facilitating and impeding the pronunciation of English words and sentences. In relation to the most convergent opinions, 60% of professors and 58.9% of students strongly agreed with the point respectively. Further, 20% and 25.6% of professor and student respondents partly agreed with the point respectively. As for the most divergent opinions, while 80% of professors strongly agreed that students’ mother tongue was both beneficial and detrimental to their English pronunciation, only 7.8% of students gave their strong backing to this point. Further, while 20% of professors partly agreed with the same point, 12.2% of students gave their partial backing to it. What the variance of opinions of two groups on the role of mother tongue in relation to pronunciation indicates is that more research is needed in order to delve into some of the reasons behind the differences of opinion on this point. In the area of fluency, notable differences between student and professor opinions can be observed. The most convergent opinions were the ones dealing with the halting of speech and asking for help from lab professors and classmates by students, while the most divergent opinions dealt with the making of short pauses by students while speaking in the lab class. Regarding the most convergent opinions, all professor respondents strongly agreed that their students stopped their flow of speech in the face of a linguistic problem. 61.1% of student respondents agreed with the same point Iranian EFL Journal

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and 24.4% of them partially agreed with it. In regard to the most divergent opinions, while all the professor respondents strongly agreed that their students made short pauses in their speech, only 12% of students strongly agreed with the same point and 34.4% of them partially agreed with it. Given the sharpness of difference between professor and student opinions regarding short pauses, this point requires more academic attention and the researcher hopes that other researchers will pick over it.

References Chastain, K.(1971). The development of modern-language skills: theory and practice. Center for Curriculum Development., Cummins, J., Davison, C.(2007). International handbook

of

English

language teaching,

Part1.Springer., Elkhatib, Abdelwahab, A.(1984). A Classification of the Lexical Problems of EFL/ESL. Students. Retrieved from www.eric.ed.gov on October 1th, 2011., Figueroa, C., Gárate, T.(2006). Studies in contrastive linguistics: Proceedings of the 4th International Contrastive Linguistics Conference: Santiago de Compostela, September 2005. Univ Santiago de Compostela., Golshan, M., Karbalaei, A.(2009). Grammatical Problems in the Writings of EFL

Undergraduate

Learners. Retrieved from journalsalr.com/Documents/Alireza Gol2009.pdf. on 2th August, 2011., Goss, D.(2009). The global spread of English: threat or opportunity? Soka University of America., Heaton, J.(1975). Writing English language tests: a practical guide for teachers of English as a second or foreign language. Longman., Hinkel, E.(2004). Teaching academic ESL writing: practical techniques in vocabulary and grammar. Routledge., Juan, E., Flor, A.(2006). Current trends in the development and teaching of the four language skills. Walter de Gruyter., Levelt, W.(1993). Speaking: from intention to articulation. MIT Press., McKenzie, R.(2010). The Social Psychology of English as a Global Language: Attitudes, Awareness and Identity in the Japanese Context. Springer., Richards, C., Renandya, W. (2002). Methodology in language teaching: an anthology of current practice. Cambridge University Press., Seidlhofer, B. (2003). Controversies in applied linguistics. Oxford University Press., Yarmohammadi, L.(1995). A Contrastive Phonological Analysis of English and Persian. Shiraz: Shiraz University Press.,

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Title Consciousness-Raising on Preposition-Stranding Authors Jabar Mirani (Ph.D candidate) Tehran University, Tehran, Iran Khosro Soleimani (Ph.D candidate) Payam Noor University, Javanroud, Iran

Biodata Jabar Miran is a Ph.D. Candidate of General Linguistics at Tehran University, Tehran, Iran and has an M.A in TEFL from Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran. His research interests include TEFL studies, phraseology, dialectology, cognitive linguistics, and discourse analysis. Khosro Soleimani is a Ph.D. Candidate of TEFL at Payam Noor University, Javanroud, Iran. His research interests include psychology of language learning, TEFL studies, and biolinuistics.

Abstract Within the framework of UG model, Consciousness Raising (C-R) as a technique through form-focused instruction or error correction has been suggested and sometimes experimentally tested. Therefore, based on recent communicative and cognitive approaches and returning to fashion of grammatical teaching, it was the main concern of this study to experimentally examine the technique of C-R regarding focusing students’ concentration toward the similarities and differences of unmarked and more acceptable preposition stranding (P-S), marked and less acceptable pied-piping(P-P) of wh-question movements and lexical knowledge of some verbs subcategorized for special prepositions in English and Persian. 57 basic science and engineering students were chosen and assigned randomly to two groups; 29 students in the experimental group and 28 students in normal grammar practicing class as control group. A .81-index reliable test was administered to them as a pre-test which showed no significant difference between them at the beginning of the study. After the presentation of the treatment, the results indicated that there is a statistically significant difference between the two groups on P-S and lexical knowledge to the advantage of the experimental group. Thus Iranian EFL Journal

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C-R as a tactic for teaching language points such as P-S and phrasal verbs can be utilized by teachers in their classrooms. Keywords:

Consciousness-raising,

Wh-question

movements,

Preposition

stranding, Pied-piping

1. Introduction Grammatical points have been taught through various schools of thoughts in applied linguistics including the traditional, structural, functional and recent cognitive approaches. However, the current paper puts a particular stress on the cognitive approach to grammatical instruction, known as grammatical consciousness-raising. Like other theories or models, it has both its supporters and opponents, whose arguments are presented. Ellis (1997) defines grammar consciousness-raising tasks as ‘arising tasks (in) pedagogic activity where the learners are provided with L2 data in some form and required to perform some operation on or with it, the purpose of which is to arrive at an explicit understanding of some linguistic properties of the target language". Rutherford and Sharwood Smith (1986, p. 274), in their attempt to define C-R, stated, "by consciousness raising we mean the deliberate attempt to draw the learners’ attention specifically to the formal properties of the target language". Following the ‘anti-grammar movement’ of the 1980s, the place of grammar in language teaching changed from habit formation into grammar awareness activities and there was a major theoretical shift from ‘how teachers teach grammar’ to ‘how learners learn grammar’ (Celce-Murcia 1991). Other researchers and theorists like Ur (1988), Nunan, (1991), Ellis (1993), Hopkins and Nettle (1994), Cook (1996), Kao (2001), Nitta, R. and Gardener, S (2005), Bursztyn, M. A. and Klepadski G. A. (2008) have suggested or experimentally showed the usefulness of C-R on teaching grammatical points in learning foreign or second languages. In this line, the current study aimed generally to investigate the impact of raising the student's consciousness toward the similarities or differences between their first language and English to set and learn more acceptable P-S cases and lexical knowledge. Thus, the findings of the present study would be useful for the foreign or second language teachers in teaching grammatical aspects similar to those of this study.

2. Review of Related Literature Ellis (1993) stated that the popularity of grammar practice is generally supported by the belief that more practice leads to greater proficiency; nonetheless, his criticism is that due to Iranian EFL Journal

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psycholinguistic constraints, practice does not necessarily contribute to autonomous ability to use the structure in real contexts and he challenges the conventional wisdom that ‘practice makes perfect’ in favor of a series of C-R tasks including grammar consciousness-raising tasks, interpretation tasks, and focused communication tasks. Hopkins and Nettle (1994) argue against Ellis's position and say Ellis’s consciousness-raising activities does not meet the student's expectations and they are not something new. Based on Ellis (1993), there are five types of form-focused tasks including consciousness-raising tasks, interpretation tasks, focused communication tasks, grammar exercises, and grammar practice activities. The first three types are based on the concept of C-R, taking into account the nature of language development as, "an organic process characterized by backsliding, leaps in competence, interaction between grammatical elements, etc." (Nunan, 1991). The fourth, a traditional type of grammar task, is called ‘grammar exercises’. The last type, as exemplified by Ur (1988), is a communicative grammar practice. In contrast to C-R features in the first three tasks, these last two types are categorized as practicing tasks. Teachers can expect formal linguistics to contribute to this sort of pedagogical grammar hypothesis (PGH). Thus, in this regard, contrastive analysis hypothesis (CAH) made its contribution and there are a lot of pedagogical grammars (PG) written in the framework of CA. However, what the current linguistic theory has to offer to language pedagogy is rather different and it has been put forward under the term of C-R. C-R is a sort of PG which results from UG principles and parameters theory and its corollaries like markedness theory. There are many suggestions for the inclusion of Consciousness Raising Tactic in teaching grammatical rules. Sharwood Smith (1981) recommended that in certain conditions, C-R increases the rate of learning a second language. Rutherford (1980) also pointed to the role which C-R plays in language acquisition. In addition, Cook (1996) put it forward as a pedagogical technique for helping learners set parameters in a second language. Also White et al (1991) studied input enhancement on question formation with three experimental classes of French students learning English within a two-week period. Wh-movement occurs in marked question forms in French. But its occurrence is unmarked in English. Therefore, this may result in negative transfer in learning English by French students. Thus, it should be unlearned by providing positive evidence in English. In White et al (1991) the students’ attention was focused on explanations and examples that this form is present in French, and this leads to inappropriate construction in learning it in English. In this way, their consciousness was raised toward the inaccuracy of this form in English. At the end of the experiment, they tested their participants on a preference task and other means of examining Iranian EFL Journal

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wh-question formation in English. They found that the C-R group statistically outperformed the uninstructed group. They finally concluded "instruction on the formation of questions had an immediate impact on syntactic accuracy" (p. 428). Kao (2001) highlights the effect of formal instruction on the learner's performance on preferred structures such as P-S compared to marked P-P in the second language. That being the case, Nitta, R. and Gardener, S (2005) analyzed and reviewed some standard textbooks focusing on grammar teaching; they concluded that although there are more theoretical arguments in favor of C-R usefulness than against it, the well-known English language textbooks involve more practice parts than C-R communicative based tasks. They state that most general ELT course books currently include grammar tasks, suggesting a common view in ELT that learners benefit from form-focused tasks to improve their L2 accuracy. To investigate the nature of such tasks, they developed a framework of consciousness-raising and practice task types, applied it to nine contemporary ELT course books, and thus identified a number of current trends. All of them included more presentation and practice parts introduced through both inductive and deductive grammar practicing approaches and less C-R tasks. Moreover, according to Bursztyn, M. A. and Klepadski G. A. (2008), grammar teaching called " gramticography" as a part of the language teaching process has returned to fashion and is discussed under the name of the technique of grammatical conciousness-raising with due attention to the role of comprehensible input in second language acquisition. Following the aforementioned trends, since there are no studies conducted on acquiring grammatical points such as P-S and lexical knowledge of English in Iran, the purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of raising the student's consciousness toward the similarities or differences between their first language and English to set and learn more acceptable P-S cases and lexical knowledge in the following ways: 1. It examines lexical knowledge of some special verbs requiring some strict prepositions as their complements such as wait for as shown in the following example (i): (i). The young girl is waiting for the school bus now. 2. It deals with the corresponding wh-question movement of the statements like (i) above in two forms of less acceptable pied-piping parameters as (ii) and more acceptable preposition stranding parameters as (iii) in the following: ( ii). For which bus is the young girl waiting now? ( iii). Which bus is the young girl waiting for?

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Therefore, in the case of Iranian L2 learners of English, students’ attention must be focused on two kinds of contrasts between their native language and English in wh-question movement conditions: (i)The L2 allows P-S parameter more acceptably than PP. (ii)It is not a non- movement language, i.e. wh-question stays in situ.

3. Method The 57 participants in this study were chosen out of 122 basic sciences and engineering students in Kurdistan University. Later on, they were randomly assigned to two groups, 29 students in the experimental C-R group and 28 in the normal grammar practicing control group. The instrument used for this study is a 40-item Grammaticality Judgment Test (GJT) and Grammatical Correction Task (GCT) constructed and adapted following Klein (1995b). The test included 20 items based on wh-movement question parameters (pied-piping and preposition-stranding) in English and 20 statements including verbs which are necessarily subcategorized for their specific prepositions. Pied-piping is set in Iranian languages but preposition stranding does not exist. Participants judged a sentence as correct or incorrect with GJT; however, with the GCT, they rewrote the correct form of incorrect items. The reliability of the test was calculated through the split-half method in a pilot study which was carried out before the real study at Shiraz University. It thus showed a 0.81 index of reliability. Furthermore, the questionnaire included a question to check the participants' previous knowledge of English before the study. In this study, the test was given to a group of students assigned randomly to an experimental C-R group and a normal grammar practicing control group. Their test scores were subjected to SPSS independent t- test analysis. The result indicated a t- value which meant that there were no statistically meaningful differences between the experimental C-R and control group at the onset of the study. The result of this test was considered as the pretest of the study for both experimental and control groups. After a week interval, experimental group was given C-R treatment for an hour in three sessions in every other day during a week. A week later, both control and experimental groups judged the items of the instrument of the study as the posttest of the study within just 40 minutes. The students’ correct judgment of the P-S items, correctly subcategorized verbs and correctly rewritten items received one point. In the case of incorrect judgment (P-P and nullprep) or not answering the item, they got no points. Based on the results of the participant’s

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judgments, their scores were collected in the form of interval data and subjected to statistical analysis. Therefore, an independent t-test was run to compare the results of the experimental C-R and normal grammar practicing control groups’ correct judgments to support or reject the hypothesis of the study at 0.05 level of significance.

4. Results and Discussion The participants’ performance on the instrument of the study was analyzed using the SPSS package for windows. The results of an independent t-test presented in table 1 compares the experimental C-R group with a control group on GJT and GCT. It thus tries to find out whether C-R treatment was effective for learning (setting) the parameters of P-S which is an unmarked and more acceptable property in English and lexical knowledge of some special phrasal verbs. As can be found in the following table, the experimental C-R group exhibited a t-value of 9.89 which means that there is a significant difference between the means of the two groups on P-S and lexical knowledge to the advantage of the experimental group (P< .05).

Table 1 The analysis of t test for the comparison of control and experimental group on P-S & lexical knowledge Variables Control Experimental a

No.

Mean

28

9.28

3.90

29

16.28

2.09

SD

DF 27

t-value 9.89

a

p-value

0.5

p value for independent t test comparing the two groups After the presentation of the C-R treatment, as the above table indicates, treatment has

increased the amount of correct and appropriate responses and decreased the amount of nullprep and P-P occurrences in the experimental group. Consciousness raising as a way of life is the foundation for all kinds of learning and knowledge of human beings especially in pedagogy. Therefore, this study aimed to examine whether C-R has any impact on correct judgment on preposition stranding and lexical knowledge on the part of the EFL learner. As the results showed, the experimental group outperformed the control group on P-S parameter and lexical knowledge, and this leads to the conclusion that C-R is a helpful tactic used by the English language teachers to improve the students' performances on grammatical and lexical knowledge in situations like the present study. Further, these results are in line with Rutherford and Sharwood Smith (1986) in claiming that the learners will trigger the parameters of a second language if they are exposed Iranian EFL Journal

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to enough input which may be in explicit (conscious), or implicit (unconsciousness) form in that language. In the same way, it provides further support for White et al (1989) and (1991) who applied C-R experimentally and reported successful results in ESL situations. Accordingly, the findings also complies with Kao (2001) who cites suggestions for the vital role of formal instruction, Nitta and Gardeners (2005) and Bursztyn and Klepadski (2008) who suggested that C- R in the form of exposure to L2 parameters can influence the course or the rate of learning language forms such as P-S setting and lexical knowledge.

5. Conclusion The experimentally significant results and positive findings of this study provide further support for theoretical background underlying C-R technique in the fields of cognitive pedagogy and applied linguistics. Furthermore, as the implications of this study, the following conclusions and suggestions can be arrived at:

 C-R tactic can enhance the participants' performance in lexical knowledge and P-S parameter; hence it is suggested that teachers utilize this technique in teaching these structures and other similar grammatical points in EFL situations.

 C-R technique should be experimentally tested for teaching other parameters in different languages and with other better instruments.



The results cannot be generalized beyond the situation of this study until more studies are done with improved instruments in other conditions.

References Bursztyn, M. A. & Klepadski, G. A. (2008). Grammatical Consciousness Raising and Grammar Typology. Studio Anglica Resoveus Celce-Murcia, M. (1991). Grammar pedagogy insecond and foreign language teaching. TESOL Quarterly 25/3, 459–80. Cook, V. J. and Newson, M. (1996). Chomsky's Universal Grammar: An Introduction. Blackwell Publishers Ellis, R. (1993). ‘Talking shop: second languageacquisition research: how does it help teachers? An interview with Rod Ellis’. ELT Journal 47/1: 3–11. Ellis, R. (1997). SLA Research and Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hopkins, D. and M. Nettle. (1994). ‘Second language acquisition research: a response to Rod Ellis’. ELT Journal 48/2: 157–61.

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Kao, R. (2001). Where have the preposition gone? A study of English prepositional verbs and input enhancement in instructed SLA. International Review of Applied linguistics Nitta, R. and Gardener, S. (2005). Consciousness Raising & Practice in ELT Coursebook. ELT Journal 59(1). Nunan, D. (1991). Language Teaching Methodology: ATextbook for Teachers. New York: Prentice Hall. Rutherford, W. and Sharwood Smith, M. (1986). Consciousness Raising and Universal Grammar. Applied Liguistics6(3):274-281. Rutherford, W. (1980). Aspects of Pedegogical Grammmar. Applied Linguistics 1(1):60-73. Sharwood Smith, M. (1981). ‘Consciousness-raising and the second language learner’ [in:] AppliedLinguistics 2, pp. 159–168. Ur, P. (1988). Grammar Practice Activities. Cambridge: Cambridge White,L., Spada,N. Pasty, M.& Rantal, L. (1991). Input Enhancement and L2 Question Formation. Applied Linguistics 12(4):416-432.

Appendix Name: Dialect:

Major of Study: Farsi

Turkish

Kurdish

Luri

Baluchi

Arabic

How many semesters have you studied in an English institute? Choose each sentence as good (syntactically correct) or bad (syntactically wrong. If you choose a sentence as bad, correct it in the space provided. 1.

The young girl waited the school bus yesterday morning. a)good b) bad ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 2. Which bus did the young girl wait yesterday morning? a)good b) bad …………………………………………………………………………………………… 3. The girls are sitting on the park bench now. a)good b) bad ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 4. On which bench are the girls sitting now? a)good b)bad ………………………………………………………………………………....................... 5. The tall nurse worked the doctor last year. a)good b)bad ………………………………………………………………………………………………

6.

Who(m) did the tall nurse work last year? a)good b)bad ………………………………………………………………………………………….…

7.

The man is knocking on the kitchen door right now. a)good b)bad ……………………………………………………………………………………………

8.

Which door is the man knocking on right now?

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a)good b)bad ……………………………………………………………………………………

9.

This small boy sleeps this cradle every day. a)good b)bad …………………………………………………………………………………………

10. What does this small boy sleep every day? a)good b)bad …………………………………………………………………………………………….

11. The children are looking at the tall trees right now. a)good b)bad …………………………………………………………………………………………

12. Which trees are the children looking at right now? a)good b)bad …………………………………………………………………………………………

13. The little boy danced his friends in the hall yesterday. a)good b)bad ………………………………………………………………………………………….

14. Who(m) did the little boy dance in the hall yesterday? a)good b)bad ……………………………………………………………………………………….

15. The small boys are laughing at the funny pictures now. a)good b)bad ……………………………………………………………………………………

16. At which pictures are the small boys laughing now? a)good b)bad ………………………………………………………………………………………….

17. The small girls are playing the yellow doll now. a)good b)bad …………………………………………………………………………………….

18. Which doll are the small girls playing now? a)good b)bad ………………………………………………………………………………………

19. The two friends talked about the film last night. a)good b)bad …………………………………………………………………………………….

20. About what did the two friends talk last night? a)good b)bad …………………………………………………………………………………………

21. The boys are reading in the school library now. a)good b)bad …………………………………………………………………………………………

22. Which library are the boys reading in now? a)good b)bad ………………………………………………………………………………………….

23. My best friend are coming a small village near the city. a)good b)bad ………………………………………………………………………………………………

24. Where are your best friends coming? a)good b)bad …………………………………………………………………………………………

25. The children went after their mother into the room. a)good b)bad ………………………………………………………………………………………

26. After whose mother did the children go into the room? Iranian EFL Journal

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a)good b)bad …………………………………………………………………………………………

27. The English students listen the B.B.c news every night. a)good b)bad ……………………………………………………………………………………….

28. What do the English students listen every night? a)good b)bad ……………………………………………………………………………………

29. The English students worried the difficult test last night. a)good b)bad ………………………………………………………………………………

30. Which test did the English students worry about? a)good b)bad ……………………………………………………………………………………………

31. My brother is teaching in a new school this year. a)good b)bad …………………………………………………………………………………………

32. In which school is your brother teaching this year? a)good b)bad …………………………………………………………………………………………

33. The students pointed the world map yesterday. a)good b)bad ……………………………………………………………………………………………

34. What did the students point yesterday? a)good b)bad ………………………………………………………………………………………………

35. They spoke to the young man yesterday afternoon. a)good b)bad ……………………………………………………………………………………………

36. Who(m) did they speak to yesterday afternoon. a)good b)bad ……………………………………………………………………………………………

37. The mother was looking her lost child last night. a)good b)bad ………………………………………………………………………………………… 38. Which child was the mother looking last night? a)good b)bad …………………………………………………………………………………………… 39. These students are thinking their lessons right now. a)good b)bad …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 40. What are these students thinking about right now? a)good b)bad ………………………………………………………………………………………………

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Title Writing Skill in ESP Classes and Genre-based Approach Author Nayereh Bedad Fard (M.A student) Islamic Azad university, Shahreza Branch, Esfehan, Iran

Biodata Nayereh Behdad Fard is TEFL MA student at Islamic Azad university of Shahreza, Esfehan, Iran. She is an English teacher and has a TESOL certificate. Her research interests include teaching issues and metadiscourse and genre analyses.

Abstract Writing is the most difficult skills learners are expected to master. An ability to write appropriately is a task that ESL learners faced in spite of the years spent learning their writing skills. Writing is complex and multifaceted in nature. Tribble (1996, p.57) posed a question pertaining to writing, “What makes one piece of writing more acceptable than another?” Hopefully, through the understanding of genre-based approach, taking the communicative purpose as the key characteristic feature of a genre, this question can be answered. Learners use language purposefully by using model text designed for specific professional context which is referred to as modeling is investigated in this paper. It is a common technique used for teaching genre where learners are presented with a model text that can be imitated while they are writing their texts through modeling; learners duplicate the defining characteristic of its genre but using a different content. Writing for professional purposes presents many challenges to learners because it involves many different areas of knowledge and skills. Learners who have average proficiency of the English language still perform poorly in their writing tasks, and most of them exhibit difficulties in expressing themselves in writing. In writing, it is essential that learners do not just know how to write grammatically correct text but also know how to apply their knowledge for particular purposes and contexts. A focus on genres in writing instruction can provide the learners with a frame that enables them to interpret particular communicative events. A genre-based approach aims to make the learners more Iranian EFL Journal

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aware of the concept of genre and the way it affects texts and increase their ability to differentiate their language and text structure through the use of greater linguistic choices. Key words: Writing skill, Genre approach, Genre process approach

1. Introduction L2 writing researchers have recently begun to emphasize the relevance of the concept of genre to L2 writing and to argue that the generic properties of different texts written by members of different discourse communities are to be mastered by L2 writers before they can write successfully in their second language (Hyland,2004). Writing is now viewed as a social activity because of the influences from such recent notions as communicative competence in linguistics, social constructionism in philosophy, and situated learning in education (Canagarajah,2002). Because of the social nature of writing, second language writers need to learn to participate and function in different speech communities. In the genre-based approach, “each group constructs discourses that suit its social practices, historical experiences, and interests” (Canagarajah, 2002, p. 36). Such a view acknowledges the dynamic nature of interpersonal interactions where people can have multiple community memberships in social life. In this relatively new approach, writing is seen as conforming to the norms of a discourse community. By gradual exposure to and involvement in a new academic discourse community, students try peculiar ways of knowing, selecting, evaluating, reporting, concluding, and arguing which define the discourse of that community and thereby learn

to

write

through

collaborative

(student-student)

apprenticeship,

tutor-tutee

apprenticeship, and direct engagement with the broader academic community (Warschauer, 2002). In the genre-based approach to L2 writing, the conventions of discourse and properties of written language in different contexts of use play a central role. Atkinson (1990) regards conventionalized properties of written language as important for the better understanding of the writing process. To him, conventions of written discourse are socially ratified solutions to past or present coordination problems of written communication. Genre study within English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is a field that bridges linguistic and rhetorical traditions. Positioned within the overarching category of Language for Specific Purposes (LSP), English for Specific Purposes focuses on studying and teaching specialized varieties of English, most often to non-native speakers of English, in advanced academic and professional settings.ESP is often used as an umbrella term to include more specialized areas

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of study such as English for Academic Purposes (EAP), English for Occupational Purposes (EOP), and English for Medical Purposes (EMP). Although ESP has existed since the 1960s and although ESP researchers began to use genre analysis as a research and pedagogical tool in the 1980s, it was John Swales’ groundbreaking book Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings that most fully theorized and developed the methodology for bringing genre analysis into ESP research and teaching. It is largely due to Swales’ work and the research it has inspired over the last twenty years that ESP and genre analysis have become in many ways synonymous. Research on teaching writing in a second language was initiated in the late 1960s, and most early efforts were centered on techniques for teaching writing. These efforts led to the process approach, which helps students to work through several stages of the writing process. Later, more attention was paid to the nature of writing in various situations. This then brought popularity to the genre approach, which focuses on models and key features of texts written for a particular purpose. In the process approach, a teacher typically has students follow the steps of prewriting, writing, revising, and editing before achieving the final product, and this sequence teaches students how to write. In the genre approach, samples of a specific genre are introduced, and some distinctive characteristics of the given genre are pointed out so that students notice specific configurations of that genre. Next, students attempt to produce the first draft through imitating the given genre.

2. Genre-based instruction in L2 context Henry & Roseberry (1998) examined the effect of explicit genre instruction on first-year management students’ acquisition of tourist information genre. The instruction was primarily based on analysis of genre moves by reading a variety of text models. The results indicated that the treatment group did show significant improvement in motivation and texture (cohesion and coherence) scores and their gain scores were significantly higher than the control group. Interestingly, students who have received explicit instruction on genre moves showed no significant improvements in this variable in their pre-/post-tests, although they did make certain progress. Furthermore, they also failed to gain significantly higher gain scores in the move variable than the control group who were asked to read the model texts in the absence of any explicit explanation. However, their research indicated that exposure to model texts in the absence of explicit instruction did not help students acquire genre knowledge since there were no differences in the pre-/post-tests move scores among the control group. It

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is still unknown why explicit instruction on genre moves failed to yield any significant progress in move scores for the experimental group. Hyon’s study (2002) assessed the effects of an EAP genre-based reading course on building genre knowledge and developing L2 reading ability. The instructional focus was primarily a text-based analysis of rhetorical moves, language style and discourse purpose. Based on post instructional naming tasks and interviews, the findings indicated that the course facilitated a better understanding of texts’ rhetorical elements but failed to provide all skills essential for effective L2 reading, such as reading strategies and vocabulary knowledge. In a follow-up study on the long-term effects of this course, Hyon (2001) found out that one year later after the course, the L2 graduate and undergraduate students were able to recognize specific genre features taught in the course. Yet, some participants over-generalized and misapplied some prototypical genre features. Hyon’s studies showed that genre instruction can help L2 students acquire L2 reading-related abilities to a certain extent and may need to incorporate other complementary instruction to be an effective approach to L2 reading training. 2.1. Genre-based instruction for ESP Research in language education includes new or improved forms of instruction for the four skills. One of these is genre-based instruction (GBI).Students pursuing a university degree require competency in both written and spoken language to handle academic discourse and to excel in the programme.Academic or professional discourse or genre is a specialist discourse with specific rules and conventions (generic structure) which can vary across genres. Students who are linguistically proficient may still not be able to handle specialist genres and require the assistance of the ESP teacher. GBI is teaching language based on results of genre analysis. Genre analysis is the study of how language is used within a particular setting (Swales 1990) and is concerned with the form of language use in relation to meaning (Bhatia 1993). Genre analysis is a tool to examine the structural organization of texts by identifying the moves and strategies, and to understand how these moves are organized in order to achieve the communicative purpose of the text. Genre analysis also examines the text patterning or textualisation in genres to show statistical evidence of a particular linguistic feature in a specific genre and the specific features of the genre that the evidence textualises. Finally genre analysis examines the lexico-grammatical features of genres to identify the linguistic features chosen by expert users of the genre to realize the communicative purpose, and to explain these choices in terms of social and psychological contexts (Henry & Roseberry, 1998). Other considerations in genre analysis include the communicative purpose of the target genre, the roles of the writer and the audience, and the context in which the Iranian EFL Journal

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genre is used. The results from analyzing a genre serve as the instructional materials in GBI.Based on the model by Cope and Kalantzis (1993), there are four stages in GBI including modeling, guiding, practicing and finally independently writing the genre.GBI is actually an integration of the product approach and the process approach resulting in a process-genre approach(Badger and White, 2000) Genres inform the organizational structure for the skills and activities in teaching ESP and therefore deserve a clear and perhaps even critical understanding on the part of the teacher (Mavor and Trayner, 2001). For teachers to be effective ESP practitioners, particularly in universities offering interdisciplinary academic programmes, they need to be well-versed in the requirements of the disciplines and to understand the discursive practices of the professions at the receiving end of the academic programmes. To understand the discursive practices of the disciplines or the profession is first of all to acquire knowledge of the code (Bhatia, 1997). This knowledge requires the teacher to know the repertoire of genres used in a profession and the occasions when they are used. Assuming that a person who has linguistic competence is able to naturally acquire knowledge of the code is totally wrong as research has shown that there are fundamental differences in the use of lexico-grammatical, semantic pragmatic and discoursal resources between everyday language and specialist language Secondly, one needs to acquire generic competence or at least some genre knowledge in the profession in order to participate in a specialist

communicative

event.

Generic

knowledge

includes

understanding

the

communicative purpose(s) of genres and the communicative goal-oriented purposes associated with the specific use of these genres. Knowledge in the discursive practices of the profession and knowledge in the generic structure of target genres will be a powerful pedagogic tool for teachers and will definitely benefit students. In this respect, teachers play an important role in acquiring genre knowledge and then imparting that knowledge to the students. GBI prepares students for real world writing (Mansfield, 1993) which will consequently create interest in the ESP classroom and provide students with the confidence to handle specialist genres. This has prompted many ESP practitioners to embark on this procedure within both the ESL and the EFL contexts (Henry and Roseberry, 1998; Mavor and Trayner, 2001). Students also benefit from genre knowledge. Students need to know the discursive practices in their profession because understanding the genres of written communication in their field is necessary to professional success. By being able to examine the pattern of the structural organization of a genre, students will acquire the specialist culture (Bhatia, 1997). By being able to identify the obligatory and the optional moves of that genre, students can characterize the typical or conventional textual features of the genre and Iranian EFL Journal

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understand the rationale behind such characteristics. Students are also able to study the institutionalized context, including the system and methodology in which the genre is used and the rules and conventions, such as the social, academic and professional conventions that govern the use of language in such settings. Finally, with genre knowledge, students can manipulate and exploit the moves to construct the genre based on their creativity. Genre approach to teaching writing since the mid-1980s, considerable attention has been paid to the genre approach to teaching writing. In terms of writing in a second language, The Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning has defined the genre approach as “a framework for language instruction” (Byram, 2004, p. 234) based on examples of a particular genre. The genre framework supports students’ writing with generalized, systematic guiding principles about how to produce meaningful passages. Swales (1990) identified a genre as “a class of communicative events, the members of which share some set of communicative purposes” 2.2. Differences between the Process Approach and the Genre Approach In the process approach, the steps or stages are illustrated and practiced from the generation of ideas and compilation of information through a series of activities for planning, gathering information, drafting, revising, and editing (Campbell, 1998, p. 11). This sequence of activities typically occurs in four stages: “prewriting, composing/drafting, revising, and editing” (Badger & White, 2000, p. 154). However, none of the process writing procedures of the past sufficiently dealt with linguistic knowledge, such as grammar and the organization of content, as much as necessary. Even though the final stage of editing addressed some mechanical features of language, they were mainly concerned with the skills of processing ideas like planning and drafting. Furthermore, the process approach has a very restricted view of writing, in that the approach presumes that writing proficiency takes place only with the support of the repeated exercise of the same writing procedures. In the genre approach, on the other hand, the knowledge of language is intimately attached to a social purpose, and more focus is on the viewpoint of the reader than on that of the writer. Writing is mostly viewed as the students’ reproduction of text based on the genre offered by the teacher. It is also believed that learning takes place through imitation and exploration of different kinds of models. Accordingly, learners should be exposed to many examples of the same genre to develop their ability to write a particular genre. Through exposure to similar texts, students can detect the specialized configurations of that genre, and they also can activate their memories of prior reading or writing experiences whenever they encounter the task of creating a new piece in a familiar genre (Badger & Iranian EFL Journal

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White, 2000, pp. 155-156). Proponents such as Kay and Dudley-Evans (1998) have argued that the genre approach is more effective for learners to advance their writing skills in a second language than the process approach since the model helps free students from their severe worries over writing. Students generally appreciate the models or examples showing specifically what they have to do linguistically. Studying a given genre also provides them with an understanding of why a communication style is the way it is through a reflection of its social context and its purpose. Swales (1990) pointed out how rhetorical instruction plays as pivotal a role in writing improvement as prior knowledge (p. 83). In this context, the genre approach is very beneficial because it brings together formal and functional properties of a language in writing instruction, and it acknowledges that there are strong associations between them. As Bhatia (1993, as cited in Kim &Kim, 2005) recommended, it is meaningful for writing instructors to tie the formal and functional properties of a language together in order to facilitate students’ recognition of how and why linguistic conventions are employed for particular rhetorical effects (p.6). If the rhetorical structure of content is analyzed by students in the genre approach, some common patterns can be identified in each genre. Naturally, these patterns will form a kind of background knowledge students can activate in the next learning situation. Eventually, the prior knowledge will make it easier for students to produce acceptable structures in their writing tasks. Therefore, an assigned genre seems to serve as an influential tool for both the learning and teaching of writing [for both students and teachers]. The genre approach encourages students to participate in the world around them, to comprehend writing as a tool that they can utilize, and to realize how writers manage content to promote logical organization. It also allows students to become more flexible in their thinking and eventually to realize how authors organize their writings. Despite genres’ beneficial roles in helping learners to produce written work with confidence, there are two concerns about the genre approach. One is that it underestimates the skills required to produce content, and the other concern is that it neglects learners’ selfsufficiency (Byram, 2004, p. 236). The genre approach not only places too much emphasis on conventions and genre features but also is less helpful for students in discovering the texts’ true messages due to the targeted aspects of the specified genre. Likewise, if teachers spend class time explaining how language is used for a range of purposes and with a variety of readers, learners are likely to be largely passive. Thus, the genre approach is blamed for limiting learners’ creative thoughts about content and is criticized in that it overlooks natural Iranian EFL Journal

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processes of learning and learners’ creativity (Badge & White, 2000, p.157). Finally, Bawarshi (2000) pointed out that, at its best, it helps learners to identify and interpret literary texts, while at its worst; it interferes with the learners’ creativity (p.343). This concern means that students may end up writing genres as meaningless reproductions. 2.3. Process _ genre approach Due to the weaknesses of the genre approach noted above, Badger and White (2000) experimented with using the genre and process approaches together as an alternative in a model called the process genre approach. Through this research, they affirmed that this dual approach works well if the writing cycle begins with models, description of the key linguistic features, discussion of the social situation in which it happens, and analysis of the recommended rhetorical patterns of each genre. Student writing is then subjected to the sequence of drafts in the process approach (p. 157). For instance, when a university student creates an advertisement describing his or her used laptop in order to sell it, the following should be considered: this writing is intended to sell the laptop; it should be attractive to some people who are interested in buying it; it must consist of certain information; and it should follow traditions in which laptop descriptions are offered. Then, the person should follow several procedures such as drafting, revising and editing as well as using rhetorical language skills best suited to this genre (Badger & White, 2000, p. 158).This demonstration shows how the process-genre approach embraces teaching the appropriate language along with using a set of revision processes by which a final draft can be produced. As illustrated in the laptop example, this combined approach ensures that the writing task is reviewed from both the viewpoint of the writer and of readers at the same time.

3. Conclusion Genre analysis is a powerful pedagogic tool for ESP teachers and is beneficial for students as knowledge of the generic features of any type of genre provides insight into the working of the genre. Understanding the structural patterns of the target genre by identifying the structural moves and the strategies the writers use to achieve their communicative purpose and being able to identify the occurrence of obligatory and optional moves and the sequence in which these moves occur provides the opportunity for students to manipulate the moves based on their understanding of the specialist culture and on their creativity. At the same time, teachers are able to teach these genres more effectively. It is a theory of genre in which

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generic meanings are construed between and across texts. This theory not only tries to describe linguistic characteristics of actual texts and the genre concerned, but also attempts to reveal how the genre has been produced and consumed in relation to its sociocultural context. That is, it aims to capture the dynamic and 'stabilized-for-now' status of the genre in different social contexts. The genre approach is not a rigid, formulaic way of constructing texts. Instead, students can learn through the process of writing by knowing what the end product should look like. , It is good to view genre-based approach as an additional approach to teaching learners to write better in a shorter period.

References Atkinson, Dwight. (1990). Discourse analysis and written discourse conventions. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 11, pp. 57-76. Badger, R. & G. White. (2000). A process genre approach to teaching writing. ELT Journal,54:2. Oxford. Oxford University Press. Bawarshi, A. (2000). The genre function. College English, 62(3), 335-360. Bhatia, V. K. (1993). Analysing Genre: Language Use in Professional Setting. London. Longman. Bhatia, V. K. (1997). Applied Genre Analysis and ESP. In T. Miller (ed). Functional Approach to Written Text: Classroom Applications. Washington D.C. United States Information Agency. Byram, M. (2004). Genre and genre-based teaching. The Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning (pp. 234- 237). London: Routledge. Campbell, C. (1998). Teaching second-language writing: Interacting with text. Newbury: Heinle & Heinle. Canagarajah, Suresh. (2002). Multi-lingual writers and the academic community: towards a critical relationship. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 1, pp. 29-44. Cope, B. & M. Kalantzis. (1993). The Powers of Literacy: A Genre Approach to Teaching Writing. London: Falmer Press Dudley-Evans, A. (1997). Genre Models for the teaching of academic writing to second language speakers: advantages and disadvantages. In T.Miller (ed). Functional Approach to Written Text: Classroom Applications. Washington D.C. United States Information Agency. Ellis, R. (1990). Instructed Second Language Acquisition: Learning in Classroom. Oxford: Blackwell Henry, A. & R. L. Roseberry. (1998). An Evaluation of a genre-based approach to the Teaching of EAP/ESP writing. TESOL Quarterly, 32: 1 Hyland, K. (2002). Genre: Language, Context and Literacy. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 22: 113-135. Hyland, K. (2000). Disciplinary Discourses: Social Interactions in Academic Writing. London: Longman.

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Hyland, K. (2004). Genre and Second Language Writing. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press. Hyon, S. (2001). Long-term effects of genre-based instruction: A follow-up study of an EAP reading courses,’ English for Specific Purposes 20: 417–38. Hyon, S. (2002). ‘Genre and ESL reading: A classroom study’ in A. M. Johns (ed.): Genre in the Classroom: Multiple Perspectives. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Kay, H & T. Dudley-Evans. (1998). Genre:What teachers think. ELT Journal 52(4): 308-14 Kim, Y., & Kim, J. (2005). Teaching Korean University writing class: Balancing the process and the genre approach [Electronic version]. Asian EFL Journal, 7(2), 1-15. Mansfield, M. A. (1993). Real World Writing and the English Curriculum. College Composition and Communication, 38:184. Mavor, S. and B. Trayner. 2001. Aligning genre and practice with learning in higher- education: an interdisciplinary perspective for course design and teaching. English for Specific Purposes, 20: pp 345-366. Swales, J. (1990). Genre Analysis. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. Tribble. C. (1996). Writing. Oxford: Oxford University Press Warschauer, Mark. (2002). Networking into academic discourse. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 1, pp. 45-48.

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Title The Effect of Gender on EFL Achievement Testing Pre-university Schools in Iran Author Gholamreza Akhoondali Shiraz University, Iran

Biodata Gholamreza Akhoondali M.A. in TEFL from Shiraz University. He has been teaching English language for about 21 years, and is presently teaching English at different high schools, language institutes, and universities in Ahvaz, Iran. His research interests include methodology, testing, linguistics and discourse analysis.

Abstract This paper examines the effect of gender on English as a foreign language (EFL) achievement test at the end of the second semester in Ahvaz in 2010-2011. The aim of this study is to determine whether students’ gender can affect learning English as a foreign language in Ahvaz. Participants were 480 pre-university school students (240 males and 240 females) selected from four educational regions of Ahvaz. This study employs quantitative methods of analysis and makes use of descriptive analysis, pair t-test, and the effect size. The results of the statistical analyses indicate that EFL learning is to some extent, gender-related, and it has a significant effect on the achievement test. The findings of this study help instructors to select their instructional strategies more effectively related to gender. Keywords: Gender, Foreign language, Achievement Test

1. Introduction In recent years, evidence shows that while both boys and girls have improved their performance, girls are achieving higher grades than boys in EFL learning. Gender has been regarded as an important affective factor that plays a role and influences second language acquisition. Remember that the title of John Gray’s book (1992), Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. Of course it is a metaphor or conceit, but there are objective differences Iranian EFL Journal

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between the language of men and that of women, and no education or social conditioning can wholly erase these differences. A gender difference is a disparity between male and female humans. According to gender role theory, prevalent gender stereotypes are culturally shared expectations for gender appropriate behaviours. Females and males learn the appropriate behaviours and attitudes from the family and overall culture they grow up with, and so nonphysical gender differences are a product of socialization (Eagly, 1987; Eagly & Karau, 2002). From the biological viewpoint, females and males also differ fundamentally in terms of cognitive ability and learning style. These differences derive both from basic physiological differences, such as differences in the development of brain, and from differences in higherlevel cortical functions. Males and females have somewhat different patterns of lateralization, with males being more left-hemisphere dominant than females. No matter what gender differences are primarily culturally or biologically determined, educational research in the last several decades has proven that the gender differences manifestly influence students’ academic interests, needs, and achievements (Halpern, 1986; Collins, Kenway & McLeod, 2000; Swiatek & Lupkowski-Shoplik, 2000). However, different educational domains have different claims to the gender issue. The theorists of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) believe that female learners show possible superiority in their second language learning process (Burstall, 1975; Boyle, 1987; Ehrlich, 2001). Therefore, whether ESL students learning English with CALL programs will gain or counteract the learning efficiency due to their gender difference has become a significant issue of ESL instruction. As Bernhardt’s (1991) model predicted that studies revealed significant gender differences in comprehension with different passages at early stages of acquisition, but not at more advanced stages. It has also been suggested that researchers study how beliefs differ across language learners, particularly in terms of individual differences such as gender, age, learning styles, and personality type (Bernat & Gvozdenko, 2005; Wenden,1999; Horwitz,1999; Rifkin,2000). The purpose of this study is to find out an answer to this question that whether or not females are better English language learners than males specifically, in achievement test in pre-university schools. To do so, a number of males and females have been chosen from Ahvaz. Its aim is to re-examine the identity of gender and learning English language in four educational regions of Ahwaz. It conducts a quantitative statistical analysis and raises the following questions: A. Do females outperform males in their EFL achievement tests?

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B. Is there any significant difference between the mean of males and that of females in their scores? C. How big the difference between the means is? In case there is a difference. The significance of gender warrants further investigation. By examining the effect of students’ gender on their achievements, it will be possible for instructors to be more careful about the important role of students’ gender in their performances.

2. Review of the Related Literature Gender is an issue with important theoretical and pedagogical implications in L2 learning. A good number of studies have found that gender can have a significant effect on how students learn a language. A large number of researches have worked on a wide range of topics about gender, including language learning ability, motivation, teacher perceptions, learning styles and strategies, classroom interaction, teaching materials, testing, learner identities, masculinities, and pedagogies. Many studies that examined gender as a variable in the use of language learning strategies (LLS) reported that significant gender differences almost always occurred in a single direction, showing greater use of LLS by females (see for instance, Green, 1992; Green & Oxford, 1995; Noguchi, 1991; & Oxford, 1993). Politzer (1983) reported that females used social LS significantly more than males. Ehrman and Oxford (1989), using the LLSL with both students and instructors at the U.S. Foreign Institute came to the conclusion that compared to males, females reported significantly greater use of LLS in four areas of general study strategies, functional practice strategies, strategies for communicating meaning, and self-management strategies. Oxford and Nyikos (1989) looked at the strategies used by university students and concluded that gender differences had a “profound influence” on strategy use. They also found that female learners used formal rulerelated practice strategies, general study strategies and conversational input elicitation strategies more frequently than did male learners. Green and Oxford (1995) found similar results in a study of students at the University of Puerto Rico, and concluded that females significantly used strategies more often than males. Hismanoglu (2000) maintains that factors like age, gender, personality, etc. affect the way in which language learners learn the target language. Catalan (2003) summarized the results of a study on sex differences in second language vocabulary learning strategies, and confirmed that males and females differ in both the number and range of vocabulary strategies reported. Peacock and Ho (2003) also investigated the learning strategies used by 1006 Chinese students of English. They noticed

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that females reported significantly higher use of all six strategy categories. They also reported a much higher use of nine individual strategies, seven of which are also associated with higher proficiency. Similarly, Chang (2004) finds males and females different in several aspects including their strategy use. He notes that men and women are not only biologically different but they are also brought up in different ways with different social expectations. As a result, men and women behave differently so that these behavioural differences are reflected in academic aptitudes. Rua (2006) explored the role of the sex variable in foreign language learning success by reviewing and connecting data gathered from several tests and studies. She confirmed the hypothesis that girls’ achievement in FLL is enhanced by the interaction of neurological, cognitive, affective, social and educational factors. Each factor is activated in a different way for boys and girls; with the result that boys and girls are equipped with different systems of variables and these variables build a network of influences which is posited to be eventually responsible for girls’ FLL success. Contrary to the above-mentioned positions, some research studies consider no significant role for gender in LLS use. Kim (1995) investigated the use of LLS of Korean adult English learners and found no significant differences between males and females in the use of strategies. Furthermore, Oh (1996) conducted a study involving Korean English learners and found that gender difference did not affect the use of strategies. In another study, Tran (1988) discovered that Vietnamese women use fewer LLS than men. The same result was found in Tercanlioglu (2005) with Turkish university student participants. The results showed significant gender differences, characterising males with more strategy use. The area of gender differences in motivation has long been explored, partly in an effort to explain gender differences in achievement and career choice in the fields of math and science. In general, despite research findings that show females outperform males (see Linn and Hyde, 1988); female students have lower self-perceptions of ability than male students (Wigfield et al., 1996). Especially in math and sports, males show higher self-perception whereas females show higher self-perception in English (Eccles, 1983; Eccles et al., 1989; Meece et al., 1990; Wigfield et al., 1991). Wigfield et al. (1996) also found that males have higher self-ratings for physical appearance, physical ability, and math while females have higher self-ratings for verbal and reading tasks. In terms of the value which students attach to subjects, Wigfield and Eccles (1992) also found differences between male and female students: males value math more, whereas females value English more. In second language acquisition (SLA), researchers have found some evidence implying the existence of gender differences in motivation and attitudes (e.g., Bacon and Finnemann, Iranian EFL Journal

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1992; Burstall et al., 1974; Clark and Trafford, 1995; Gardner and Lambert, 1972; Ludwig, 1983; Goldberg Muchnik and Wolfe, 1982). Although most of the research in mainstream psychology mentioned earlier was carried out with elementary school students or adolescents studying in their native language, if the same patterns apply to university students studying English, one might assume that females have higher self-perception for and/or attach greater value to English. As a matter of fact, this assumption is congruent with findings of some foreign language studies that indicate greater motivation and more favourable attitudes in female students (Burstall et al., 1974; Pritchard, 1990; Williams et al., 2002; and Jones, 1997). Following the general trend in motivational research in second language learning, many researchers focused on the instrumental and integrative types of motivation first proposed by Gardner and Lambert (1972). Those researchers (for instance, Bacon and Finnemann, 1992; Gardner and Lambert, 1972; Goldberg Muchnik and Wolfe, 1982; Sung and Padilla, 1998) also found female students have greater motivation and more positive attitudes toward studying a foreign language than male students, although the distinction between instrumental and integrative motivation in these studies was found to be ambiguous (summarized in Chavez, 2001). Although gender was not the focus of their studies, both Do¨rnyei and Clement (2001), reported possible gender differences in motivation. According to Do¨rnyei and Clement, female students scored significantly higher than male students on the scales of all of the seven motivational dimensions in most of the target languages. Those motivational dimensions include Direct Contact with L2 Speakers, Instrumentality, Integrativeness, Vitality of L2 Community, and Cultural Interest. A number of studies conducted in various contexts have confirmed the presence of gender-related differences in verbal ability and language use (Maccoby & Jacklin, 1974; Thorne et al., 1983; Tannen, 1990). The consensus seems to be that females are superior to males in general verbal ability (Maccoby & Jacklin, 1974; Denno, 1982; Cole, 1997), but there is disagreement about which types of verbal ability shows gender differences. This is especially true when it comes to different language skills. Hyde and Linn (1988) conducted a comprehensive meta-analytical study investigating gender differences in verbal ability. Among the 56 vocabulary studies included, six reported a significant difference in favour of males, while eight reported significant differences in favour of females. Generally the metaanalysis demonstrated no significant gender difference in vocabulary, although there was significant heterogeneity in the effect size.

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In terms of reading comprehension, five out of the 21 studies reported a significant difference in favour of males, while ten found significant differences in favour of females. Generally, females were found to have slight advantages in reading, speaking, writing, and general verbal ability, but the differences were so small that Hyde and Linn argued that gender differences in verbal ability no longer existed. Statistics from ACT of 2001 also showed no significant sex differences in English or reading, although the means of females were slightly higher than those of males (Zwick, 2002). In contrast, a gender study recently conducted by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) yielded completely different results. This comprehensive study (Cole, 1997) involved 400 tests and millions of students. It was reported that a language advantage for females had remained unchanged compared with 30 years ago. Female superiority in verbal ability ranged from noticeable differences in writing and language use to very small differences. At the same time, however, evidence also suggests that males are superior in listening vocabulary, that is, comprehension of heard vocabulary in both first and second language contexts (Brimer, 1969; Boyle, 1987). In general, despite the female advantage in general verbal ability, there seems to be no agreement as to whether and to what degree gender differences exist in different types of verbal ability. Since the gender effect has been dealt with through different aspects by different researchers and also because much time and space is required to be paid to these different and extensive aspects; narrowing down the topic to a specific aspect that is, EFL achievement test, seems legitimate. In the context of second language proficiency testing, gender differences have been examined only to a limited degree. Generally, little differential performance by gender has been found. According to Ryan and Bachman (1992), the TOEFL did not demonstrate gender DIF. When means of subtests were compared, no significant gender differences were found in listening, structure and written expression, or vocabulary and reading. Wainer and Lukhele (1997) also reported that the reading comprehension tests of TOEFL showed essentially no differential functioning by gender. In this term that is , the effect of gender on the performance of EFL male and female language learners’ achievement test, there have been conducted various studies. Angela Rammouz (English education consultant Lebanese International University) in English Intermediate Cycle (Brevet) Official Examination Results, for the Regular Session of Examination Results, for the Regular Session of 2002-2003, according to Regions and Gender, clearly showed that the percentage of success of females was higher than males in all regions of Lebanon in EF learning. For instance, the percentage of success among females Iranian EFL Journal

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was 76.33%, 57.52%, 55.89%,73.14%, 55.38% and 55.42% in Beirut, the North, the South, Mount Lebanon, Nabatiyé and the Bekaa respectively, while it was 63.61%, 52.11%, 52.52%, 67.09%, 54.64% and 53.15% among males for the same regions. Thus it is evident from the given data that females performed better than males in the Intermediate Cycle official examinations (2002-2003) in all regions. Hard evidence of any differences, especially in the specific L2 environment, can be useful for further development of linguistic theory as well as applicable in today's EFL classroom. As Sy (1995) points out, "A longitudinal study, together with quantitative and qualitative analyses of data, may also shed light on sex differences and Language Learning Strategies." This study, therefore, is intended to examine the effects of gender on EFL achievement test and a comparison between males’ and females’ scores as well.

3. Method 3.1 Participants The participants in this study were pre-university school students (240 males and 240 females) who were selected at random from four educational regions of Ahvaz. They attended the English language classes in the second semester of the year 2010/2011 and participated in the final English achievement test at the end of that semester. Out of 240 male students, 120 were majoring in science and 120 in art and humanities; and it was the same for 240 female students. In order to ensure that the participants shared similar characteristics, such as language skills, only those participants, who had previously passed the first semester final exam, were included in this study. They all were from different classes of society. The age of the participants was between 17 and 18, and they all had 7-9 years of experience in English language learning. 3.2 Instrument One instrument was used for this study. It was the raw scores of the students’ English achievement test which administered at the end of second semester. The test paper included four parts: vocabulary, grammar, sentence function, and reading comprehension. The items contained fill in the blank, matching, multiple- choice, and jumbled sentence questions which intended to assess students’ overall ability in language use. To ensure the effectiveness of the test, a nationwide English test was chosen. A sample of the test has been provided at the end of the paper in appendix section. 3.3 Data collection Iranian EFL Journal

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The raw scores belonged to the participants who were in science and humanities majors. They were collected from four educational departments in Ahvaz. 3.4 Data analysis SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) 16.0 has been employed to analyse the data. Firstly, descriptive analysis has been performed to compute the means, and standard deviations to see the mean differences of two groups (males and females). Secondly, Independent-Samples T-Tests have been employed to compare the differences among different groups (between science male and female students, between humanities male and female students, and between total of science and humanities male and female students). Thirdly, the effect sizes (Eta squared) have been run to calculate the strength of association and the relative magnitude of the differences between males and females.

4. Results This study aimed to investigate if there were females’ outperformance rather than that of males in their EFL achievement tests. The research questions were analysed by means, standard deviations, independent-samples t-tests, and effect sizes. As can be seen in table 1, the total average of the humanities female students (M=13.18) is higher than that of males’ (M= 11.47). Humanities female students outperformed the humanities male students. In this case, Female students have a standard deviation of 3.20 whereas males have achieved a standard deviation of 3.54 that shows the amount of variation within female scores is smaller than males’.

Table 1 Humanities males’and females’ Mean and Standard Deviation

Scoresof Humanities

GenderofHum anities male

N

Mean

Std. Deviation

120

11.4729

3.54470

female

120

13.1875

3.20979

In table 2, the result of the independent-samples t-test indicates that there is a significant difference between the scores of the two humanities groups. (P< 0.05, Sig= 0.00). Table 2 Humanities males’ and females’ independent-Samples t- Test

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t-test for Equality of Means

Scores ofHumanities Equal variances assumed

t

df

-3.928

238

Sig. (2-

Mean

tailed)

Difference

.000

-1.71458

Figurer1. Mean of humanities male and female scores

Here, the effect size was calculated in order to see the magnitude of the difference and the strength of association in humanities males’ and females’ students. The calculated effect size is 0.06, so it is concerned with a moderate effect between humanities males’ and females’ scores. Cohen (1988, as cited in Pallant, 2001: 175) Table 3 indicates that the total mean of the science female students (M=16.01) is higher than that of males’ (M= 15.20). In this case, female students outperformed the male students. Female students have a standard deviation of 2.84 whereas that of males’ is 3.28. This shows that the amount of variation within female scores is smaller than males’. Table 3 Science males’ and females’ mean and standard deviation

Scores ofScience

GenderofScience

N

Mean

Std. Deviation

male female

120 120

15.2083 16.0188

3.28757 2.84863

As can be seen in table 4, the results also indicate that there is a significant difference between the scores of two science groups. (P< 0.05, Sig= 0.04) Iranian EFL Journal

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Table 4 Science males’ and females’ independent-samples t- test t-test for Equality of Means t Scores ofScience

Equal variances assumed

df

-2.041 238

Sig. (2tailed) .042

Mean Difference

-.81042

Figure2. Mean of science male and female scores

The result of the effect size obtained for the third question (d= 0.01) also shows that there is a small effect of difference between science males’ and females’ students. Table 5 indicates that the total mean of all female students (M= 15.59) is higher than that of males’ (M= 12.33). Here, female students outperformed the male students. The standard deviation of all females is 3.09 while all males have achieved a standard deviation of 3.48. It reveals that females’ scores have a small amount of variation rather than males’. Table 5 Total males’ and females’ mean and standard deviation

Total Male and Female Scores

Gender of Total

N

Mean

Std. Deviation

male

239

12.3316

3.48920

female

241

15.5985

3.09854

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As table 6 shows, results of statistical analysis of independent-samples t-test also reveal that the p-value is 0.00. (P< 0.05). This means that there was a significant difference between the total mean males and the total mean females. Table 6 Total males’ and females’ independent-samples t-test t Total Male andFemaleScores

Equal variancesassumed

df

-10.848 478

Sig. (2-

Mean

tailed)

Difference

.000

-3.26696

Figure 3.Mean of total male and female scores

Here, the effect size was calculated for the third question in order to investigate the strength and the magnitude of difference in total males’ and females’ students. It was equal to 0.19. It also indicates that there is a small relative magnitude of difference between the total females and the total males.

5. Discussion This study aimed to investigate if there were females’ outperformance rather than that of males in their EFL achievement tests. After running the SPSS program and observing the results it was understood that the obtained findings were congruent with the previously resulted findings. What emerged clearly from the analyses is the fact that female students at

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both the humanities and the science majors outperform that of the male students. According to Majors and Gender, it clearly showed that the success of the total females was better than males in all regions of Ahvaz in their EFL achievement test. For instance, the means among humanities and science females was 13.18, 16 respectively, while it was 11.47 and 15 among males for the same majors. Again the total mean of females was 15.59 while it was 12.33 for total males in Ahvaz. Thus, it is evident from the given data that females performed better than males in the final exam (1387-1388) in all regions of Ahvaz. These results imply that gender is a factor which is concerned with EFL learning. Gender was found to have significant effect (P< 0.05, Sig= 0.00) on students’ EFL achievement test. The findings are consistence with findings of Huebner (1995), Linn and Hyde (1989), Chaves (2001), and Rammouz (2003) which suggested that females are better second language learners. These findings however revealed a significant interaction effect of gender on students’ achievement test, the effect sizes (humanities d= 0.06, science d= 0.01, and total d= 0.19) were relatively moderate and small respectively. Again the results of this study are congruent with findings of Rayan and Bachman (1992) who suggested that there was little differential performance by gender, the TOEFL did not demonstrate gender DIF, Zwick (2002) who stated that the means of females’ differences were slightly higher than those of males, and Rammouz (2003) who suggested that the percentage of success among females was 76.33%, 57.52%, 55.89%, 73.14%, 55.38% and 55.42% in Beirut, the North, the South, Mount Lebanon, Nabatiyé and the Bekaa respectively, while it was 63.61%, 52.11%, 52.52%, 67.09%, 54.64% and 53.15% among males for the same regions. All the above findings showed that there was a

small

effect size between males’ and females’ performances. This study has some limitations. First of all, the number of participants was rather limited; secondly, they were all from the same city. Caution should therefore be exercise in generalising the current findings beyond this student population, or indeed to other wider population. A bigger sample size might have yielded slightly different. The third limitation which can be mentioned here is related to the final test used in the article. Much more time, energy, and study are needed in order to prepare a more valid and reliable test. It is important that EFL instructors be informed more with the gender effects. They need to be more familiar with the differences between males and females. The findings of this study help instructors to select their instructional strategies more effectively related to gender.

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In view of the quantitative findings of this study, it is clear that female students in humanities and science majors outscored that of the males’. The total female students outperformed the total male students. This study indicates that however there is a significant difference between males’ and females’ performance, the magnitude of the difference and the strength of association between the total males and the total females is relatively small. Therefore, gender could have a small effect on students’ EFL achievement tests. For further research, this study is needed to be done in different Types of context students. The effects of gender could be investigated more with treatment and control groups. Some research with learners with different ages could be helpful to find the best answers to the above research questions. Another interesting approach could be investigating whether it is necessary to present the content of the curriculum of EFL classes in accordance with gender.

References Bacon, S. M. C., & Finnemann, M.D. (1992), Sex differences in self-reported beliefs about language learning and authentic oral and written input. Language learning, 42(4), 471495. Bernat, E., & Gvozdenko, I. (2005, June). Beliefs about language learning:knowledge, pedagogical implications and new research directions. TESL-EJ, 9(1), Al Retrieved on 12th July, 2006 fromhttp://tesl-ej.org/ej33/a1.html Bernat, E. & Lloyd, R. (2007). Exploring the Gender Effect on EFL Learners’ beliefs about Language Learning. Australian Journal of Educational & Developmental Psychology, 7, 79-91. Boyle, J. P. (1987). Sex differences in listening vocabulary.Language Learning, 37(2), 273284. Brimer, M. A. (1969). Sex differences in listening comprehension. Journal of Research and Development in Education, 9, 171-179. Burstall, C. (1975). Factors affecting foreign-language learning: A consideration of some relevant researchfindings, Language Teaching and Linguistic Abstract, 8: 5- 125. Burstall, C., Jamieson, M., Cohen, S., Hargreaves, M. (1974). Primary French in the Balance. NFER Publishing Company, Windsor, Berkshire. Catalán, R.M.J. (2003). “Sex differences in L2 vocabulary learning strategies”. International Journal ofApplied Linguistics, 13, 1: 54-77.

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Chavez, M. (2001).Gender in the language classroom. New York: McGraw Hill. Chang, W.C. (2004). Learning Goals and Styles by Gender—A Study of NUS Students. CDTL Brief. 7-1: 4-5. Clark, A., Trafford, J. (1995). Boys into modern languages: an investigation of the discrepancy in attitudes and performance between boys and girls in modern languages. Gender and Education 7, 315–325. Cole, N. S. (1997). The ETS gender study: how females and males perform in educational setting. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service. Collins, C., Kenway, J. & McLeod, J. (2000).Factors Influencing the Educational Performance of Males and Females in School and their Initial Destinations after Leaving School. Canberra: Commonwealth ofAustralia. Denno, D. (1982). Sex differences in cognition: A review and critique of the longitudinal evidence. Adolescence, 17, 779-788. Do¨ rnyei, Z., Clement, R. (2001). Motivational characteristics of learning different target languages: results of a nationwide survey. In: Do¨ rnyei, Z., Schmidt, R. (Eds.), Motivation and Second Language Acquisition. University of Hawai’i, Second Language Teac HI, p. 399–432. Eagly, A. H. (1987).Sex differences in social behaviour: A social-role interpretation. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Eagly, A. H., &Karau, S. (2002). Role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders. Psychological Bulletin, 109 (3), 573-598. Eccles, J., Adler, T.F., Meece, J. (1984). Sex differences in achievement: a test of alternate theories. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 46, 26–43. Ehrlich, S. (2001). Representing Rape: Language and Sexual Consent. London: Routledge. Erhman, M. And R. Oxford. (1989). Effects of sex differences, career choice, and psychological type on adult language learning strategies. Modern Language Journal 73, 3-13. Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic. Gray, J. (1992). Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus. US: HarperCollins. Green, J. (1992). Additional analyses of Puerto Rican strategy data. Unpublished manuscript. Mayaguez: University of Puerto Rico. Green, J. & Oxford, R. (1995). A closer look at learning strategies, L2 proficiency, and gender. TESOL uarterly, 29, 261-297. Halpern, D. F. (1986).Sex differences in cognitive abilities.Hilsdale: Erlbaum. Iranian EFL Journal

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Hismanoglu, M (2000). “Language Learning Strategies in Foreign Language Learning and Teaching”. The Internet TESL Journal, 6, 8. http://iteslj.org/ Articles/HismanogluStrategies.html Horwitz, E. K. (1999). Cultural and situational influences on foreign language learners' beliefs about language Howell, D. C. (1996). Statistical Me for Psychology (Third Edition). Duxbury Press: Belmont, Califo learning: A Review of BALLI Studies.System, 27(4), [Special Issue], 557-576rnia. Howell, D. C. (1996).Statistical Methods for Psychology (Third Edition). Duxbury Press: Belmont Hyde, J. S., & Linn, M. C. (1988). Gender differences inverbal activity: A metaanalysis. Psychological Bulletin, 104, 53-69. Jones, M. (1997). "Discourse roles, gender and language textbook dialogues: who learns what from John and Sally?" Gender and Education 9/4: 469-490. Kim, Y. M. (1995). The effect of gender and learning context on the use of language learning strategies. English Teaching, 50 (2), 331-345. Meece, J., Wigfield, A., Eccles, J. (1990). Predictors of math anxiety and its influence on young adolescents’ course enrolment intentions and performance in mathematics. Journal of Educational Psychology 82, 60–70. Noguchi, T. (1991).Questionnaire for learners.Tottori University, Tottori, Japan. Oh, M. T. (1996). Beliefs about language learning and foreign language anxiety: A study of American university students learning Japanese, Dissertation Abstracts International, The Humanities and Social Sciences, 57, 9, March. Oxford, R. (1993). Research on second language learning strategies.Annual review of applied linguistics, 13, 175-187. Oxford R. L., &Nyikos, M. (1989). Variables affecting choice of language learning strategies by university students. The Modern Language Journal, 73, 291-300. Pallant, J. (2001). SPSS Survival Manual: A Step Guide to Data Analysis Using SPSS for Windows (Version 10). Buckingham: Open University Press. Peacock, M. (2001). Pre-service ESL teachers’ beliefs about second language learning: a longitudinal study. system, 29(2), 177-195. Politzer, R. (1983). An exploratory study of self-reported language learning behaviours and their relationship to achievement. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 6, 54-65. Pritchard, R. (1990). The effects on cultural schemata on reading processing strategies. Reading Research Quarterly, 25, 273-295. Iranian EFL Journal

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Rammouz, A. (2003).Learning English as a Second Language: Ten Years of Student Achievement in the Lebanese Public School System. Al-Tarbouyeh Journal, 24, 26-29. Ryan, M. (1985). Intrinsic Motivation and Self-determination in Human Behaviour Plenum, New York. Rifkin, B. (2000). Revising beliefs about foreign language learning. Foreign Language Annals, 33(4), 394-420. Rua, P. L. (2006). The sex variable in foreign language learning: an integrative approach. PortaLinguarum. 6: 99-114. Ryan, K., & Bachman, L. (1992). Differential item functioning on two tests of EFL proficiency. Language testing, 9(1), 12-29. Swiatek, M. A., &Lupkowski-Shoplik, A. E. (2000). Gender differences in academic attitudes among gifted elementary school students. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 23(4), 360-77. Sy, B. (1995, May). Gender differences, perceptions on foreign language learning and language learning strategies. Paper presented at the Twelfth National Conference on TESOL in the ROC, Tung High University, Taiwan. Tannen, D. (1990). You just don’t understand: women and men in conversation. New York: William Morrow. Tercanlioglu, L. (2005). Pre-service EFL teachers’ beliefs about foreign language learning and how they relate to gender. Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology, 5-3(1), 145-162. Retrieved on 10th June, 2006 from Tran, T.V. (1988). Gender differences in English language acculturation and learning strategies among Vietnamese adults aged 40 and over in the United States.Gender Roles, 19, 747-758. Wainer, H., &Lukhele, R. (1997). How reliable are TOEFL scores? Educational and Psychological Measurement, 57(5), 741-759. Williams, M., Burden, R., Lanvers, U. (2002). ‘French is the language of love andstuff’: student perceptions of issues related to motivation in learning a foreign language. British Education Research Journal 28, 503–528. Zwick, R. (2002). Fair game? The use of standardized admissions tests in higher education. New York: RoutledgeFalmer.

Appendix

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Pre- university final exam

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Title Contrastive Analysis of English Language and Persian Language Prepositions Author Farzaneh Aminzadeh Arkhodi (M.A student) Islamic Azad University, Torbat-e-Heydarieh Branch, Iran

Biodata Farzaneh Aminzadeh Arkhodi M.A student at Islamic Azad University, Torbat-eHeydarieh Branch (IAU), Iran. She is currently teaching English in a private school, Taybad, Iran. Her main interests are e-learning, language teaching and sociolinguistics.

Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate if Iranian intermediate EFL learners have difficulty in using English prepositions after verbs. The differences between two languages were considered. As prepositions are one of the most problem making areas in language learning, the aim of this study is to show some of them. Since the area of prepositions is so broad, the researcher has chosen those verbs which have special prepositions and cause difficulty for EFL learners. For this purpose two tests were administered to 40 intermediate students majoring in English. In one of them, the learners were required to translate 30 Persian sentences into English. The sentences have verbs with special prepositions. In the other test, the learners were asked to read 30 English sentences and fill in the blank by using the correct answer from the given options. To determine the level of difficulty a hierarchy of difficulty was developed (Ziahosseiny, 1999). Then the number of errors on both perceptive and productive tests was counted and the percentage of errors on each verb was calculated. This essay is written on the assumption that Persian as a first language interferes with English and causes prepositional mistakes. By collecting and analyzing the data, L1 interference was clarified. The pedagogical implications are applicable for researchers, teachers and learners. Keywords: contrastive analysis, prepositions and prepositions after verbs, interference

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1. Introduction Mastering a language is hard enough. Languages are great instruments in communicating with another person, orally or written. English prepositions cause problems for learners of English. It is one of the most problematic parts to learn. This problem also exists for Iranian intermediate L2 learners. Even advanced learners of English find prepositions difficult. Contrastive analysis (CA) will be used as a method to compare English language with Persian language and find differences in the use of prepositions. Prepositions after verbs means those verbs which have special prepositions and one should not confuse them with phrasal verbs and also verbs which several prepositions come after them depending on the following nouns. Many intermediate Iranian learners of English have problems in the proper use of these prepositions. To diagnose such problems, CA as a branch of linguistic was a relatively sound basis. A brief description of the field is given by Fisiak (1981: p. 1): “Contrastive analysis may be roughly defined as a subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the comparison of two or more languages or subsystems of languages in order to determine both the differences and similarities between them”. CA is effective for diagnosing learner's errors, if it focuses on areas of slight relative difference which may cause due to transfer from the learners’ L1 (Lado, 1957). The level of difficulty in using English prepositions is indicated by Prator`s hierarchy of difficulty. These verbs fall in the sixth level of hierarchy of difficulty that is named split (Ziahosseiny, 1940). The purpose of this paper is therefore to define the difficulties that Iranian EFL learners face in the proper use of prepositions after verbs. It should be noted not to bring phrasal verbs into play. The verbs whose prepositions cause difficulty were searched in the Dictionary of English Prepositions translated and compiled by Behtash (1987). The verbs were found alphabetically. So the verbs from a-f were included in the questionnaires of the study and the rest of the verbs can be studied by another researcher. This research tries to contribute the benefit as the following: 1. Practical Benefits: a. The writer hopes that this study will help the readers understand the differences between English and Iranian prepositions after verbs. b. This research will give information to the next writers who want to analyze a related study. 2. Academic Benefits: a. The research can be used to increase the understanding of English and Persian prepositions after verbs.

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b. This research can be developed as a reference dealing with English and Persian prepositions after verbs. 1.1 Statement of the Problem Prepositions constitute 14% of all tokens produced in most languages. They are reported as yielding among the highest error class rates across various languages (Izumi et al, 2004). In their analysis of a small corpus of advanced-intermediate French as a Second Language (FSL) learner, Hermet et al. (2008) found that preposition choice accounted for 17.2 % of all errors. Prepositions can be seen as the most problematic. After observing and experiencing many difficulties on the part of using prepositions after verbs, the researcher has decided to develop a paper about the differences in English and Persian prepositions after verbs. 1.2 Research Questions To achieve the goals of the present study, the researcher has used the following questions: 1. Which source of errors has a more powerful role in the perception and production of the

prepositions after verbs? 2. Is there a difference between productive and perceptive knowledge of prepositions?

2. Literature Review 2.1 Prepositions What is a preposition? The Oxford Dictionary defines it as “1. One part of speech; an indeclinable word or particle serving to mark the relation between two notional words. 2. Any word or particle prefixed to another word. 3. The action of placing before; position of before or after (rare)” (1956, p. 1571). The definition of prepositions according to Matthews (1997): a word whose members come before a noun phrase and which indicates syntactic relations. 2.2 Contrastive Analysis CA is effective in the diagnosis and remediation of learner's errors, if it focuses on areas of slight relative difference which may tempt the learner to transfer from L1 (Lado, 1957). Preposition and phrasal verb errors are of three kinds: a) omission, b) insertion, c) use of the wrong preposition (Yarmohammadi, 1998). In this article, just the last one will be considered. The problem with prepositions after verbs is a clear example of native language interference. It can be linked to the strong version of CA. Strong version states that the degree of difficulty depends on the degree of differences. One problem with prepositions is that in English there are usually more prepositions than in Persian. It can be included in the sixth level of hierarchy of difficulty named split. In Persian, for example, the preposition /?æz/ can Iranian EFL Journal

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mean: from, in, by, over, of, through, than, by way of , because, out of, or belonging to. The Persian preposition /be/ can mean: to, in, into, at, on, of, with, upon, for, from, and as. One problem with these verbs is that they are learned as a unit, it means that they are used just with these prepositions in English. For example, English believes in while Persian believes to; English depends on while Persian depends to (Yarmohammadi, 1998). A number of problems occur because the pupils think that there is a one-to-one relationship between English and Persian where there is none. 2.3 Interference Behavioristic psychology has suggested that the principle of transfer is at work in learning. Transfer is of two basic types: positive or negative. Positive transfer occurs when the first learning is similar to the second one which facilitates learning L2. Negative transfer causes interference which happens when the first language is different from the second one. Interference impedes learning L2, i.e. L1 inhibits L2 learning (Ziahosseiny, 1999). CA is based on the assumption that second or foreign language learners transfer features of their L1 to their L2 utterances (Keshavarz, 2006). Fromkin, Rodman and Hyams (2003) claim our native language cannot be suppressed – it is transferred subconsciously. When we do not have strategies in L2 we turn to L1 for help.

3. Methodology In order to provide the quantitative data for the study, the before mentioned questionnaires were given to 20 students majoring in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). They were both male and female and of similar educational background, i.e., all were students in the third year. So as to check their performance on English prepositions after verbs, the researcher used two questionnaires, a perceptive test and a productive test. The receptive test consisted of 30 English fill in the blank sentences with four options asking students to fill the blank choosing the appropriate preposition (appendix A). The other test is the productive test consisted of 30 Persian sentences requiring students to translate them in English (appendix B). A table of new verbs and their translation was given (appendix C). These questionnaires were sent to students via e-mail. Twenty Iranian Intermediate EFL learners were included in the study. They had the same educational background; all of them were in the sixth term of the university. Factors

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such as age and sex were not taken into account. No special criterion was selected for choosing them. They were chosen randomly. 3.1 Procedure Two questionnaires were given to the participants, a perceptive test (appendix A) and a productive test (appendix B). The perceptive test consisted of 30 English fill in the blank sentences with four options asking students to fill the blank with the appropriate preposition. The other test is the productive test consisted of 30 Persian sentences requiring students to translate them into English. As some words might be unfamiliar to them, the verbs with their meanings were put in a table at the end of the questionnaire and the participants were asked to use that table instead of a dictionary (appendix C). These questionnaires were sent to students through e-mail and they were asked not to use dictionary for answering the questions. Clear instructions were given about how to answer the questions. Then the answers were analyzed to find the error frequencies and their sources.

4. Results and discussion The results from the questionnaires proved that Iranian pupils had more correct answers on their perceptive knowledge of prepositions than on their productive knowledge, see figures 1 and 2 below. The figures also show that most errors which the learners commit are due to their mother tongue interference. Where the learners have learned the prepositions after the verbs, they made more less errors on both parts (appendix D). If the frequency of the correct answers is decreased in both tests, the result will be 20.67. If the frequency of Persian equivalents of prepositions is decreased in both tests, the result will be 24.66. Students' perceptive knowledge of

Students' productive knowledge of

prepositions

prepositions

(1: correct- 2: Persian equivalent- 3: other)

(1: correct- 2: Persian equivalent-

3: other) 60

60

40

40

20

20

0

0 1

2

1

3

Figure 1

2

3

Figure 2 Iranian EFL Journal

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The frequencies of correct answers in both productive and perceptive tests are shown in figure 3. As it is clearly shown in this figure, the frequency of correct answers is higher in perceptive test than that in productive test. Figure 3: Frequency of correct answers in receptive and productive tests 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 1

3

5

7

9

11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29

Perceptive test Productive test

These results are based on very few students and the percentage rate might have come out differently if more students had participated. The fact that the pupils performed better in the first test was not surprising since it is common to understand a word before it can be produced. When learners lack knowledge they use their first language to fill in the gaps. Most errors which the learners have committed are because of their mother tongue interference called negative transfer. Sometimes transfer causes easiness and facilitates learning but on the part of prepositions after verbs it is not so. The reason is that because these verbs have especial prepositions, the learner should not use their mother tongue equivalents. When they do so there will be problems with the prepositions although it creates no problem on the part of understanding the massage. Students’ errors are more evident on the productive test which represent the learners have more difficulty in producing the appropriate prepositions. Production is more difficult than perception. The range of their correct answers has decreased from 53.33%, on receptive test, to 32.66%, on productive test. Learners had very few or even no difficulty in recognizing the prepositions they have been familiar with in both tests which are very few in numbers. For example the preposition after the verb ‘believe in’ is not mistaken as its Persian equivalent ‘believe to’ in the perceptive test. The result also shows that although students may be familiar with the required preposition, they may be unable to produce them correctly. The degree of errors increases in producing the prepositions after the verbs when the learners are not familiar with Iranian EFL Journal

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the prepositions. In this case, they will use their mother tongue equivalents. For example blush at, change for, deprive of, confer on, and brood on will be produced as blush from, change with, deprive from, confer to, and brood over respectively. In very few cases the sources of errors are something other than mother tongue interference e.g. guessing.

5. Conclusion To solve this problem, many experts in the field of second language learning and teaching have proposed solutions. To treat this problem appropriately, Krashen (1983) suggests that massive amount of ‘language input’, especially through reading, is the only effective approach to learning. Exposing learners to enough examples and texts will help them acquire the proper prepositions after verbs. English prepositions are difficult for Iranian learners like all other learners in the world. Often There are some prepositions that are particularly frequent in errors: to, in, at, of, for, from, about, on, by and with. The reason why they are confused with each other partly has to do with mother tongue interference. A less advanced learner will use more L1 knowledge when there is a lack of knowledge in the L2. This strategy results in positive or negative transfer depending on the similarities of the languages. Prepositions used in Persian sometimes have two or more equivalents in English, which also contributes to the complexity of the matter. There was a significant difference between pupils’ productive and perceptive skills. The results of the investigation proved that students performed better in the task that tested their perceptive knowledge of prepositions than the one that tried their productive skills. When learners had to produce a preposition in English that was unknown and unfamiliar they often transferred the incorrect Persian equivalent instead of other possible options. It is therefore necessary to expose learners to more input so that they can avoid collocational mistakes and become aware of language. The aim should be to transfer their perceptive skills to productive ones so the students can express themselves more accurately and with more confidence ( Liane Blom, 2006).

References Behtash, E. Z. (1987). Dictionary of English Prepositions. Amir-Kabir publication. Tehran. Blom, L. (2006). Swedish Problems with English Prepositions. Handledare Patricia Jonasson. Examinator Mari-Ann Berg.

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Fisiak, J. (ed.) (1981). Contrastive Analysis and the Language Teacher. Oxford: The Pergamon Institue of English. Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., and Hyams, N. ( 2003). An Introduction to Language. 7th ed. Boston: Thomson – Heinle. Hermet, M., Désilets, A., & Szpakowicz, S. (2008). Using the Web as a Linguistic Resource to Automatically Correct Lexico-Syntactic Errors. In ProceEdings of the LREC'08. Marrakech, Morroco. Izumi, E., Uchimoto, K. & Isahara, H. (2004). The Overview of the Speech Corpus of Japanese Learner English and Evaluation through the Experiment on Automatic Detection of Learners’ Errors. In LREC. Keshavarz, M. (2006). Contrastive Analysis & Error Analysis. Tehran: Rahnama Press. Krashen, S. D. (1983). The Natural approach: Language acquisition in the classroom. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Lado, R. (1957). Linguistics Across Cultures: Applied Linguistics for Language Teachers. University of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor. Matthews, P. H. (1997). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Oxford Dictionary. (1956). Oxford Dictionary Press. p. 1571. Yarmohammadi, L. (1998). A Contrastive Analysis of Persian and English. Payame Noor University publication. Ziahosseiny, S. M. (1999). A Contrastive Analysis of Persian and English & Error Analysis. Tehran: Nashr-e-Vira.

APPENDICES APPENDIX A Choose the appropriate preposition from the given options. 1. We will abide …… their decision. a) at

b) by

c) to

d) with

2. The jury acquitted him …… murder. a) at

b) from

c) of

d) on

3. We employ an expert to advice ….. new technology. a) for

b) on

c) over

d) about

4. His earnings are said to amount ….. 300000 $ per annum. a) to

b) on

c) at

d) with

5. He was beginning to get very annoyed ….. me about my carelessness. a) from

b) with

c) for

d) on

6. He assured himself ….. her safety. a) from

b) of

c)for

d) about

7. Guests are encouraged to avail ….the full range of hotel facilities.

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a) of

b) from

c) with

d) at

8. Many parents may balk …. the idea of paying 100$ for a pair of shoes. a) for

b) from

c) at

d) on

9. I do not believe …. hitting children. a) at

b) with

c) to

d) in

10. It was a title bestowed …. him by the king. a) for

b) to

c) on

d) at

11. She blushed furiously …. the memory of the conversation. a) with

b) from

c) at

d) for

12. He openly boast …. his skill as a burglar. a) of

b)to

c) at

d) for

13. You are not still brooding …. what he said, are you? a) about

b) over

c) for

d) to

14. She moved back home to care …. her elderly parents. a) from

b) at

c) for

d) to

15. We changed the car …. a bigger one. a) for

b) with

c) over

d) to

16. I do not feel I can comment …. their decision. a) on

b) about

c) over

d) for

17. An honorary degree was conferred …. him by the Oxford University in 1995. a) to

b) on

c) at

d) with

18. I congratulated them all …. their results. a) at

b) on

c) with

d) for

c) upon

d) at

19. It would depend …. class size. a) on

b) to

20. They were imprisoned and deprived …. their basic right. a) from

b) of

c) over

d) for

21. They would almost despair … ever having children. a) from

b) on

c) to

d) of

22. French differs …. English in this respect. a) from

b) with

c) on

d) upon

23. He divested himself …. his jacket. a) from

b) of

c) on

d) for

24. So you made a mistake, but there is no need to dwell …. it. a) on

b) around

c) over

d) about

25. He became embroiled …. a dispute with his neighbors. a) in

b) at

c) on

d) with

26. He never allows work to encroach …. his family life. a) from

b) in

c) at

d) on

27. You can exchange your currency …. dollars in the hotel.

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‫‪c) with‬‬

‫‪d)for‬‬

‫‪b) from‬‬

‫‪a) around‬‬

‫‪28. She wrote to expatiate …. second world war completely.‬‬ ‫‪c) on‬‬

‫‪d) in‬‬

‫‪b)over‬‬

‫‪a) about‬‬

‫‪29. She expanded all her efforts …. the care of home and children.‬‬ ‫‪c) with‬‬

‫‪d) at‬‬

‫‪b) on‬‬

‫‪a) for‬‬

‫‪30. Butterflies feed …. the flowers of garden plants.‬‬ ‫‪d) on‬‬

‫‪c) to‬‬

‫‪b) from‬‬

‫‪a) with‬‬

‫‪APPENDIX B‬‬ ‫‪Instruction: Translate the below sentences into English. Use the verbs from the following table.‬‬ ‫‪.1‬‬

‫ما بايد به يکديگر وفادار باشيم‪.‬‬

‫‪.2‬‬

‫پليس او را از دزدی تبرئه کرد‪.‬‬

‫‪.3‬‬

‫والدينش او را درباره استفاده از کامپيوتر نصيحت کردند‪.‬‬

‫‪.4‬‬

‫مخارج زندگی آنھا بالغ بر ‪3000000‬تومان در ماه شد‪.‬‬

‫‪.5‬‬

‫او آزرده شد از اينکه بايد متن را دوباره بنويسد‪.‬‬

‫‪.6‬‬

‫ما به آنھا درباره تمام کردن به موقع کار اطمينان داديم‪.‬‬

‫‪.7‬‬

‫بايد از امکانات به درستی استفاده کنيم‪.‬‬

‫‪.8‬‬

‫احمد از جواب دادن طفره رفت‪.‬‬

‫‪.9‬‬

‫من به تحسين کردن بچه ھا اعتقاد دارم‪.‬‬

‫‪ .10‬جايزه نوبل توسط فدراسيون به او اعطا شد‪.‬‬ ‫‪ .11‬او شرمنده شد از کاری که انجام داده بود‪.‬‬ ‫‪ .12‬آنھا به مھارتھای فرزندشان می باليدند‪.‬‬ ‫‪ .13‬علی به تواناييھايش فکر نکرده بود‪.‬‬ ‫‪ .14‬او ھميشه از والدينش پرستاری می کند‪.‬‬ ‫‪ .15‬آنھا خانه شان را با يک خانه بزرگتر عوض کردند‪.‬‬ ‫‪ .16‬من درباره نحوه لباس پوشيدنت اظھار نظر نمی کنم‪.‬‬ ‫‪ .17‬اين لقب در سال ‪ 1870‬به او اعطا شد‪.‬‬ ‫‪ .18‬ما برای انجام کارھايمان به ديگران متکی بوديم‪.‬‬ ‫‪ .19‬آنھا از بازی کردن با دوستانشان محروم شدند‪.‬‬ ‫‪ .20‬از رسيدن به آرزوھايم نا اميد شدم‪.‬‬ ‫‪ .21‬رفتار احمد با رفتار خواھرش فرق دارد‪.‬‬ ‫‪ .22‬او خودش را از انجام کارھی زليد خالصکرد‪.‬‬ ‫‪ .23‬بايد درباره پيشنھاد شما فکر کنم‪.‬‬ ‫‪ .24‬تولدش را به او تبريک گفتم‪.‬‬ ‫‪ .25‬پرنده در دام صياد گرفتار شد‪.‬‬ ‫‪ .26‬مردم نبايد از قوانين تخطی کنند‪.‬‬ ‫‪ .27‬او اين سخنرانی را برگزار کرد تابه تفضيل دربارھتورم سخن بگويد‪.‬‬ ‫‪ .28‬شما ميتوانيد گندم ھايتان را فرش مبادله کنيد‪.‬‬ ‫‪ .29‬او نيمی از دارايی اش را برای فقرا خرج کرد‪.‬‬ ‫‪ .30‬گوسفندھا از علف تغذيه ميکنند‪.‬‬

‫‪80‬‬

‫‪Iranian EFL Journal‬‬

APPENDIX C Instruction: You can use this table as a dictionary. Abide : ‫وفادار بودن‬

Be annoyed … sth:

Acquit : ‫تبرئه کردن‬

Assure: ‫اطمينان دادن‬

Advise : ‫نصيحت کردن‬

Avail : ‫استفاده کردن‬

Amount : ‫ بالغ شٮن بر‬-‫رسيٮن به‬

Balk: ‫طفره رفتن‬

Believe: ‫اعتقاد داشتن به‬

Blush: ‫شرمنده شدن از‬

Bestow: ‫اعطا کردن به‬

Boast: ‫باليدن به‬

Brood: ‫فکر کردن درباره‬

Change: ‫عوض کردن با‬

Care:‫مراقبت کردن‬

Comment: ‫اظھار نظرکردن درباره‬

Confer:‫اعطا کردن به‬

Congratulate: ‫تبريک گفتن‬

Depend: ‫متکی بودن به‬

Deprive: ‫محروم کردن از‬

Despair: ‫نااميد شدن از‬

Differ: ‫فرق داشتن با‬

Divest: ‫ محروم کردن از‬-‫خالص کردن از‬

Dwell: ‫فکر کردن‬

Embroil: ‫گرفتار کردن در‬

Encroach: ‫تخطی کردن از‬

Exchange: ‫تعويض و مبادله کردن‬

Expatiate: ‫به تفضيل سخن طفتن يانوشتن ٮرباره چيزی‬

Expend: ‫خرج کردن برای‬

Feed: ‫تغذيه کردن از‬

APPENDIX D

‫آزرده شدن از کسی‬

Results, perceptive test:

1. We will abide …… their decision. a) at

b) by

(40%)

c) to (60%)

d) with

c) of (50%)

d) on

2. The jury acquitted him …… murder. a)

b) from (50%)

3. We employ an expert to advice ….. new technology. a) for (10%)

b) on (40%)

c) over

d) about (50%)

4. His earnings are said to amount ….. 300000 $ per annum. a) to (70%)

b) on

c) at (30%)

d) with

5. He was beginning to get very annoyed ….. me about my carelessness. a) from (10%)

b) with (70%)

c) for (10%)

d) on (10%)

c)for (20%)

d) about (20%)

6. He assured himself ….. her safety. a) from (10%)

b) of (50%)

7. Guests are encouraged to avail ….the full range of hotel facilities. a) of (40%)

b) from (30%)

c) with (20%)

d) at (10%)

8. Many parents may balk …. the idea of paying 100$ for a pair of shoes. a) for (10%)

b) from (30%)

c) at (30%)

d) on (30%)

9. I do not believe …. hitting children. a) at

b) with

c) to

d) in (100%)

10. It was a title bestowed …. him by the king. a) for (20%)

b) to (30%)

c) on (50%)

d) at

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11. She blushed furiously …. the memory of the conversation. a) with (30%)

b) from (10%

c) at (50%)

d) for (10%)

12. He openly boast …. his skill as a burglar. a) of (40%)

b)to

c) at (30%)

d) for (30%)

13. You are not still brooding …. what he said, are you? a) about (70%)

b) over (20%)

c) for

d) to (10%)

14. She moved back home to care …. her elderly parents. a) from (30%)

b) at

c) for (70%)

d) to

15. We changed the car …. a bigger one. a) for (30%)

b) with (50%)

c) over

d) to (20%)

16. I do not feel I can comment …. their decision. a) on (100%)

b) about

c) over

d) for

17. An honorary degree was conferred …. him by the Oxford University in 1995. a) to (50%)

b) on (40%)

c) at

d) with (10%)

18. I congratulated them all …. their results. a) at

b) on (40%)

c) with (20%)

d) for (40%)

19. It would depend …. class size. a) on (100%)

b) to

c) upon

d) at

20. They were imprisoned and deprived …. their basic right. a) from (30%)

b) of (70%)

c) over

d) for

21. They would almost despair … ever having children. a) from (30%)

b) on

c) to

d) of (70%)

22. French differs …. English in this respect. a) from (100%)

b) with

c) on

d) upon

23. He divested himself …. his jacket. a) from (50%)

b) of (30%)

c) on (20%0

d) for

24. So you made a mistake, but there is no need to dwell …. it. a) on (60%)

b) around (10%)

c) over

d) about (30%)

25. He became embroiled …. a dispute with his neighbors. a) in (60%)

b) at(20%)

c) on (20%)

d) with

26. He never allows work to encroach …. his family life. a) from

b) in (50%)

c) at (10%)

d) on (40%)

27. You can exchange your currency …. dollars in the hotel. a) around

b) from

c) with (60%)

d)for (40%)

28. She wrote to expatiate …. second world war completely. a) about (60%)

b)over (10%)

c) on (30%)

d) over

29. She expanded all her efforts …. the care of home and children. a) for (40%)

b) on (40%)

c) with (10%)

d) at (10%)

30. Butterflies feed …. the flowers of garden plants. a) with (20%)

b) from (30%)

c) to

d) on (50%)

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Title A Student-Centred Literature Class: A Step towards a Less Stressful Literary Experience in Language Classes Authors Parviz Birjandi (Ph.D) Allameh Tabataba’i University Sarvenaz Khatib (Ph.D candidate) Allameh Tabataba’i University

Biodata Parviz Birjandi, professor holding a Ph.D. in English education; minor: Research methods and statistics from the University of Colorado. He is currently the Dean of the College of Foreign Languages and Persian Literature in the Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch. He has published a number of articles in the area of TEFL and is the author of English textbooks for high school and pre-university levels, five university textbooks and four practice textbooks. Sarvenaz Khatib is a Ph.D. candidate of TEFL at Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran. Her research interests include the use of literature in EFL contexts, second language acquisition and intercultural competence.

Abstract The present study attempts to examine the efficacy of a student-centred approach to implementation of literature in EFL contexts. To this aim, 34 Iranian undergraduate students, 24 girls and 10 boys, majoring in English Translation Studies were selected to constitute the participants of this study. They attended an English literature class in which 22 poems, 3 short stories and a play were read and discussed. As the goal of the researcher was to observe the effect of the reader-oriented literature teaching methodology in the learners’ anxiety levels, a 25-itwem anxiety scales was devised and administered once prior to the experimentation and again after the completion of it. The statistical analyses revealed a significant decrease in the mean of anxiety levels of participants after the completion of the treatment, signifying the success of the introduced methodology in lowering inhibition towards literary texts in learners. Keywords: Student-centred class, Anxiety, Anxiety scale, EFL literature contexts. Iranian EFL Journal

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1. Introduction In recent years the proponents of using literature as a teaching material in EFL/ESL contexts have attempted to enumerate a number of advantageous outcomes of such a use in language classes (Brumfit & Carter, 2000; Parkinson & Reid Thomas, 2000; Lazar, 1993). Collie and Slater (1994), for example, list authenticity, language and cultural enrichment and personal involvement as the most marked benefits teaching and reading literature in language classes can bring about. The truth is that disregarding all other peculiar aspects of literature, the cultural familiarisation and heuristic readings of learners alone suffice to candidate literary texts as eligible materials in the recurrent communicative methods of language teaching. In the thriving field of Interlanguage Pragmatics, for instance, one of the subsets of pragmatic learning of EFL learners is now known to be the sociopragmatic aspect, comprised of knowledge of social and cultural norms and conventions of the target community (Kasper & Roever, 2004). Scholars in the field of ELT are now viewing the inclusion of teaching pragmatics in EFL contexts as indispensible. Soler and Martinez-Flor (2008) assert that indispensability of attending to pragmatic aspect of language in developing learners’ communicative competence, known to be the core of language proficiency in recent theories of language teaching/learning (Ellis, 2008). In such a context, literature can be used as a means of revealing the cultural and social aspects of the target culture and hence, implicitly familiarising learners with intricacies of the culture of the community the language of which they are learning. Moreover, as pointed by Lazar (1993), literature stimulates student inferences by involving them in the process of reading. The multiplicity of layers embedded in literary texts and their meanings require students to take part in a heuristic quest for interpretations and meanings. It is evident how this personal involvement and mental engagement leads to beneficial outcomes such as a more flourished critical thinking ability (Halpem, 1999) and an extended application of metacognitive processing of the input. However, in spite of all benefits that can be resulted from using literary texts as teaching material in EFL classes, relevant studies in the field seem to fail in offering teachers a strong incentive for such a use. A number of reasons can be thought of as effective in this rather cold reception of literature by language teachers. Generally, factors affecting this disregard of

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literature as a source of material in language classes can roughly be categorised as teacherrelated and student-related factors. Most importantly, in many cases education systems and teachers have not been quite successful in implanting a love for and appreciation of literature at schools; unenthusiastic and mechanic approach of teachers towards literature in students’ native language has led to a sort of resistance in appraisal of and communication with literary texts in a foreign language as well. It is only evident that concentrating on a subject not necessarily ‘likable’ by students can turn into an even more arduous task when done in another language. Amongst teacherrelated factors, lack of enough training and unawareness of appropriate methodologies and approaches to the effective implementation of literary texts in language teaching contexts has created reluctance in EFL teachers to consider literature as a fruitful material for language teaching. The anxiety that reading and discussing literature gives to language teachers and learners is one of the most influential psychological barriers to rethinking the role literature can have in EFL syllabi (Showalter, 2003). With the rapid propulsion of Educational Psychology as an area of study that focuses on social, emotional and behavioural parameters in learners affecting learning, examining the nature and causes of anxiety as a remarkable psychological factor in learning processes gains great significance (Child, 2004). Anxiety is defined by Moreno (2010) as “a negative affective state that involves a vague, highly unpleasant feeling of fear and apprehension” (p. 354), high degrees of which debilitates students and impedes the easy and natural flow of learning. Although anxiety can be classified into different categories depending on its consistency of existence and degree, the present study restricts its scope to an observation of state anxiety, concentrating on situational anxiety experienced in literature classes only (Brown, 2007). When it comes to reading and discussing literary texts in language classes, learners can become uneasy or anxious by a number of different factors including tension of having a correct interpretation of a text and being able to reach a full and acceptable understanding of it. This psychological discomfort not only leads to a lack of orientation towards reading literature, but also causes a considerable decrease in learners’ motivation for approaching literary texts or establishing a personal relationship with them (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010). Furthermore, anxiety has been proved to correlate with achievement in language learning contexts, as well as in all other learning settings (Horwitz, 2001); this incompetency in achieving the desired outcome can in turn set an even greater affective filter towards literature in learners.

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Congruent to the researchers’ firm belief in beneficial results of using literary texts in EFL contexts, the present study was an attempt to examine a teaching methodology with the hope of reducing the recurrently felt anxiety of students in literature classes. It was strongly held by the researchers that application of a student-centred pedagogy can put learners in a leading position where they can take charge of their own learning and thus lower the tension they feel in subject-centred or teacher-centred learning situations, in which they feel obliged to perform up to far-fetched criteria. In such an approach, ‘literary competence’ (Brumfit, 1989) was not dwelled upon as a prerequisite for excel at literature classes, but rather a type of competence reachable by different students in their own terms and at different paces. In addition, the proposed methodology relied in a belief that what lies in literature, particularly important for language classes, is far greater than its mere literary qualities and that the exploration of different linguistic, social, historical and cultural dimensions of literature is only made possible through a close interaction of readers with literary texts. Hence, this study put an effort in observing the efficacy of a student-centred approach to teaching literature in reducing anxiety levels in EFL learners commonly experienced in literature classes. In the case of lowered inhibition and apprehension in contact with English literary texts as a result of the proposed methodology one psychological drawback of using literature in EFL educational contexts, learner anxiety, can be securely eliminated.

2. Materials and Method 2.1. Participants 34 Iranian undergraduate university students, 24 girls and 10 boys, majoring in Translation Studies at Allameh Tabataba’i University in Tehran constituted the participants for this study. These students were between 20 to 25 years of age and were all in their fourth academic semester. They had all been already acquainted, to some extent, with English literature since the course in which the experiment was run, Introduction to Literature 1, was the fourth course devoted to a study of English literary texts of different genres. Their prior experience of and familiarity with English literature, along with the fact that all students were proficient enough to carry out oral debates in English made them a suitable sample for this study. Thus, through the procedures followed in this experiment the fluctuations in the level of anxiety they customarily experienced in English literature classes could be comparatively observed. As some of these participants failed to complete one or both of the questionnaires they were excluded from the final statistical procedures, however, they continued to remain active

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members of the group throughout the experiment. As a result, the attention of the researcher was focused on the results obtained from 27 students, 19 girls and 8 boys, as defining in the outcome of the study. 2.2. Instruments Anxiety Questionnaire. To compare participants’ experienced anxiety in literature classes and during their talking about English literary texts a 25-item anxiety scale was devised. This questionnaire contained statements regarding the emotional pressure students underwent while discussing ideas about literature, and they were asked to specify the degree to which they agreed with the statement by choosing one of the 5 options ranging from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree. This anxiety questionnaire was piloted and revised, and the final version of it was calculated to have a reliability of .91. This questionnaire was administered twice, one as a pre-experimental and the other as post-experimental instrument of measuring the anxiety level in the participants prior and after the experimentation. Literary Text. As the concern of this study was an observation of students’ experienced anxiety while reading and discussing English literature, literary texts of different genres were chosen to be read and discussed in the class. To this aim, 22 poems, 3 short stories and a one-act play were selected as the teaching material of this course. These literary pieces were all written in English and their selection was because of their conformity to a number of criteria of interest to the researcher: they were considered to be at the right level of difficulty, enjoying intriguing themes and plots and were mostly open to in-class discussions and exchange of opinions. 2.3. Procedure As the aim of this study was an observation of EFL students’ anxiety fluctuations during literature classes as a result of different teaching methodologies, the devised anxiety scale was administered on the very first session of the course. As mentioned earlier, the participants of this study had all been previously exposed to English literary texts in at least 3 of their prior courses, and therefore, the anxiety scale could estimate the approximate level of anxiety they customarily felt in literature classes, impacted by the common teaching methodologies. The syllabus designed for this course was comprised of literary texts of different genres of poetry, short story and play, and the exclusion of novels was due to class time constraints only. As pointed by McKay (1986) and Brumfit (1989), using a literary text with highly complex linguistic qualities or one reflecting remote cultural ideas and conventions from what our EFL learners are familiar with leads to an unsuccessful and in vain application of Iranian EFL Journal

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literature in language classes. Thus care was taken in selection of the literary texts in order to ascertain their linguistic suitability regarding participants’ language proficiency level and cultural relevance. Moreover, the chosen texts enjoyed a variety of themes and tackled with different subjects including nature, love, death, art and others, a versatility that could stop the class from turning into a monotone, tedious routine. Because of the rich lexical density of literary texts, and the inherent complexity of literature, poetry in particular, students were asked to read the texts at home and this provided them with a chance to concentrate on unfamiliar vocabulary items and to proceed reading in their own terms and paces away from the pressure of teacher evaluation and being compared to more advanced or faster-reading classmates. They were also asked to write down their perceptions and interpretations of every assigned literary text and this helped them think about the text and have a something to say about it in the class already prepared; although they were not required to read from their notes, the thought about and written points about the texts helped them avoid the intimidation of delivering an improvised commentary. However, after a few sessions the students observably showed more relaxed attitudes and presence in the class, and therefore the instructor surprised them with unseen manageable literary pieces in the class at times. In those occasions different strategies were employed, including asking the students to go through certain paragraphs or lines at first and then try to foretell the probable twists, chain of events and endings. They shared their view and opinions with other classmates and the teacher and this exchange created interesting debates; the talk was carried out after reading the text fully as well. The class started by volunteer students talking about the literary text at hand by saying what he had understood of it and how he liked or disliked it. Other students helped them complete their provided summaries and paraphrases, agreeing or disagreeing with their classmates’ interpretations and ideas. At first, students were encouraged to concentrate on “global meanings” (Parkinson & Reid Thomas, 2000. only. Knowing that they are not required to get involved in the literary technicalities of texts right away, even weaker students felt more secure to talk about the general gist of the literary text and to express personal opinions and guesses. Later, students were asked to voice the feelings and reactions aroused in them by the text and shared viewpoints with the classmates. Meanwhile, the instructor controlled the turn-takings and geared the pace and led the direction of discussions by posing a variety of questions relevant to the literary text on different layers. It is noteworthy to emphasise one of the peculiarities of this teaching methodology which caused a divergence of this class from the students’ previously experienced literature classes: the participants were Iranian EFL Journal

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assured that, within the context of their class, what they had to say about the text mattered both to the teacher and their classmates and that it would not be disregarded as baseless or unworthy just because they are not academically sound or literarily unscholarly. Nevertheless, as the academic context of the class demanded for the study of literature as content rather than a mere language enhancement tool, literariness of the texts needed to be elaborated on as well. Therefore, in this phase of the class the teacher started clarifying the complexities of the text by first unravelling the figurative meaning of the text (Lazar, 1993). One of the focal concerns in this teaching methodology was an effort put in the development of a close rapport between the students and the texts at hand in order to create maximum involvement and engagement in them as readers of and ‘responders’ to literature. Elaboration on extra-linguistic information and delicacies of the literary text they were required to read was believed to enhance the clarity of the piece and thus lighten the burden of the students throughout the task of communicating with the text. These clarifications about social, historical, cultural and in some instances biographical information relevant to the text and the author in turn paved the path of reading the texts for the students and modified the tension to a noticeable degree. The students were then asked to rephrase, modify or change the interpretations and ideas they had initially expressed about the literary piece and to discuss vague points, unexpected analyses and controversial viewpoints of that piece of literature (Carter & Long, 1990). The teacher was ready to aid them in the cases of misunderstandings or when more explanation was demanded by the students. This methodology was maintained for 16 sessions and then the same anxiety scale administered at the beginning of the course was employed again to examine if there had been any changes in the anxiety level of students as a result of the newly introduced methodology in their literature class. 2.4. Statistical Analysis In order to observe possible differences in the anxiety level of the participants in literature classes and when reading and discussing English literature as a result of the intervention, a paired-samples t-test was conducted by SPSS software version 18.

3. Results As demonstrated in Table 1 below, there was a statistically significant decrease in the mean of anxiety levels of participants after the completion of the treatment. The means of anxiety

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level prior and post-experimentation were 70.11 and 61.81 respectively. The mean decrease in anxiety level was 8.29 with a 95% confidence interval. In order to find out the relative magnitude of the differences between means, the eta squared statistics was calculated to be 0.25, indicating a large effect size. Table 1: Paired Samples Statistics Mean

N

Std. Deviation

Std. Error Mean

Pre

70.1111

27

17.43854

3.35605

Post

61.8148

27

18.48500

3.55744

Table 2: Paired Samples Test Paired Differences 95% Confidence

Mean Pre - Post

Std.

Std.

Interval of the

Deviatio

Error

Difference

n

Mean

Lower

Upper

Sig. (2t

8.296 14.37363 2.76621 2.61028 13.98231 2.999

df

tailed)

26

.006

30

4. Conclusions In spite of the promising findings of research on the fruitfulness of using literature in language teaching, there are still hesitations in language educators for the inclusion of literary texts in their EFL/ESL syllabi. The movement of communicative language teaching has raised the significance of communicative competence to its apexin language teaching methodologies. While many language instructors continue to seek for appropriate tasks and curricula for incorporating communication in teaching/learning contexts, literature as a major communication-triggering tool is still largely neglected as a suitable material to be implemented in EFL contexts. The most conspicuous characteristic of communicative tasks is that they can involve student in negotiation of meaning and establishments of effective conversations. The unique lure of literature allows for a variety of different in-class conversational tasks which can engage learners in collaborative development of interpretations and active exchange of stances. Meanwhile, as stated by Collie and Slater (1994) the general language proficiency of students can be enhanced as a result of encounter with the rich abundance of lexical and grammatical items in a literary text. Therefore, even if the rich literary content of these texts are not the target of learning, they can still be useful material for elevating language proficiency of the EFL learners (Paesani, 2011). Iranian EFL Journal

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Furthermore, learning any language can turn into a more meaningful process once students begin to become acquainted with exclusive or shared cultural conventions and norms of the target community and its people. After all most of us do believe in the fact that learning a new language is learning a new culture. Literature, as a partial mirror of a people’s cultural and social behaviour, can act as a rout that hastens the familiarity of learners with the target culture and norms by providing a real image of the flow of life in their society and the apparent as well as concealed corners of cultural norms and agreements. Owing to its indirect statement of themes and complex stylistics, literature can involve readers in processes of critical thinking and thus empowers them to approach subject matters logically and critically. The thought-provoking nature of literature can invite learners to develop the ability of close observation and to be in quest of justifications ‘beyond the surface’ (Bowel & Kemp, 2002). In spite of all the beneficial qualities of literature, however, there are still a number of arguments against using literary texts in language teaching contexts. One of them, on which this study rests, is the psychological uneasiness that reading literature imposes on learners who might find themselves unprepared or technically unequipped for such a demanding task. This study examined the effect of a student-centred literature class teaching methodology to find out whether the anxiety students commonly feel in contact with English literary texts reduces as a result of the techniques applied in this class. Contrary to the teacher-centred or subject-centred classes of literature, this methodology promotes the shift of control from the teacher to the students as active participants and leaders of the course. The teacher acted as a facilitator and conductor of the flow, while the students took charge of progression of discussions about literary texts both before and after the teacher’s explanation of them. The results of this study indicate a significant decrease in the level of students’ anxiety after the completion of the experimentation. A point to remember is that, in most cases, reading literature even in one’s native language seems more demanding a task than tacking with non-literary texts; therefor, the pressure of reading literary texts in a foreign language appears to be more intimidating to EFL learners. It is of utmost importance for language teachers to take care in assuring students that literature is not necessarily a subject that needs specialised information and education to approach and thus out of their reach. In EFL contexts the primary use of literary texts with the goal of involving students in active reading and oral production, and the task of concentrating on literary aspects and analyses proceeds later as the secondary concern only. Hence, the selection of appropriate material turns into a very focal issue once we decide to Iranian EFL Journal

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implement literature in our language classes. As stated by Lazar (1993), students’ linguistic proficiency, their cultural backgrounds and expectations and their literary backgrounds are all relevant defining criteria to have in mind when teachers are looking for and selecting literary texts targeted for their EFL learners. In short, with an appropriate approach to learners as capable individuals whose ideas and statements are worthy and well-heard, along with a careful choice of literary texts suitable to the class’s and students’ needs and interests the ambience of our classrooms will naturally be far less stressful and inhibiting to the learners, inviting them to take part in reading and discussing the texts more willingly and comfortably.

References Bowell, T. and Kemp, G. (2002). Critical Thinking: a concise guide. London: Routledge. Brown, H. D. (2007). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (fifth edition). New York: Pearson Education, Inc. Brumfit, C. (1989). A Literary Curriculum in World Education in Carter, R., Walker, R. and Brumfit, C. (Eds.), Literature and the Learner: Methodological Approaches. London: Modern English Publications. Brumfit, C. J. & Carter, R. A. (2000).Literature and Language Teaching (seventh edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Carter, R. & Long, M. N. (1990). The Web of Words: Exploring literature through language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Child, D. (2004). Psychology and the Teacher (seventh edition). London: Continuum. Collie, L. & Slater, S. (1994). Literature in the Language Classroom (seventh edition). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Eggen, P. and Kauchak, D. (2010) Educational Psychology (Eighth Edition). New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc. Ellis, R. (2008). The Study of Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Halpern, D. F., (1999).New Directions for Teaching and Learning.Jossey-Bass Publishers. Horwitz, E. K. (2001). Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (21), pp. 112–126. Cambridge University Press Kasper, G., &Roever, C. (2004).Pragmatics in Second Language Learning. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook of Research in Second Language Teaching and Learning. NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Lazar, G. (1993). Literature and Language Teaching: A guide for teachers and trainers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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McKay, S. (1986). Literature in the ESL Classroom in Brumfit, C. J & Carter, R. A. (Eds.): Literature and Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Moreno, R. (2010). Educational Psychology. New York: Wiley & Sons, Inc. Paesani, K. (2011). Research in Language-Literature Instruction: Meeting the Call for Change? Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 31, pp. 161–181. Cambridge University Press. Parkinson, B. & Reid Thomas, H. (2000).Teaching Literature in a Second Language. Edinburgh: MPG Books Ltd. Showalter, E. (2003). Teaching Literature. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Soler, E. A. & Martinez-Flor, A. (2008) (Eds.). Investigating Pragmatics in Foreign Language Learning, Teaching and Testing. London: Cromwell Press Ltd.

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Title A Cross-Disciplinary Analysis of Thematic Structure of Dissertation Abstracts Authors Saleh Arizavi (M.A) Shahid Chamran University, Ahwaz, Iran Hossein Shokouhi (Ph.D) Shahid Chamran University, Ahwaz, Iran Seyyed Ahmad Mousavi (M.A) Tehran Payam-e-Noor University, Tehran, Iran

Biodata Saleh Arizavi M.A. in ELT from Shahid Chamran University of Ahwaz, Ahwaz, Iran. His field of interest is applied linguistics, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, teaching academic writing, and systemic functionalism. Hossein Shokouhi associate professor in Applied Linguistics at Shahid Chamran University of Ahwaz, Iran. His research interest includes discourse and conversation analysis second language acquisition linguistics neuroscience of language teaching of English to speakers of other languages. He is currently a Lecturer in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) at Deakin University, Australia. Seyyed Ahmad Mousavi M.A. in ELT of Tehran Payame-Noor University, Tehran, Iran. His field of interest is applied linguistics, discourse analysis, gender differences in TEFL.

Abstract The ways by which the academic texts are investigated differ from time to time with legacies of each tradition influencing the subsequent approaches. One of the approaches that has not lost its favor ever since it was established is the Australian Systemic Functional tradition. Based on the descriptions provided by this tradition, in this study, the thematic structure (Halliday, 1994) of the gap indication move and the Introduction section (Swales, 2004) of 120 dissertation abstracts from six disciplines was investigated at two levels, i.e. choice of theme type and thematic progression. The simple topical theme was recognized as the typical theme of the rhetorical units in focus across the six disciplines. With respect to the thematic progression, the theme-reiteration and zig-zag patterns

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were found to be the characteristic patterns. These results indicate that the language of abstracts is remarkably factual and far from abstraction. Keywords: thematic structure, thematic progression, dissertation abstracts, gap indication move

1. Introduction One way of analyzing academic texts is examining their functional meanings. One of these functional aspects is examining the textual meaning (or ‘metafunction’ to use Halliday’s (1994) term). In English, textual meaning is expressed by means of the order that constituents are given in the clause. Textual meaning assigns two functional components, i.e. Theme and Rheme. Theme is identified by first position in the clause. It should be noted that the first position in the clause is not what defines the Theme; it is the means whereby the function of Theme is realized in the grammar of English. To keep the readers of a specific field interested in following the text we write, we should take account of the standards sanctioned by the expert members of the target discourse community (D. C) One way of accomplishing this is using the proper Themes in the proper positions in the clause. Studying the thematic structure is a way of signifying the convoluted relations between Themes in a text, and a way of reflecting the framework of the text (Jia-po & Bin, 2006:75). It is hypothesized that exploring the thematicity might have a fundamental role in the identification of rhetorical units of the dissertation abstracts. Previous studies on abstracts have mainly focused on the rhetorical structure of abstracts. Thus far, the link between the rhetorical moves (Swales, 2004) of the dissertation abstracts and their functional linguistic realizations has not received much momentum. Pho (2008:232) points out that there are a few studies that have investigated the linguistic features or the link between the macro-structures and their linguistic realizations in the abstracts. Therefore, for novice non-native writers of English to gain insight into a more comprehensive understanding of writing an abstract, it is indispensable that we base our analyses on an entrenched, functional, and multidimensional linguistic theory that can account for both semantic and grammatical aspects of language. In this study, a functional approach, which includes both semantic and linguistic accounts, will be pursued. Pertinent to this study is the investigation of the thematic structure which is claimed to have been applied much less to the analysis of written language than to the spoken language (Fries, 2009:11). Except for Lorés (2004), other researchers who have attended to the linguistic features of

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abstracts (Martín-Martín, 2003; Tahririan & Jalilifar, 2004; Samraj, 2005; Pho, 2008) have scarcely based their linguistic analyses on a well-grounded functional linguistic theory along with the investigation of the rhetorical structure. Lorés (2004) states that the function of an abstract will determine both its global structure and its linguistic realization (p. 281). Following this, we can hypothesize that there is an intricate interaction between the global structure and its linguistic realization. This study aims to shed light on the importance of the concepts of Theme and thematic progression (TP) as two-fold guiding means for understanding and producing the purported message of the texts. It has been observed (Fries, 1983:8) that different genres are structured differently at the level of Theme. Alternatively, it is possible to discern that there is a relationship between Theme types and TP, and the rhetorical units of a defined genre which ultimately leads to the characterization of that genre. Particularly, the thematic structure of the Introduction section of the abstracts following IMRC/D (Introduction, Methods, Results, Conclusion/Discussion) structure and the rhetorical Move 2 of the abstracts, which indicates a gap in the related literature, complying with CARS (Create A Research Space) structure (Swales, 2004), are examined.

2. Theoretical background In the Theme system, the clause is configured into two functional components: Theme and Rheme. Specifically, one element in the clause is assigned as the Theme. This then combines with the remainder (Rheme) so that the two parts together constitute a message. Halliday (1994:39) conceptualizes Theme as a clause-initial, and Rheme as the development of Theme. In other words, while the Theme is the element that functions as the “starting-point for the message: it is what the clause is about” (ibid) and in this sense it typically conveys familiar or given information, the Rheme is the part of the clause in which the message is developed and “typically contains unfamiliar or new information” (Eggins, 1994, p.275). According to Eggins (1994), one important system of the thematic structure is the choice of type of Theme. Concerning this system, three different types of elements can get to be Theme in a clause. They can be ‘topical’ (or experiential) elements, ‘interpersonal’ elements, and ‘textual’ elements. Topical Theme refers to the element which occurs in first position in a clause and to which a Transitivity function can be assigned. Interpersonal Theme also refers to the fronted position clause element and to which a Mood label can be designated. Textual

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Theme refers to the elements, which “do not express any interpersonal or experiential meaning, but which do important cohesive work in relating the clause to its context” (p. 281). Eggins (1994) also states that every clause has only one thematic element which must be a topical Theme. However, it is common for a clause to contain a sequence of Themes, with often several textual and/or interpersonal Themes occurring before the obligatory Theme. This is labeled ‘multiple Themes’. Besides topical, interpersonal, textual, and multiple Themes, there is also elliptical Theme which is not physically found at the thematic position of the clause, but which has to be inferred and included in a grammatical analysis. Another important system of thematic structure refers to Theme markedness which depends on conflation of the Theme constituent with different Mood and Transitivity constituents. This system includes unmarked and marked Themes. The former is when the element that is a Theme conflates with the Mood structure constituents, such as: Subject, Finite, Predicator and Wh-element. The latter refers to the conflation of the Theme with “any other constituent from the Mood system”. The commonest type of marked Theme is when the Theme conflates with a circumstantial Adjunct (Eggins, 1994, p. 296). Also, according to Eggins (1994), the importance of choosing marked Themes relies on the effective signaling the purpose of the clauses, therefore marked Themes add coherence and emphasis to the text. In sum, the choice between marked and unmarked Themes contribute to the ‘thematic structure of the text” (ibid.). Still, a third category distinguishes the predicated Themes from the non-predicated Themes. Besides the important aspects related to thematic Structure mentioned above, it is worth mentioning the way Theme and Rheme are used to organize the information in the text. The thematic development of a message can be perceived through the way thematic elements succeed each other through the three main Theme patterns: a) Theme re-iteration pattern; b) zig-zag pattern; c) multiple Theme. Eggins (1994) and Halliday’s (1994) categorization of Theme types is adopted in this study since they afford space for the optional and obligatory elements in the Theme position, leading to the construction of multiple Theme. This is completely different from the European functionalism, for which any Theme type, except for the topical Theme, in the initial position is regarded as marked Theme (Martínez, 2003, pp. 108-109).

3. Review of the literature

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It was pointed out earlier that a number of researchers have analyzed the rhetorical structure of RA abstracts; however, not many have attempted to analyze them based on the descriptions of Systemic Functional Linguistics. Among this minority, Ghadessy (1999) and Lorés (2004) have directly addressed the thematic organization of abstracts. Nevertheless, the pioneering studies in this regard, as cited in Lorés (2004:289), are those of Nwogu (1990) and Nwogu and Bloor (1991) in which they analyzed the TP of different sections of RAs. In these studies, it was revealed that there is a tendency for abstracts to display both simple linear (the zigzag) and constant (theme re-iteration) patterns. Employing Halliday’s (1994) taxonomy of Theme/Rheme, Ghadessy`s (1999) analysis revealed that although the writers used a variety of different linguistic forms for the realization of the Theme of the clauses in their abstracts, a common method of development was established through the Theme selection (p. 141). He also found that the writers mostly tended to use simple and marked Themes in the clauses (p. 148). Ghadessy concluded that the choice of appropriate points of departure for the clauses is a powerful and realistic way of maintaining some of the essential characteristics of the texts that people may meet in their professions everyday (150). Lorés (2004), found three distinct types of abstracts: informative, indicative, and informative-indicative (combinatory). In the second step, she analyzed the TP and the method of development of the abstracts to reveal the textual mechanisms underlying the construction of this genre. In this second end, Daneš (1974) and Fries (1983) models were employed respectively. Applying thematic analysis, Lorés found distinct patterns of thematic distribution and choice to the two types of structures (p. 298). Her findings confirmed the previous results (Nwogu, 1990; Nwogu & Bloor, 1991), since the thematic progression of RA abstracts was mostly the zigzag and reiteration patterns. After reviewing the available literature, it was found that only Nwogu (1990), Nwogu and Bloor (1991), Ghadessy (1999), and Lorés (2004) have unraveled the thematic organization of the moves constituting the RA abstract on a functional basis. However, even in these studies, except for Ghadessy (1999) there was a infinitesimal concern with comparisons between disciplines. As a partial endeavor to create awareness and sensitivity to the specific features of this genre, in this study, it is aimed at conducting a comparative study on the method of development and thematic progression of the Introduction section of abstracts following IMRC/D structure and the rhetorical Move 2 (establishing a niche) of abstracts following CARS structure to shed light on the characteristic patterns utilized by the writers of the six disciplines under study. Iranian EFL Journal

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4. Methods Considering the aim of this study which is to explore

the thematic organization of

dissertation abstracts across different disciplines, a total of 120 English abstracts of ‘masters’ theses (M.A.) and ‘doctoral’ dissertations of six disciplines from Shahid Chamran University of Ahwaz (Khouzestan province, Iran) were collected and analyzed. These included Persian Language and Literature (15 M.A. +10 Ph.D.), Teaching English as Foreign Language (15 M.A.), Microbiology (15 M.Sc.), Veterinary Medicine (15 M.Sc. + 10 Ph.D.), Geology (15 M.Sc.), and Chemistry (15 M.Sc. + 10 Ph.D.) written by Shahid Chamran University students from 2005 to 2009. These disciplines were considered as representatives of three major branches of knowledge, namely, Language and Literature as a major branch of Humanities, Health Sciences, and Hard Sciences. It is noteworthy to say that due to the restrictions in offering Ph.D., only one of the disciplines of the nominated academic fields from each branch was chosen for doctoral abstracts. The logic behind the selection of this corpus is that a wide range of disciplines can be claimed to be covered in this study and a comprehensive comparison can be made. Method of development of Move 2 or the Introduction section of IMRC/D of the abstracts is analyzed based on the definitions and classifications of Theme and Rheme provided by Halliday (1994), Ghadessy (1999) and Eggins (1994). Move 2 has been reported to be the shortest and the most concise Move of Swales’ model in terms of linguistic realization (Swales, 1990; Lorés, 2004). Accordingly, the analysis of Themes of this Move is carried out for both main and dependent clauses because, as indicated earlier, doing any thematic analysis beyond the clause rank would be hardly possible. It is stated earlier that sometimes a whole dependent clause may function as the theme of a bigger chunk [sentence]. Thus, the principle of taking the clause as the unit of analysis for the second phase of the study is sometimes manipulated in order for this principle not to be breached. There were six Theme types found which were taken to be the characteristic and typical themes in our corpus. Literally, these themes are as follows: Simple Theme, Multiple Theme, Unmarked Theme, and Marked Theme, Predicated Theme, and Non-predicated Theme. These Theme categories fall in three-dimensional network (Eggins, 1994:274). The network includes three variables; a) the type of Theme: simple versus multiple Themes, b) markedness: marked versus unmarked Themes, and c) predicativeness: predicated versus non-predicated Themes. In our analysis, each of these variables was treated separately, and a

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cross-disciplinary comparison was carried out. The second stage of this phase involves the identification of the Thematic Progression (Eggins, 1994: Fries, 1983, 2009) of the same clauses shaping the Move 2 and Introduction section of the dissertation abstracts. As indicated in Chapter Two, there are three manifestations of TP. They are theme re-iteration, zig-zag, and multiple-theme patterns. The significance of the choice of Move 2 and, in other cases, the Introduction section of the dissertation abstracts relies on the fact that by focusing on the inadequacy in previous research, the writers would be able to justify his or her study and find space in current literature. Concerning thematicity in the clauses in focus, frequency of occurrence of each theme type are computed and tabulated to show the differences of distribution across the nominated disciplines. Chi-square procedure with a significance of p = 0.05 was also carried out to show the significance of the differences among the disciplines with respect to the saliency of different Theme types of the rhetorical moves of concern . The TP of the rhetorical moves were identified and their frequencies were counted and tabulated.

5. Results and discussion 5.1 Theme types in Introduction section and move 2 of abstracts According to Eggins (1994), Theme analysis is best undertaken after analyzing the clause for its Transitivity and Mood System. Therefore, we have carried out the analysis of these two strands of meaning, the experiential meaning, realized through the analysis of Transitivity, and the interpersonal meaning realized through the Mood system. Due to space constraints, these analyses are not offered in this study. In what follows, the analysis of the Introduction section and Move 2 of dissertation abstracts in terms of thematic structure at clause level is presented. (i) Multiple themes The total number of the clauses shaping the Introduction section and Move 2 of the dissertation abstracts from the six disciplines in this study was 326 clauses. What is evident from the data obtained in the analyses of Theme types is that around 70℅ of the writers preferred to use the simple (or topical) Theme type as the starting points of their clauses. The highest number of occurrence of this Theme type (around 30℅ of the total number) was found in Persian Language and Literature.

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Table 1: Frequency of Theme types in the Introduction section and Move 2 of dissertation abstracts1 Fields of study Theme types Simple

TEFL M.A.

PL M.A.

Geo. Ph.D.

M.Sc..

Chem. M.Sc..

Micbi.

Ph.D.

M.Sc..

Vet. M.Sc..

No. Ph.D.

Clauses

23

41

28

24

14

22

32

25

19

228

(a)

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

3

(b)

5

3

4

7

3

2

5

1

1

31

(c)

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

Unmarked

30

44

32

31

19

23

35

25

20

259

(a)

1

1

0

0

0

1

4

1

0

8

(b)

1

0

0

1

0

0

0

1

1

4

(c)

0

7

4

1

6

4

8

5

1

36

(d)

0

2

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

3

(e)

1

0

1

2

2

0

1

0

0

7

(f)

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

(g)

1

0

2

1

2

0

0

2

1

9

Predicated

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

Non-predicated

34

54

39

36

29

28

49

34

23

326

(Topical) Multiple

Marked

About 11℅ of the clauses in the Introduction section and Move 2 of the abstracts were multiple Themes. As it can be observed from Table 4, the second arrangement of the multiple Themes, that is, type (b) of multiple Themes is the distinctive form of the multiple Themes. In type (b) of multiple Themes, a textual Theme comes before the topical Theme of the clause. Textual Themes fall into two groups. Some of them belong to spoken dialog and are labeled as “Continuity Adjuncts” (Eggins, 1994, p. 281). In this group, we can find such discourse markers as ‘oh, no, well, ok, yes’, etc. The other group includes “Conjunctive Adjuncts” (1994) and, as the name implies, these linguistic elements are used to link clauses or sentences together. Generally, in this latter group, the textual Theme may perform temporal, adversative, additive, and causal functions.

1

Note: the letters (a), (b), and (c) under multiple Themes represent the three different arrangements of multiple Themes.

These are (a) interpersonal Theme^topical Theme, (b) textual Theme^topical Theme, and (c) textual Theme^interpersonal Theme^topical Theme (the symbol “^” means ‘is followed by’). Also, the letters under marked Theme stand for the following circumstantial Adjuncts: (a) Extent (duration and distance), (b) Cause, (c) Location (time and space), (d) Matter, (e) Manner (means, quality, and comparison), (f) Role, and (g) Accompaniment (reason, purpose, and behalf) (Eggins, 1994:237-239).

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Specifically, most of textual Themes in the present study (14 out of 31) were additive elements that were used in clauses to add another clause without breaking the sentence into two smaller sentences, or were sometimes used to connect similar or sequential processes. Eleven textual Themes in the multiple Themes identified in the corpus were adversative elements, which were mostly used to indicate a gap in Move 2 of abstracts complying with CARS model. This small quantity of textual Themes in the clauses representing Move 2 in the abstracts may hasten us to jump to the conclusion that gap indication step can be best signaled by multiple Themes that begin with an adversative textual Theme. The remaining six textual Themes were causal which signaled a turning point in the process of decision making, where the writer announces taking action with respect to the foregrounding information that was provided in previous clauses. Interestingly, none of the textual Themes in the corpus was witnessed to perform the temporal function. Examples 1, 2, and 3 illustrate textual Themes that signal adversative, additive, and causal elements in multiple Themes, respectively, of the clause analyzed in this phase of the study. In sum, Table 2 shows the frequency of different types of textual Themes, along with a number of examples of these elements: Example (1): “However, this relationship remains to be studied for alphabetic languages with a more transparent orthography.” (written by a TEFL M.A. student). Example (2): “Moreover, it was intended to highlight the effects of these feedback types on different grammatical forms.” (written a TEFL M.A. student). Example (3): “Hence, the removal of these dyes from water sources is a very important task.” (written a Chemistry M.A. student). Table 2: Frequency of conjunctive textual Themes (℅) in unmarked multiple Theme type (b) in Table 1 Textual Themes

examples

frequency (℅)

Temporal

first, then, later, after that, afterwards

(0.00℅)

Adversative

but, however, nevertheless, yet, still

(35.50℅)

Additive

and, moreover, besides, furthermore

(45.16℅)

Causal

so, thus, therefore, accordingly

(19.34℅)

There was an interesting point about one of the multiple Themes type (b) found in one of the abstracts of Persian Language and Literature that had a causal textual Theme. In this clause, the topical Theme precedes the textual Theme. This often happens in other modes and uses of language too, but this does not violate the principle of having the topical Theme as the border line between Theme and Rheme. This case can be explained by the use of punctuation before and after the word that signal its optional use in the sentence. This is demonstrated in example 4: Iranian EFL Journal

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Example (4): “The main purpose of this research; therefore, is structuralist narratology.”(written by a Persian Language and Literature Ph.D. student). The other types of multiple Themes types (a) and (c) in Table 1 had a few occurrences in the corpus. Only in two TEFL and one Veterinary abstracts were there instances of multiple Theme type (a), which has an interpersonal Theme right before the topical Theme. To highlight the term interpersonal Theme, a few preliminary words seem in order. Linguistically speaking, Eggins (1994) believes that the following constituents can function as interpersonal Themes: “the unfused Finite (in interrogative structures), and the four categories of Modal Adjuncts, i.e. Mood, Polarity, Vocative, and Comment” (p. 278). From among these constituents, only Mood and Comment constituents were found in the corpus. It is worth pointing out that the other types have no place in genres like dissertation abstracts. For one thing, these constituents are not typical of these genres. Another reason is that we can rarely find any interrogative structure in genres like abstracts. Examples 5 and 6 vividly show these types of interpersonal Themes that precede topical Themes in the construction of multiple Theme type (a). Example (5): “It appears that all studies on ulcer is limited to cattle.” (written by a Veterinary M.A. student). This example has a grammatical metaphor (the bold print part of the example) which functions a mitigater element in the multiple Theme of the clause to lessen the writer’s commitment to the claim stated. This grammatical metaphor lies in the category of interpersonal Themes which are realized by Mood constituents. Example (6): “Relatively, little research has been done on the effect of the type of text and the use of metacognitive reading strategy use.” (written by a TEFL M.A. student). In example (6), the word ‘relatively’ is the interpersonal Theme that precedes the topical Theme ‘little research’ to form the multiple Theme type (a) of the entire clause. The word ‘relatively’ bears an attitudinal weight and establishes an interpersonal, subjective exchange between the writer of the text and the readership. Type (c) of multiple Themes is composed of a textual Theme followed by an interpersonal Theme and finally by a topical Theme. This Theme type was only found once in the corpus (see example 7). In example (7), the word ‘however’ is an adversative textual Theme that occupies the initial position and prepares the reader to expect a challenging idea, but this challenge if somewhat mitigated by the following interpersonal Theme ‘it seems that’, and it finally extends to the topical Theme ‘mysticism’ which is the cut-off point between the Theme and Rheme. Iranian EFL Journal

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Example (7): “However, it seems that mysticism doesn’t occur in the contemporary poetry in this epoch but by one general book.” (written by a Persian Language and Literature M.A. student). Up to this point, the analyses of Theme types suggest that the use of simple Theme in the Introduction section and the Move 2 of dissertation abstracts is a distinctive feature of abstracts. This means that there is a high agreement between the functional notion of Theme and the grammatical subject in the initial position of the clauses. However, those clauses that had multiple Themes in their initial positions can not be recognized as characteristic elements in these rhetorical moves because they occurred in a small percentage (11℅) of the total number of the clauses. Furthermore, most of these multiple Themes contained textual Themes preceding the topical Themes, and only three of them included an interpersonal Theme. Following Martínez (2003:119), who explicitly claimed that there is a high degree of correlation between Theme types and the type of language in the ‘results’ and ‘discussion’ sections of RAs, it can be stated that the language of introductory and gap indication parts of abstracts is factual and down-to-earth, rather than theoretical. This is appreciated by the extensive use of simple Themes and type (b) of multiple Themes. Therefore, in writing abstracts, building an interpersonal relationship with the readers is not recommended, rather factuality is advised. From another perspective, it is possible to discern that the efficiency of the language of the abstract is an issue that is handed to the reader to be judged and there is no need for an exaggerated interpersonal language. (ii) Marked themes Sixty eight clauses (20.5℅) of the entire corpus had marked Themes, with the highest number observed in M. A abstracts of Microbiology, and Persian Language and Literature. One way by which writers thematize a segment of a clause and bring it to the readers’ attention is through using marked Themes. These types of Themes normally appear in different positions of a clause, except for the initial position. However, for one reason or another, writers occasionally place them in the initial position of the clause. All things being equal, an unmarked Theme is chosen to occupy the initial position. An unmarked Theme is a type of Theme which takes one of the roles of Subject (in declarative clause), Finite (in an interrogative), Predicator (in an imperative), or Wh-element (in a Wh-interrogative). These four categories all belong to the class of Mood system. Naturally, marked Themes have to do with Mood system. A marked Theme, then, is any type of Theme that fills the initial position, but does not take any of the aforementioned roles of the Mood system. Eggins (1994) states that the commonest type of marked Theme is the circumstantial Adjunct. This Theme takes Iranian EFL Journal

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the position of a Wh-element in the clause. In addition to circumstantial Adjunct of Extent, shown in the example (8), there are other expressions which can act as circumstantial Adjuncts. These expressions include expressions of the Cause, Location (time or space), Matter, Manner (means, quality, or comparison), Role, and Accompaniment (reason, purpose, or behalf) (Eggins, 1994:237-239). Detailed description of these types of circumstantial Adjuncts is beyond the scope of this study, and those interested in knowing more about these linguistic means are recommended to refer to Eggins (1994, Ch. 7). Theme predication is another way of composing a marked Theme. There was no instance of predicated Theme in this study. Example (8): “Since the introduction of linguistic politeness by Brown & Levinson 1987, there has been a body of research on the politeness strategies used in the expression of (dis)agreeing phenomenon.” (written by a TEFL M.A. student). The underlined part of the sentence could have been placed in its original position, which is the final position, because in English, expressions referring to time normally occur at the end of the sentence. However, we see that this circumstantial Adjunct of Extent (temporal) is placed initially. This is perhaps due to the fact that the writer intends to emphasize the origin or, let us say, the history of the linguistic phenomenon at issue, or more conceivably due to the influence of the writer’s first language (Persian). Parenthetically, in Persian, circumstantial Adjuncts pertaining to an extent usually occur in initial position. Therefore, the sentence could have had the form shown in the constructed example (I). Constructed example (I): “There has been a body of research on the politeness strategies used in the expression of (dis)agreeing phenomenon since the introduction of linguistic politeness by Brown & Levinson 1987”. (iii) Predicative themes Interestingly, as stated earlier, no case of predicated Themes was observed in the clauses in focus. This can be attributed to the heavy weight of this construction which is quite rare in academic prose. This type of Theme is one of the strategies for creating marked Theme. The linguistic realizations of predicated Themes are the cleft and pseudo-cleft sentences. These sentences begin by the following expressions: — It (to be verb) ……… that/who (main verb) …….. — What ……….. (main verb) ………… (to be verb) ………… Two constructed examples are presented here to illustrate these constructions which presumably function as marked Themes. In these examples the underlined parts are of immense concern to the speaker/writer of the sentences. That is why these parts are Iranian EFL Journal

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prioritized over any parts of the sentences. Constructed example (II): “It was Peter who knocked at the door and escaped”. Constructed example (III): “What the nation asks for is the immediate action of the government to expatriate the immigrants from their homeland”. 5.2 Thematic progression As it was said, Move 2 and the Introduction section of abstracts are the shortest rhetorical moves in the abstracts, and doing any analysis of the TP on these moves was reported to be a failure because these Moves do not extend more that one or two sentences. However, after analyzing the rhetorical structures of the abstracts in the first stage of the study, it was disclosed that carrying out thematic analyses beyond the clause level on these rhetorical moves is possible since 68 (56.6℅) of them exceed two or three clauses. In some case, there were eleven clauses found in the Introduction of the abstracts. However, as long as the rhetorical Move 2 is concerned, the claim made by Lorés (2004:293), in which she claims that this rhetorical Move is too short to be analyzed for thematic structure, holds true. It should be pointed out that those rhetorical Moves that were composed of only one clause or two clauses but not analyzable because of the absence of any TP were not considered in this part. As indicated, three TP patterns have been recognized in the literature, and in this study, they were investigated in the corpus. The results are tabulated as follows. Table 3: Thematic Progression in Introduction section and Move 2 of abstracts across six disciplines Thematic Progression patterns Re-iteration

Zig-zag

Multiple theme

M.A.

3

4

1

M.A.

6

3

1

Ph.D.

4

4

1

M.A.

5

4

1

M.A.

2

2

2

Ph.D.

0

3

0

M.A.

4

6

1

M.A.

4

2

1

Ph.D.

1

3

1

30 (44.11℅)

30 (44.11℅)

8 (11.78℅)

Fields of study TEFL

PLL

Geo.

Chem.

Micbi.

Vet.

Total

The results illustrated in Table 3 confirm the findings of previous studies (Nwogu, 1990 and Nwogu & Bloor, 1991 (cited in Lorés, 2004); Ghadessy, 1999; Lorés, 2004). They assert Iranian EFL Journal

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that Theme reiteration and zig-zag (or what they call linear) patterns of TP are the characteristic TP of abstracts. Two remarkable points; however, were identified in our corpus. The first interesting point which falls in line with Lorés (2004) was that those abstracts containing the rhetorical Move 2 did not constitute any TP because this move was reported to be the shortest rhetorical Move of the abstracts. The second point is that, in this study, around 12℅ of the abstracts were found to establish multiple Theme pattern. This TP was recognized as the uncommon TP of abstracts in previous studies. With regard to the application of TP patterns across the fields of studies, Microbiology abstracts were found to possess the highest frequency of TP in the corpus. Chemistry abstracts, on the other hand, had the least frequency of TP patterns in their Introduction section. This may be because of the primary attention paid to of the ‘methods’ section in these abstracts that makes most of the introductory parts of these abstracts rarely stretch beyond two or three clauses, and, as a consequence, hard to be analyzed for TP. Our analysis indicated that no significant difference was observed between the ‘masters’ and ‘doctoral’ abstracts in terms of frequency of occurrence of TP patterns. Also, it was found that in ‘doctoral’ abstracts the zig-zag pattern was used more than the other TP patterns. Examples of each of TP patterns are presented below: Example (9): “(1) This study focuses on writing chats of 100 university students majoring in different fields of study. (2) It analyzes 400 chat samples ….. (3) The study also examines humor and paralinguistic features based on …… (4) The research investigates nine kinds of ……” (written by a TEFL M.A. student). Example (10): “(1) Orthobacterium rhinotracheale (ORT) is a pleomorphic, rod-shaped, gram-negative bacterium associated with respiratory disease in poultry. (2) The poultry industry has suffered significant financial losses because of …. infected with this organism. (3) The bacterium primarily infects the trachea, lungs …. as a systemic disease …” (written by a Veterinary Ph.D. student). Example (11): “(1) Deafness is a heterogenic disorder which induced by genetical and environmental factors. (2) Genetical deafness disorder is most common hereditary …. (3) The environmental factors such as mutation are also responsible for deafness DFNB1 disorder …..” (written by a Microbiology M.A. student). Example (9) clearly shows how the writer of this abstract has repeated the same Theme in all the clauses. Although the exact wordings of the Themes are not alike, the endophoric lexical substitution (Halliday & Hasan, 1976), a strategy for referring to the same entities in a text, has been applied to signal the reiteration of the same Theme. What is evident in the Iranian EFL Journal

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example (10) is that each Rheme in one clause is picked and placed in the Theme position of the following clause, therefore, constituting the zig-zag pattern of TP. In example (11), the Rheme of the first clause introduces two factors that need to be elucidated in subsequent clauses. This is achieved by picking each of the bold print words or factors and placing them in the Theme positions of the following clauses. This type of TP is called multiple Theme pattern. This is shown by the italicized words in clauses two and three. The results of the analysis of the thematic structure revealed interesting differences of thematic choices at the clause level. At first, thematic choices were assigned to three categories according to the multiplicity of Themes, markedness of Themes, and predicatedness of Themes. The differences observed in the choice of Theme types can be explained in relation to the rhetorical goals of the rhetorical units studied. Simple Themes dominated the Theme position of most of the clauses of the Introduction section and Move 2 of the dissertation abstracts. These Theme types perform a descriptive function (Ghadessy, 1999:155) and lay no emphasis on the initial parts of the clauses. This is in harmony with the acknowledged rhetorical goal of these units, which is setting or describing the scene and announcing the purpose of the study. Conversely, multiple themes are known for their textual and interpersonal interventions which they impose on the initial element of the clause. In our corpus, textual Themes were used more significantly than the interpersonal Themes. This indicates that establishing an interpersonal relationship in the Introduction section and Move 2 of dissertation abstracts is not the purported rhetorical goal. In addition, the textual Themes found in the analysis mainly functioned as additive elements that add other parts to the clauses, as shown in Table 2. The second category included unmarked Themes which have the important function of giving continuity to a text, and thus contribute to the identification of participants (Martin, 2001). The majority of the clauses analyzed in this study were of this type. This suggests that the participants of the clauses (elements of the transitivity metafunction) could be easily identified by their process, material, relational, and existential functions performed by Themes. On the contrary, marked Themes are the means of signaling transition, and they do not signal continuity (Martin, 2001). The rather small number of these Themes in our corpus was exclusively realized by circumstantial Adjuncts. What was observed in the clauses containing marked Themes was not the only indication of transition as Martin (2001) proposes; however, these Theme types were mainly used to indicate emphasis, particularly to signal the focus on the purpose of the studies or to signal insufficiencies in previous studies. Predicated Themes, the third category of Themes, as one of the strategies to create marked Iranian EFL Journal

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Themes, were totally absent in our corpus. This is because most of the writers of the abstracts did not know the significance of marked Themes in general and the importance of predicated Themes in particular so that they could produce clauses with ‘protruded’ or exaggerated elements. At the intersentential level, Theme analyses were carried out to reveal the TP of the rhetorical units in focus. The results showed that re-iteration and zig-zag patterns of TP were the typical patterns. However, there were cases in which both these patterns coexisted in those abstracts that had lengthy Introduction units. The purpose of conducting this phase of the study was to see whether there exists any relationship between the different patterns of TP and the recognition of the boundary of the Introduction or Move 2 of the dissertation abstracts. The results of the quantitative analyses suggest that there is a high degree of agreement between the Theme types of these rhetorical units and their boundary identification. Put another way, it can be said that transitional points of Theme types, where a sudden shift is made through the use of a different Theme to mark the movement from one rhetorical unit to another rhetorical unit, have types of Themes that do not belong to the TP of the preceding rhetorical unit. By different Theme type, the use of alternative marked or unmarked, simple or multiple, and predicated or non-predicated Themes is meant in which the method of the development of the rhetorical units changes and different method is pursued. For example, in experimental sciences, the Theme types that are used in the Theme positions in the Introduction section of the abstracts may contain lexical elements that pertain to the objects of the study, names of authors, indexical pronouns, or existential expletive elements, but other Theme positions in other units may have totally different Theme types. The Theme types used in theoretical areas of inquiry may contain lexical elements that bear descriptive weight, such as adjectives and adverbs, which make the language of abstraction dominating language of the introductory section of the abstracts. Another evidence for the abstraction phenomenon is the frequent use of multiple Themes with additive textual elements where the repetition of the same content in the Theme position is aimed by the authors.

6. Conclusion This study concerned the investigation of Theme types and thematic progression of the Introduction section and Move 2 of the abstracts. The results of the Theme types indicate that simple (topical) unmarked Themes are the common type of Themes in abstracts of all the

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chosen disciplines. While a few cases of marked Themes were found in the rhetorical units under investigation, no case of predicated Themes was observed in the corpus. The analysis of the TP yielded interesting results too. It was found that theme reiteration, zig-zag patterns of TP, and sometimes combinations of these two were the common patterns in the corpus. These results confirm our perception that there are transitional points across the boundaries of the rhetorical units in which not only the Theme types would change, but also the TP would change. This shows that the change of Theme types and TP are not random but are purposeful although it seems that most writers have used these mechanics of writing unconsciously. Taking a functional perspective for analyzing the textual meaning of the abstracts may unravel interesting connections between clauses and the upper level discourse in which they are used. What is actually found in this study shows that different Theme types function differently in clauses and their functions may have considerable effect on the development of the text, and direct relationship with the formation of the genre. These results verify Fries’s (1983:4-5) statement that “thematic content correlates with the method of development of a text and with the nature of that text”. The effort to determine what academic writing is and what EFL students need to know in order to produce it has led to the development of a number of different approaches to the teaching of writing. Genre-based instruction has been proved to be one of the most recognized and popular approaches in this regard. Nowadays, raising awareness of the rhetorical conventions of the fields of study and setting agendas for novice writers or the would-be researchers is an undeniable practice in many fields of study around the world (Mustafa, 1995; Skulstad, 1999; Martínez, 2002; Rowley-Jolviet & Carter-Thomas, 2005; Afros & Schryer, 2009). Given these facts, register analysis and, at a more general level, genre analysis from Systemic Functional tradition can tackle these types of errors due to the great emphasis put on the system of choice. Overall, in this study, it is proposed that being assured of the students’ knowledge of grammar and lexis and focusing on an upper level, i.e. rhetorical structure, of organizing texts, or the other way round is a hurried decision in an EFL context. Lack of essential linguistic means for composing appropriate, grammatical clauses to convey the writers’ intended meanings is the immediately perceived deficiency in the writing of most EFL writers surveyed in this study. The Mood system with its building blocks of Theme and Rheme is an influential means by which both clause grammar and discourse grammar can be guaranteed (Martínez, 2003). In brief, the choices at the level of the clause have direct connection with how a body of text is structured at a higher organizational level. The Iranian EFL Journal

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difficulties observed in the construction of the sections of the abstracts investigated in this study involved problems in clause construction. What was established in this study is that introducing linguistic means at the level of clause accompanied by their defined functions can play a key role in enhancing genre awareness and development. One area by which we can help ESP students acquire the rules of the academic D. C. and the resources employed by its members, thus empowering them to make cognizant decisions is providing them with those linguistic features that have helped the successful writers of their fields. As it can be seen in the literature, the focus on the linguistic features has always been the secondary concern of the researchers since researchers take the learners’ lexical and grammatical knowledge for granted. Moreover, the researchers do not elaborate on the function of the specific linguistic points they make out in their studies. The present study has raised a number of interesting differences across the disciplines studied, but a larger corpus is needed to establish how far they can be generalized. It remains our conviction that more descriptive and explanatory work needs to be done on the functional linguistic means of abstracts, and that text analysis still has a place in this inquiry. This line of inquiry can be extended and applied to other rhetorical units of abstracts or even to other unexplored academic genres like RA Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. By the same token, other strands of meaning within the Systemic tradition, i.e. Transitivity system and Mood system, can be explored in these genres. Still, another possibility is conducting contrastive analyses on different genres across different disciplines or across different languages with regard to the two dimensions investigated in this study.

References Afros, E. & C.F. Schryer. (2009). Promotional (meta)discourse in research articles in language and library studies. English for Specific Purposes, 28, 58-68. Eggins, S. (1994). An Introduction to Systemic Linguistics. London: Printer Publishers. Fries, P. (1983). On the status of theme in English: arguments from discourse. Forum Linguisticum, 6, 1-38. Fries, P. (2009). The textual metafunction as a site for a discussion of the goals of linguistics and techniques of linguistic analysis. In Thompson and Forey (eds.), Text Type and Texture, 8-44. London: Equinox. Ghadessy, M. (1999). Thematic organization in academic article abstracts. Estudious Lingless de la Universi Dad Complutense, 7, 141-161.

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Halliday, M.A.K. (1994). An Introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd ed.). London: Edward Arnold. Halliday, M.A. K. & R. Hasan. (1976). Cohesion in English. London: Longman. Jia-po, y. & W. Bin. (2006). The use of thematic structure theory in translation. Sino-US English Teaching, 3, 75-81. Lorés, R. (2004). On RA abstracts: from rhetorical structure to thematic organization. English for Specific Purposes, 23, 280-302. Martin, J.R. (2001). Sysflig. Available: [email protected]. Martín-Martín, P. (2003). A genre analysis of English and Spanish research paper abstracts in experimental social sciences. English for Specific Purposes, 22, 25-43. Martínez, C.L.A. (2002). Emperical examination of EFL readers’ use of rhetorical information. English for Specific Purposes, 21, 81-98. Martínez, A.I. (2003). Aspects of Theme in the method and discussion sections of biology journal articles in English. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 2, 103-123. Mustafa, Z. (1995). The effect of genre awareness on linguistic transfer. English for Specific Purposes, 3, 247-256. Pho, P.D. (2008). Research article abstracts in applied linguistics and educational technology: a study of linguistic realizations of rhetorical structure and authorial stance. Discourse Studies, 10, 231250. Rowley-Jolviet, E. & S. Carter-Thomas. (2005). Genre awareness and rhetorical appropriacy: Manipulation of information structure by NS and NNS scientists in the international conference setting. English for Specific Purposes, 24, 41-64. Samraj, B. (2005). An exploration of a genre set: research article abstracts and introductions in two disciplines. English for Specific Purposes, 24, 14-156. Skulstad, A.S. (1999). Genre awareness in ESP teaching: issues and implications. International Journal of Applied Linguistics (IJAL), 2, 285-298. Swales, J.M. (2004). Research Genre: explorations and applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Tahririan, M., & A. Jalilifar. (2004). Generic analysis of thesis and dissertation abstracts: variation across cultures. Iranian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 7, 121-143.

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Title English Globalization Issues, Impacts and Challenges as to Culture and Language in Islamic Contexts Especially Iran Authors Abbas Paziresh (M.A) Payamnoor University of Kohgiloye (Dehdasht), Iran Fereshteh Shojaie (M.A student) Science Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Azerbaijan Gharbi, Iran Rana Shokrollahi (M.A student) Science Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Khuzestan, Iran

Biodata Abbas Paziresh M.A in TEFL and is currently teaching English at Payamnoor University of Kohgiloye (Dehdasht) centre. His research interests include pragmatics, psychology, sociolinguistics, genre analysis, discourse analysis, linguistics and translation studies. Fereshteh Shojaie M.A student in TEFL at Science research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Azerbaijan Gharbi. Her interests include Sociolinguistics, Testing and Pragmatics. Rana Shokrollahi M.A student in TEFL at Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Khuzestan. Her research interests include genre analysis, psychology and translation studies.

Abstract Culture and language are twins’ brothers; lack of insurance for one will cause the other to be insecure as well. English globalization is felt to jeopardize culture and language in the same and different ways. It is planned, however, to neo-colonize third world languages and cultures. It helps languages to die-out and change. Moreover, it homogenize and hetrogenize people cultural identities. Via this paper, we wish to unfold less unsaid issues, which might undermine the face of standard languages and their varieties and disturb old cultures lives. What is more, it devises and suggests ways for keeping English down. Also, warn English producing centres that produce materials relevant to local cultures and those responsible of teaching these materials to avoid teaching western patterns to their Muslim students particularly in Iran. Iranian EFL Journal

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Keywords: English language globalization; Language death and shift; Homogeneity; Heterogeneity; Pedagogical materials

1. Introduction Globalization is manifested through diverse concepts; from among them are language globalization, global citizenship, global ethic, cultural diversity, cultural liberty, dialogue among civilizations, quality of life, education for all, women’s rights, Youth Parliament, peace education and the rights of future generations, here English language globalization is considered. Globalization by any means refers to the process of bringing all other societies and their cultures under one colonial umbrella and leaving not any scope for diversities which is also called homogenization. Globalization according to Arnold (2006) and Redman (2002) spreads its territory beyond geographic limitations, time and space restrictions or the barriers caused by gender, age, skin colour, and lifestyle. “English is the global language” as stated by Crystal (2003) presented to the world an uncomplicated scenario offering the universality of the English spread and the likelihood of its continuation. Nowadays English is spoken from Lahore to Bengal from Belize to Las Vegas and from Paris to New Delhi; therefore it is the global lingua franca. Crystal (2003) claims that English is the global language; we hear and see it on television, spoken by politicians, spoken by travelers and etc. Of interest it is to search for roots of dominance of English empire over the world. Outspokenly, I do say English is the most predominant language because of the economic and political supremacy of the U.K and U.S.A, as well as the fact that English speaking countries export many aspects of language and culture to the world. Globalization of a language is not only globalization of language of group of people but also globalization of that group culture. Language and culture are interdependent and interactive. Accordingly, culture and language association should not be ignored at all. Sapir acknowledged the close relationship between language and culture, maintaining that they are inextricably related so that you could not understand the one without a knowledge of the other (1929, p. 207). According to Wardaugh (1973), culture is handful of what a person knows or believes that a person must possess to get through the task o daily living. According to the following definitions and views, we conclude that in any area its language and culture are homogenised. It is widely known that English Language is emperor in the world. It has put its feet on one side of the world and its hands on the other side in terms of a tool for communication, trade and access to information. Therefore, this emperor alongside itself carries out the Iranian EFL Journal

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culture of major English producing and speaking countries namely U.S.A and UK into those empire countries. English is exalted by political and economic power and its values and habits as foreign cultures at the expense of native culture broadened. All know it well that English is in every computer windows, in any website, in any book, on any pepsi over lips, in any gas station pumping their gas and in every mobile in any hand. What we wish to target in this study is the case of publishing books, booklets, CDs, DVDs and magazines that are produced inside super English producing countries enriched with their culture and values dispersed around the globe ignoring destination cultures and values, especially those Islamic cultures and values. The considered culture in this study is Iranian culture as an Islamic country in which English is used and taught as a foreign language. Most of books and CDs which are taught in Iran are produced inside U.S.A enriched with those values, ethics and principles which go contradictory to Persian ones; and destroy Persian values and are injected into Iranian students’ heads. In fact, American-western culture and language intend to swallow other cultures and languages and as result bring them under an umbrella then produce a homogenised integrated culture, which is called English globalization. Experts and professionals at the centre of publishing English, claim that the spread of English language and culture do not threaten local cultures and languages; but the researchers counter claim that effects of western culture are super-clear and are lingering inside local cultures like Iran.

2. Statement of the problem and purpose of the study In order to fight this phenomenon, for protecting our national identity, and reviving our Islamic culture, we need to understand what globalisation is and know how to counter attack it. This study intends to gives some declarations and revelations concerning dangers, consequences, roots and channels of English globalization that is channelled toward other cultures like Persian. Regarding Persian context in which English is used as foreign language, via this study we wish to warn teachers and students to not adopt, use and focus on those rules, conversations, and pieces which are enriched with American and western rules and principles. Besides, to get aware of western language and culture imperialism by counter attacking them for protecting our religion, symbols, language, songs, stories, celebrations and all expressions of our way of life.

3. Issues, Impacts and challenges in relation to culture and language Iranian EFL Journal

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3.1 Globalization The term globalization is reviewed in relation to English globalization. Scholte (2011) offered five meaning or definitions for globalization: the first one talks of globalization as internationalization that explains growth in international exchange and interdependence among countries o the world. Next, he explained globalization as liberalization. Through liberalization, countries remove restrictions on the movement of capital from one country to another by applying ‘open’, ‘borderless’ economy. The third meaning to the word globalization means universalization. In this context, globalization is a process of spreading various objects and experience to people living in the four corners of the world. The fourth, meaning of globalization is referred to Westernization or modernization (to the Americans it is the Americanization). Abdul Razak (2011) defined globalization as free flow of capital, people, news and information via electronic media from one country to another, without being subjected to any form of restriction imposed by governments in the world. Globalization explains a scenario whereby people of the world live in borderless beliefs, world without any geographical restrictions and as the result, the world will be transformed into a single global village. 3.2 Globalization or colonization So many decades ago, western powers were used to dominating small countries by being there by all of their military and non-military equipments which is called physical presence. Their physical presence in underdeveloped and developing countries was called colonization. According to Abdul Razak (2011), due to the old dependence of developing countries to super powers, nowadays they are also somehow dependent on them especially in the areas of science, knowledge and technology. Present dependence of developing countries is called neo-globalization and old form called colonization; previously they were present in developing countries physically but today they are not so, but being present in minds and hearts of people virtually. In both forms, they are colonization, but the new one, which is modern, better to be called neo-colonization or globalization. 3.3 English globalization and destination cultures Muyale-Manenji (1998) said "Shonyala okhumanya inzu yowasio tawe". According to her this means that you cannot manage or know the affairs of the house of your neighbour. This is a saying the people of Ebukanga village, Kisa location in Kakamega district of the Western Province of Kenya usually used when respecting one's privacy and affairs. Culture is a combination of values and norms people have, which make them live in a particular way. In other words, it is the sum total of all things that refers to religion, roots of people, symbols, Iranian EFL Journal

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language, songs, stories, celebrations and all expressions of our way of life. Accordingly culture involve language and we add language involve culture as well. Culture and language flourish side by side and reinforce each other in direct and indirect ways; every language is taught to child and values and norms inside that society transferred to him by language. Any language is specific to its culture and vice versa. Every culture is different from the other culture. Globalization of English language also means globalization of western culture. As the African sentence "Shonyala okhumanya inzu yowasio tawe" narrates, every region has their specific rule which only fits people of that region and those people can manage their affairs. Nevertheless, unfortunately English globalization which takes its root from two points U.K and U.S.A tries to manage and subjugate all neighbouring cultures. Globalization of English is a new approach which brings with itself west colonization to east. Globalization is a new agenda of the West to re-colonize the East. It is seen as a new approach of how the Western hegemony can be imposed on the political, economic, social, cultural and other aspects of the people in the East, particularly in the Muslim world (Abdul Razak, 2011, p. 1). English globalization as a planned or unplanned strategy wishes to converts all individual “Is” to “We”; which causes all individual “Is” lose their identity and get suffocated to come in one big identity called “We” or globalization. In the identity scenario Deng (2005) points, that cultural identity answers the questions of “Who am I?”, “Where are we going?” and “What do we Have?” Since people construct their identities through their cultures, they will defend them. Daraz, Hussain, khan and Naz (2011) allege that through globalization the entire world is changing into a single place, single culture and single identity. It encourages secularization, creates religious conflict and decays artefact beauty of the country as Dalby (2007, p. 36) stated that folk-art forms are removed from their religious ritualistic nature. Daraz et.al (2011) believes globalization has brought cultural pluralism, which creates cultural conflict among the locally defined cultural traits and those traits, which are defusing from the western culture. This paper revolves around English inside Iran as a foreign language. It is just taught in institutions, schools and universities; but the materials that are used for teaching it are produced wholly in U.K and U.S.A. Such materials are CDs, DVDs, books, booklets, magazines, charts, pictures, workbooks and tapes. Western rules, patterns, dialogues and simulations form content of these pedagogical materials. These materials contents are unfit with rules and culture inside Iran and Arabic countries. Teachers blindly teach these unfit patterns to students of different ages and as the result, students have to learn and use them Iranian EFL Journal

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both in classroom and society. The wash backs will be making western brains over Muslim shoulders. One instance is teaching of dating, this WAS a very rare and scarcely happening case inside Iran, but since material content is western content enriched with western culture patterns, students have to learn and behave in western way. Via this paper, we wish to warn against the teaching of unfit patterns and their use by both teachers and students inside Iran and all Muslim countries. Moreover, we declare institutions and publications in charge of western pedagogical materials to do marketing plans and produce materials specific to specific regions, we mean a global language should conforms to global culture. 3.4 Aspects of culture diminished by English globalization Since there is a direct link between the culture of a particular community and the language this community speaks, no changes in language are possible without prior changes in culture. In the course of the dominance of one culture, its key words are transferred to other languages. One other reason for the transfer is the worldwide reporting of political, social and other events that took place in the country enjoying the status of an influential superpower. (Witalisz, 2011, p. 5). Accordingly, language and culture have reciprocity, and one finds it impossible to flourish without the other. When a language is attacked, the culture in that society also attacked; this attack in spite of changes which causes for language causes many aspects of that society to experience change or even lose. English globalizations cause so many aspects of a victim culture to change and take shape of source language values. Food items and food culture, clothing or costume culture, behaving culture, talking culture, music culture, literature culture, goods production culture, education culture, thinking culture, consuming culture, life style, and media are all aspects which English globalization pushes a culture to adopt. Corpus analysis carried out so far points to several semantic fields which illustrate which aspects of culture are recognized as American and which of them are adopted most willingly by the recipient cultures (Witasiz, 2006). Most numerously affected areas include: 

Working style, making a career based on competition, achieving fast success (the famous American dream



Names of occupations



Modern communication technology, computer-related terminology



The cult of beauty and youth, which makes you think that good looks will make you happy and successful in life

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

Food and eating habits



Popular culture (movies, music, TV, entertainment in general)



Ways of spending free time



Advertising practices, in particular the use of metaphor to manipulate the recipient into buying a product by establishing a discourse of positive, homely associations



The use of euphemisms and avoiding naming things directly



the use of qualifiers such as hyper, mega, super, especially in the media, as a way of presenting insignificant events or a pieces of information in an attractive and attentioncatching way

3.5 English globalization line of attack English globalization may seem a natural or unthreatening movement to some, but in fact, this is not whole story. Different terminology has been offered to name English globalization in developing or underdeveloped regions; the degree of change and severity of English globalization contacting other varieties is different. Some name it assimilation, some name it genocide, some name it killing, some name it death and some name it shift and some bilingualism. In fact, English globalization is not globalization but is colonization in new form called neo-colonization that we discussed before. Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics defines language shift as the process by which new language is acquired by a community usually resulting in the loss of the community first language. According to Trudgill (1983) shift in language happens where native people adopt another language and eventually the old language may die out. Mufwene (2002) believes that language shift, is the main cause of language endangerment and death as speakers endeavour to meet their day to-day communicative needs. Language shift- sometimes referred to as language transfer or language replacement or assimilation- is the progressive process whereby a speech community of a language shifts to speaking another language. The rate of assimilation is the percentage of individuals with a given mother tongue who speak another language more often in the home. Morsalin (2012) claims that there is a difference between language death and language murder. Language death is when a language disappears naturally; its speakers are leaving it voluntarily and do not practice it, but language murder means that the killer language actively discourages use of other languages. Holmes (2008) in an Introduction to Sociolinguistics writes the death of a language takes shape when all speakers of that language die out or its speakers stop speaking that language by shifting to another available language. English is Iranian EFL Journal

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referred to as a "killer language", which means that it is a dominant language learned subtractive, at the cost of the mother tongues, rather than additively. According to above explanations and definitions English globalization could lead to every one of the above manifestations of language loss. Everything depends on language speakers save in one case when all speakers of a language die out. If speakers of a language like Persian stop communicating using it, they push forward language shift, death or murder. 3.6 Resisting English globalization The process of English overtaking the whole globe is certain and cannot be denied in any way. Contemporary mass production of luxury, new, hard to produce goods may no longer take place within discrete national borders, but unfold in a complex system of transnational economic and cultural exchanges characterized by the global flow of cultural products and commodities inside English emitting empires. Based on the mentioned facts, by exporting products, sending tourists, books, films, broadcasting news and films overseas, English intrude other nations. Therefore, English is uninvited and unwanted guest of the kind which fosters obnoxious plans in its head for local languages. Therefore, languages do not kill languages; their own speakers do, in giving them up, although they themselves are victims of changes in the socio-economic ecologies in which they evolve (Mufwene, 2002). If the unwanted-uninvited guest wishes to linger on in host nation, disastrous consequences it may cause. It is upon host hands to ambush against and keep this jeopardizing guest at elbow by adhering to their native languages, dialects and accents. The wished victims can continue to speak and communicate their languages. Since English globalization lead to language shift, death or genocide, Holmes (2008) aided and contributed by suggesting coming factors which seem to retard wholesale language impairments at the least for some times: 

Groups consider their language as their identity



Groups live near to each other and see each other frequently



The degree and frequency of contact with homeland



Institutional support like law, education and administration

Regarding Persian language, the researcher warns Iranian despite taking into consideration the above crucial factors, be careful not to: 

Teach and learn English as a tool inside country for meeting their educational and scientific needs not as language as medium and formal language



Lose flag of our long and old civilization at the cost of nothing



Teach English to your kids instead of Persian at home as first language Iranian EFL Journal

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3.7 Dangers of English globalization on destination languages and cultures English globalization, which is newly called neo-colonization, is both dangerous for destination cultures and languages. Since culture and language are building blocks of the same system, the vulnerability of one will also affect the other one. In cases when the destination languages remain and the globalized English also penetrate and both going to be used which some call it hybridization the culture of that society no doubt undergoes mortal viruses. Muyale-Manenji (1998) had put forward the following pretty words which we cannot turn blind eye. Each culture has its own personality. The fact that we are all human does not mean that we are all the same. To ignore this would be destroying God's own beautiful rainbow made from the many colures of cultural diversity. Moreover, she claims culture is learned. This is the most common attribute. The European beckons while holding his hand with the fingers uppermost, while the African does so with the fingers pointing down. Each has learned his/her way. Such learning does not take place through natural inheritance. It is not genetically transmitted. Rather, it takes place by a process of absorption from the social environment or through deliberate instruction. No culture is possible without a language. It is bound up with language. This is an important prerequisite and therefore to kill a language is to kill a culture. The language a community speaks is part of its culture and so few changes in language occur unless there are prior changes in culture. Global language here English may cause the following dangers as offered by Morsalin (2012):



A global language might cultivate an elite class with native speakers, who take

advantage of the possibility to think and work quickly in their mother tongue. If this was the case, they might manipulate it to their advantage at the expense of those who has another language as their mother tongue and in this way create a linguistic gap between people. 

English has a history, sometimes cruel and violent with colonialism and war, and

introducing English as the global language might be seen as a threat of future dominance. Perhaps a global language will make people unwilling or unable to learn other languages and make other languages unnecessary. Daraz et.al (2011) found the following as consequences of English globalization and globalization and called them crises: Iranian EFL Journal

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

Decline of traditional social structure



Losing the traditional and century’s old customary traits and values, directly found proportional to cultural imperialism and pluralism.



Wrenching the belief system directly



Cause departure of old values by prevailing and encouragement of secularism.



Augmenting religious conflicts which induce intolerance among the followers



Bringing psychological crises among the minor cultures.



Replacing solidarity by individualism.



Occurring social isolation among people

4. Channels which aid English globalization Mishra (2008) believes globalization is perceived as highly dangerous because its impact cannot be kept out as it overcomes both natural and national barriers with the help of the latest information technologies. Free trade in cultural goods has given rise to “television without borders” and through them American fashions, tastes and values enter without any hindrance”. Globalization, which started sometimes ago, is an ongoing thing that cannot be stopped. A multi-faceted phenomenon ramifies into all areas of the human life. Since the idea of globalization is a thing that comes from the rich and affluent countries of the West, many in the developing and third world countries welcome it with much delight as it offers them a great deal in terms of capital flow, which promises prosperity (Abdul Razak, 2011). With the coming of western powers to Asia and to other parts of the world, they brought along their culture, custom and language, system of administration, law and order in having their hegemony over the countries under their control. When they could establish themselves via all means, they imposed their hegemony on inhabitants of these countries. This is from one side that they colonized these countries then, as they were super-wealthy powers having giant factories, companies and industries tried to sell their products in these countries. First gateway through which English is emanated over local borders is English production policy. Both sources of English producing countries are U.K and U.S.A, which produce English for all around the globe by British and American accent respectively. Very popular universities, publications, and institutions like Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press annually produce thousands of volumes of books, booklets, work books and

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thousands of rings of DVDs and CDs in English to be sent just outside their territories with the aim of making profits and spreading English. The next gateway is mass media at their power, which their programs are mostly broadcasted in English. Their news bulletins are produced for political, economical, social and cultural aims and as to be heard around the globe for teaching English. Thousands of radio, TV and satellite channels like BBC, CNN and VOA proceed broadcasting English overseas. The third gateway is sending and receiving passengers, students, tourists, correspondents, athletes and adventurers. However, all for meeting their needs need to talk in English. The fourth gateway is the biggest and most famous one, i.e. WWW. Every computer windows is in English, every messenger is in English, every scientific famous journal is in English, every mobile phone first language is English, all soft ware and hard ware language is English etc. The fifth gateway, which allows for English transmission is that of goods and products which are sold and send around the globe. All of their labels and instructions are in English.

5. English globalization or English borrowing By any means, English is transmitted to underdeveloped regions and there it may delays leaving. For prestige or for talking with outsiders or anything else, it is possible that inhabitants tempted to use English fully or code-switch or borrow words or phrases to communicate themselves. Witalisz (2011) raise this issue that in language studies, linguistic globalization may be seen as global intensive lexical borrowing from English by languages whose speakers use English as a foreign language, e.g. Polish, Spanish, Chinese. Crosslingual borrowing facilitates the process of linguistic globalization, with English being the most prominent donor of vocabulary and set expressions. He again raises this question of why linguists do need to speak of globalization in relation to linguistic borrowing. By doing studies and reaching many findings, Witalisz (2011) tried to answer his question: the majority of globalisms have English as their source language, i.e. language from which they are borrowed by other systems. The two main types of linguistic borrowing found among globalisms of English origin are “loanwords and “loan translations. Process of borrowing from English quite paradoxically contributes to language diversification due to formal and semantic changes that the English etymons undergo in the course of the adaptation process (Alexieva, 2008; Dunn, 2008, Witalisz, 2010)

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6. Preserving while Maintaining The strongest forth of our languages (Persian and Arabic) will be built if we speak our languages nationwide and at the same time preserving them against probable dangers like globalization. Linguists are trying to document as many as they can by describing grammars and structural features, by recording spoken language and by using computers to store this information for study by scholars. Many endangered languages are only spoken; no written texts exist. Therefore, it is important to act quickly in order to capture them before they go extinct. The following actions can be done to preserve our languages: 

Duplicating and digitizing high-quality recordings in an archival form



Emphasizing self-documenting and software-independent data



Giving linguists a toolkit to analyze and compare languages



Developing General Ontology for Linguistic Description (GOLD) to allow interoperability of archives, and comparability of data and analysis.

7. Iranian protect Persian against English globalization Iran is one of the leading nations in the Middle East region that has a culturally rich history and civilization. For several centuries, many powers attacked Iran and stayed behind here, but they could not survive their domination. Iranian culture and language were repetitively assaulted; nevertheless, they avoided accepting any alteration. The main themes in this study were to warn Iranian teachers, authors, ordinary people and students against English globalization dangers for their old culture and language. The researchers as a teachers in institutions and schools in Iran while teaching English as foreign language faces conversations, patterns and rules of conduct, which are wholly westernised. If the desire is to teach our students such immoral cases no longer do we have pure culture, but a heterogeneous and homogenous culture. According to Ameli (2002, p. 226) heterogeneity helps fragmentation of identities in the society and homogeneity which create domination by Western culture, in particular American culture, all over the world. So globalization is seen to be creating a tension between these two forces. A central problem of globalization is the dialectic tension between homogenization and heterogenization (Chuang, 2000, p. 19, cited in Ameli, 2002). Therefore, English being a global language will of course cause a levelling of many cultures into a global culture. We Iranian, owners of one of the oldest civilizations and languages, for prestige, for translation, for talking with outsiders, for chatting, for reading, for writing, for travel and for Iranian EFL Journal

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whatsoever purposes should acquaint and equip ourselves with all languages, but we must be careful to no to put aside flag of our rich culture at the expense of English. The researchers declare English producing centers to stop producing pedagogical materials just around their rules and patterns of their cultures. We warn that a global language should adapt itself to global cultures, i.e. respect all minority languages and cultures by either produce pedagogical materials specific to every culture or at least remove those items which undermine other cultures.

8. Conclusion Putting everything in a nut shell, English globalization seriously jeopardizes the peaceful life of twins’ brothers; that is culture and language. English globalization by all means like mass media is swiftly spreading its scope of control over world languages and cultures. It causes language shift, death and murder, heterogeneity and homogeneity of society identities. It is another line of colonization of super-powers which is called neo-globalization. English will be misplaced provided that like past we Muslims speak our languages wholeheartedly. One of the major leading forces in the death or survival of a language is government; in cases when English continue to be used as foreign language and not as second language by government, it will no doubt permit not English to threaten life of local languages. The researchers hope Muslim ministries of culture, literature and guidance build their own vocabulary for those words which they borrowed. Since the foundation of English in any country is built when the speakers in that country start to produce utterances as an amalgamation of English and for instance Persian, we suggest people in that country to use their language words only. Moreover, we expect those in charge of teaching English pedagogical materials at universities and institutions to circumvent teaching pieces of conversation which include Non-Islamic rules and patterns.

References Abdul Razak, M.A. (2011). Globalization and its impact on education and culture. World Journal of Islamic History and Civilization, 1(1), 59-69. Alexieva, N. (2008). How and why are Anglicisms often lexically different from their English Etymons: R. Fisher & H. Pułaczewska (Eds.), Anglicisms in Europe, 42-51. Ameli, S. R. (2002). Globalization, Americanization and British Muselim Identity, London, UK: the Islamic College for Advanced Studies. Arnold, J. (2006). Some social and cultural issues of English as the global language: everything is changing; everything is going, going and gone now. Electronic Magazine of Multicultural

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Education, 8(1). Retrieved on July 12, 2012 from http://www.eastern.edu/publications/emme/2006spring/arnold.pdf Crystal, D. (2003). English as global language. Cambridge University Press. Dalby, S. (2007). Globalization, geography and environmental security. In E. Kofman & G. Youngs (Eds.), Globalization: Theory and practice. New York: Continuum. Daraz, U., Hussain, M., Khan W. and Naz, A. (2011). The Crises of identity: Globalization and its impacts on socio-cultural and psychological identity among Pakhtuns of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences. 1, (1), 1-11 Deng, N. (2005). On the national literature’s tactics in the globalization’s language environment. Journal of Human Institute of Humanities, Science and Technology, 1, 39-41. Dunn, J. (2008). Face control, electronic soap and the four-storey cottage with a jacuzzi: Anglicisation, globalisation and the creation of linguistic difference: R. Fisher & H. Pułaczewska (Eds.), Anglicisms in Europe, 52-69. Holmes, J. (2008). An introduction to sociolinguistics. London: Longman. Mishra, G. (2008). Globalization and culture. Online journal of radical ideas. Retrieved on August 12, 2012 from http://www.stateofnature.org/globalizationAndCulture.html Morsalin, M.S. (2012). Dangers of global language. Retrieved on August 12, 2012 from http://www. streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/106812/languages/dangers_of_a_global_language.html Mufwene, S.S. (2002). Colonization, globalization, and the future of languages in the twenty-first century, Most Journal on Multicultural Societies, 4 (2). Muyale Manenji, F. (1998). The effects of globalization on culture in Africa in the eyes of

African

woman. Retrieved on August 15, 2012 from http://www.03964.com/search.php Redman, C. (2002). Want to speak English? Retrieved on August 15, 2012 from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,262926,00.html. Sapir, E. (1929). Language: an introduction to the study of speech. New York: Harcourt, Brace. Scholte, J. A. (2011). Globalization: a critical introduction. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Trudgill, P. (1983). Sociolinguistics: an introduction to language and society, Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books. Wardaugh, R. (1973). An Introduction to sociolinguistics. (2nd ed.). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. Witalisz, A. (2010). Words know no borders: Linguistic globalisation: a contribution to linguistic homogenization or the creation of linguistic difference in: Proceedings of the International across Borders Conference IV: Migration in Culture, Language and Literature, Krosno, Poland, 16-17 April 2010. Witalisz, A. (2011). Linguistic globalization as a reflection of cultural changes. Proceedings of the 19th Annual Conference of the Global Awareness Society International, May 2011, Jagiellionan University, Krakow, Poland.

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Title Epistemic Modality in Academic Discourse: A Cross-Linguistic and CrossDisciplinary Study Authors Motahareh Sameri (M.A candidate) University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran Manoochehr Tavangar (Ph.D) University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

Biodata Motahareh Sameri M.A. Candidate of TEFL at University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran. Her research interests include semantics and intercultural pragmatics. Manoochehr Tavangar associate professor of applied linguistics at the University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran. His main areas of interest are discourse analysis and pragmatics.

Abstract The field of academic writing has undergone a major shift of attention from objectivity to subjectivity. Accordingly, being subjective, research articles lend themselves to the investigation of modality which, according to one of its conceptualizations, is the expression of subjectivity. However, different languages and disciplines possess different norms of epistemic modality exploitation. Thus, the present study sets out to investigate the effect of cultural and disciplinary variations upon epistemic modality use across soft and hard disciplines of English (by native and non-native speakers) and Persian research articles. The results revealed that the number of modalised utterances is highest in the English corpus and lowest in the Persian with the non-native speakers’ corpus being somewhere in between. With regard to disciplinary variation, in all three corpora, hard sciences used epistemic modality less frequently than their soft counterparts. Moreover, another key finding of the present study is that hard sciences use certainty markers more frequently than possibility and probability markers to modalise their utterances, while soft sciences are characterized by the use of probability and possibility markers, rather than certainty markers. Keywords: Modality, Epistemic modality, Genre, Transfer Iranian EFL Journal

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1. Introduction The field of academic writing has recently witnessed and undergone a major shift of attention from objectivity to subjectivity. The initial conflicting stance, to belie the commonly held view regarding the objective and impersonal nature of academic writing, was given substance by studies such as Holms (1988), Swales (1990), Myers (1989) and mostly Hyland (2002a; 2002b; 2001; 2009 , to name just a few). Such conception of the subjective nature of academic discourse triggered off a bulk of research in the field. In this respect, Flottum (2005) maintains that academic discourse, being a dynamic research field, has lent itself to being investigated in terms of different phenomena, from different theoretical perspective, and within diverse methodological frameworks. The present study, which is within the same line of research, aims at investigating the use of epistemic modality markers in the Persian and English academic discourse. The reason is that epistemic modality provides writers with an opportunity to intrude into texts and express their certainty or uncertainty (or their subjective attitude, broadly construed) towards the propositions it contains. The subjectivity of academic writing, thus, highlights the importance of the use of modality in academic writing in that modality, according to one of its conceptualizations, is a means of expressing subjective attitudes and opinions of writers towards the propositional and factual aspect of their utterances. Moreover, what provides the present study with further impetus to investigate the use of epistemic modality in academic discourse is the fact that, as argued by Hyland (1996), much of the work on modality has been either theoretical or has been confined to modal verbs and drew upon non-academic sources. However, different languages provide their speakers with different linguistic and paralinguistic devices for the expression of modality (Palmer, 1986) and different cultures have different norms, conventions, practices, and expectations regarding the use of rhetorical devices in general, and epistemic modality in particular, and that the appropriate use of epistemic modality is dependent upon linguistic contexts and the norm of the discourse community within which it is being deployed. A growing body of literature has been devoted to confirm the effect of linguistic variation on the use of modal markers (including Hu and Cao, 2011; Hinkel, 2005; Hyland and Miltone, 1997; Salagar Meyer et. al., 2003; Vold, 2006; Vassieleva, 2001). Besides taking Persian and English research articles into account, the present study draws upon non-native speakers’ corpus (English research articles written by Persian writers). The rationale behind choosing a language-contrastive perspective in this study, in keeping with Vold (2006), is that besides the specific linguistic features of English Iranian EFL Journal

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academic, their similarities and differences with other languages should be highlighted to help the non-native language writers compare and contrast the academic norm of their languages with English.Moreover, it has been empirically proven that one of the significant hurdles learners face in this regard is the influence of the first language (Hinkel, 2009). According to Yakhontova (2006), besides cultural factors, lots of other forces are at work to shape academic discourse. According to him, one of the important dimensions which has rarely been taken into account is the influence of professional or disciplinary context. Thus, he argues that “It is thus reasonable to assume that disciplinary conventions interplay with national cultural influences” to leave their joint effect upon academic discourse. Accordingly, being informed by the fact that different disciplines have different rhetorical structures, and to be accepted as a member of a discourse community, research article writers are required to conform to the established norm of the community (Hyland, 1998), the present study takes disciplinary variations into account too. To address the identified research lacuna identified above and to investigate the effect of cultural and disciplinary influences upon epistemic modality use, the present study scrutinize the discussion sections of English (by native English speakers and native Persian speakers) and Persian research articles published across hard and soft disciplines.

2. Expression of Epistemic Modal Markers in English and Persian Before embarking on the explanation of epistemic modal markers in English and Persian, we will present a brief sketch of what constitutes modality. In point of fact, despite the vast and growing body of research on modality, it continues to remain a moot point for linguists and philosophers and there is no commonly held view regarding what is modality. Accordingly, a number of criteria including subjectivity (Bybee et. al., 1994; Lyons, 1977; Palmer, 1986), factuality (Palmer, 2001; Papafragou, 2000), and nonpropositionality (Fillmore, 1968) have been put forward to map out the scope of modality and find out what exactly constitutes this phenomenon.

Among scholarly examples equating modality with subjectivity is Lyons

(1977, p. 495), who construes modality as “the speaker’s opinion or attitude towards the proposition that the sentence expresses or the situation that the proposition describes”. Along the same line, Palmer (1986, p. 16) conceives of modality as “the grammaticalization of the speakers’ (subjective) attitude and opinion”. On the other hand, Fillmore (1968), in advancing his argument on the notion of proposition, touches upon the concept of modality in passing and defines it as everything which is outside of, and complementary to, the

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propositional content of the sentence. Finally, Papafragou (2000, p. 3), from the vantage point of non-factuality, envisages modality as linguistic expressions which allow us “to talk (and modal concepts allow us to think) about states of affairs which are not present in the current situation and may never occur in the actual world”. Our perception of modality is further clouded by regarding the way it is linguistically expressed in that different linguists propose different ways for the linguistic expression of modality. However, for the purpose of the present study, Nuyts’ (2001) proposed taxonomy was taken as our working criterion. Nyuts (2001, p.384) argues that epistemic modality, which happens to be the main focus of the present study, is realized through the following categories in English: modal adverbs, modal adjectives, modal auxiliaries, and mental state predicates. As for Persian, Tavangar and Amuzadeh’s (2009) proposed taxonomy was selected. According to them, in Persian modality is textualisd by means of one of the following linguistic devices: modal adverb, modal verb, modal auxiliary, mental state predicate. Having presented an overall picture of the linguistic expressions of epistemic modality in English and Persian, we will shed light on the criteria for the inclusion of epistemic modal markers. They can be adumbrated as follows: 1) Having confined the scope of modality to epistemic type, exclusive emphasis was laid on modal markers expressing certainty, probability, and possibility (the entire gamut of meanings encoded by epistemic modality).

Accordingly, in Persian, instances of

‘xastæn’, ‘tævanestæn’, and ‘bayestæn’, which are chief exponents of expressing dynamic and deontic modality, respectively, were excluded. As for English, likewise, instances such as ‘must’ and ‘can’ which are carriers of deontic and dynamic modality were ruled out. 2) To give a panoramic view of the use of epistemic modal markers in the genre of academic writing, the present study included markers which qualify the propositional content of the utterance both implicitly and explicitly. With regard to the distinction invoked between implicit and explicit modal markers, Vold (2006), unlike the present study, maintains that verbs such as ‘find’, ‘show’, ‘demonstrate’, ‘claim’, ‘propose’, etc. qualify the truth value of the utterance implicitly and that their main function is reporting something and contributing to the propositional content of the utterance and, consequently, should not be regarded as epistemic modal markers.

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3) Another key issue which should be taken into consideration in counting the number of epistemic modal markers was ‘the issue of the responsibility for the utterance’ as discussed by Crompton (1997, p. 283). According to him, modal lexical verbs such as claim, suggest, believe, etc. are carriers of modal meaning, when writers ‘use them to report their own proposition (1997, p. 283), rather than that of other writers. However, this issue is a matter of controversy and some other scholars such as Hyland and Milton (1997) maintain that these lexical verbs express epistemic modality even in cases they are used to report other writers’ proposition. According to the authors, the writer may have recourse to the opinion of other researchers “as a means of disguising the epistemic source” (p. 283). For the purpose of the present study, which draws upon Hyland and Milton (1997) and Sinclair’s (1986) convincing argument, both attribution and averrals (to use Sinclair’s (1986) terminology) were taken into consideration. Consider the following text samples: “Rooryck (2001), in offering such an analysis for syntactic parentheticals, suggests that the syntactic position itself might ‘‘filter’’ the semantic content of items it contains, allowing only those aspects of their content compatible with an evidential interpretation to survive.” (Native English Corpus, Applied Linguistics 8). 4) The classification of adverbs as carriers of modal meaning is, moreover, a matter of controversy. Put more precisely, adverbs are conceived of either as modifying the whole sentence (called ‘sentence adverb’, in this sense) or modifying a word or a group of words, referred to as word modifier in this sense (Hoye, 1997). The controversy arises from the fact that some linguists such as Drubig (2001, p. 10) maintain that “epistemic interpretation only occurs with sentence adverbs”. Some other linguists such as Hyland (1998a), on the other hand, argue that word or wordphrase modifiers are carriers of epistemic modal meaning. The present study, based on the same line of thought as Hyland (1998a), maintains that both instances of sentence and word-phrase modifiers are regarded as encoding epistemic modality.

3. methodology For the corpus of the present study to be representative of native English and Persian scientific writing, the authors of research articles, at least the first author, were required to have an Angelo-Saxon and an Iranian surname, respectively, and to be affiliated with an institution or university in countries where these languages are spoken as L1. Moreover, it

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is worth mentioning that, to maximize variation of the corpus, we attempted not to choose more than one article by the same writer. The rationale behind confining the scope of the study to discussion section is that this rhetorical section allows for the frequent use of epistemic modal markers in that “… It is in this last section of research papers that writers speculate, argue, contrast and extrapolate from the described results, and at the same time avoid stating results too conclusively so as the readers can note that the authors are not claiming to have the final word on the subject” (Salager-Meyer, 1994, p. 169). Accordingly, bearing in mind the fact that uncertainty (along with certainty) constitutes one of the core concepts encoded by epistemic modality, it goes without saying that this rhetorical section of research articles allows for the frequent use of epistemic modal markers. Put differently, given that the discussion section is the locus of making claims and generalizations about the findings of the study, it allows for the frequent use of epistemic modal markers as a means of writer’s intrusion into discourse to express his/her certainty or lack of certainty regarding the findings of the study. Bearing the preceding remarks in mind, classified random sampling was used for the purpose of the present study to select the corpus constituting 240 discussion sections of research articles written in hard and soft disciplines by native speakers of Persian and English and non-native speakers of English. At the next stage, the primary pool of data coming from 240 discussion sections of research articles was subdivided into three groups: 80 articles written in Persian by Persian speakers, 80 written in English by English native speakers, and 80 written in English by Persian native speakers. In each group, the articles were chosen from among different subdisciplines of hard and soft sciences. As for soft sciences, the present study reviewed the philosophy and applied linguistics research articles, and for hard sciences, physics and chemistry research articles were investigated. From each discipline 20 articles were randomly selected.

4. Results and Discussion Table 4.1.represents total number of words, total and relative frequency of epistemic modal markers across soft and hard disciplines of English, Persian, and non-native speakers’ corpora. Table 4. 1. Total number of words and total and relative frequency of linguistic devices used to express epistemic modality:

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Language

Discipline

Total

Native Persian

Native English

Non-native

speakers

speakers

speakers

Soft

Hard

Soft

Hard

Soft

Hard

sciences

sciences

sciences

sciences

sciences

sciences

14396

11758

16788

13766

21060

7116

220

124

562

312

410

96

8.41

4.74

18.39

10.21

14.55

3.40

number of words Total epistemic words Tokens per 1000 words

Even a cursory examination of the total number of words in each language and discipline reveals that the three corpora under investigation do not coincide in terms of their size. Accordingly, to make them comparable and perform further computations, instead of drawing upon the raw data presented in Table 4.1., the data were normalized and the frequency per 1000 words calculated (Table 4.2). To normalize the data and calculate the relative frequency per 1000 words, the following formula was used: [(Raw frequency count/ number of words in the text) × 1000 = normalized frequency count] and the following procedures were performed: first, the raw frequency (F) of the intended device was determined in different subcorpora, the raw frequency was divided by the total number of words in the intended corpus and then the result was multiplied by 1000. As the quantitative distribution of epistemic modal markers across different disciplines of different languages, represented in Table 4.1 makes manifest, native English speakers, in general and regardless of the discipline within which they are writing, modalised their utterances more often (28.60)

than their Persian and non-native counterparts. On the

evidence of the total relative frequency of epistemic modal markers per 1000 words at the bottom of Table 4.1, it is manifest that they are followed by non-native (17.59) and Persian (13.15) speakers, respectively. Setting out on a more detailed examination to uncover the more subtle differences in each corpus, the author made a comparison is made between the research articles published across soft and hard research articles. As the estimated frequencies indicate, in all the three corpora under investigation in the present study epistemic modal markers pervaded in the research articles of soft sciences. However, the most pronounced disciplinary variation was found between the research articles of hard and soft disciplines of non-native speakers’ corpus.

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In the above section, an attempt was made to offer a rather comprehensive account of the frequency and distribution of different syntactic categories of epistemic modal markers across soft and hard disciplines of English, Persian, and non-native corpus. The next step that needs to be taken at this stage is to make inter-lingual and intra-lingual comparisons between the soft and hard disciplines of each language and the soft and hard disciplines of English and Persian. Accordingly, to achieve this aim, chi-square, a non-parametric data analysis test, was employed. The results are represented in the following table. Table 4. 2. Chi-square values resulting from comparing modal markers across disciplines and languages Language discipline

Total number of epistemic modal markers

PS/ES

3.7

PH/EH

1.95

PS/PH

1.01

ES/EH

2.82

PT/ET

2.80

LS/ES

0.44

LS/PS

1.64

LH/EH

3.4

LH/PH

0.22

LS/LH

6.92

LT/ET

2.92

LT/PT

0.64

PS: Persian soft, PH: Persian hard, ES: English soft, EH: English hard, PT: Persian total, ET: English total, LS: learner’s corpus soft, LH: learner’s corpus hard, LT: learner’s corpus total, df =1, level of significance = 0.10, X2 critical value = 2.706. As the relevant figure in Table 4.2. illustrates, the cross-linguistic difference between the English and Persian research articles from soft sciences was significant (P < 0.10, df = 1, X2 crit.= 2.706, X2 obs. = 3.7), and the native English research article writers publishing in soft sciences had recourse to epistemic modal markers more frequently (18.39 per 1000 words, n = 562) than their Persian counterparts publishing within the same discipline (8.41 per 1000 words, n = 220). With regard to the hard disciplines of the two languages, the results of the non-parametric statistics, however, was suggestive of an insignificant difference between the Iranian EFL Journal

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English and Persian research articles (P < 0.10, df = 1, X2 crit.= 2.706, X2 obs. = 1.95). The results of the intra-linguistic comparison between Persian research articles published in two different disciplines of soft and hard sciences, moreover, was indicative of an insignificant difference between the research articles of hard and soft sciences. Put differently, reviewing the relative frequency of the Persian hard and soft research articles, we find that, conforming to our expectations, the Persian research articles published in soft sciences used epistemic modal markers more frequently (8.41 per 1000 words, n = 220) than the research articles of hard sciences (4.74 per 1000 words, n = 124). However, the results of the non-parametric statistic show that the difference was not significant (p < 0.10, df = 1, X2 critical value = 2.70, X2 observed = 1.01). Quite incompatible with the results of the Persian corpus, the intralinguistic investigation of the English research articles of soft and hard disciplines revealed that there was a significant difference between the English soft and hard research articles(P < 0.10, df = 1, X2 crit.= 2.706, X2 obs. = 2.82). In point of fact, the English research articles published in soft sciences were more tentative in reporting their results and, consequently, utilized epistemic modal markers more frequently (18.39 per 1000 words, n= 562) than the research articles of hard discipline (10.21 per1000 words, n = 312). Having compared English and Persian research articles in terms of their use of epistemic modality marker across their soft and hard discipline, it would not be impertinent, at this stage, to make a comparison between the use of epistemic modality markers in the English and Persian research articles, irrespective of the discipline within which they were published. A quick glance at table 4.1., findings, and figures provides us with the evidence that English research articles, regardless of the disciplines involved, contained markedly more epistemic modal markers (28.6 per 1000 words, n = 874) than the Persian research articles (13.15 per 1000 words, n = 344). The results of the non-parametric statistics, moreover, provide evidence for this finding (P < 0.10, df = 1, X2 crit.= 2.706, X2 obs. = 2.80). The observed result may be attributed to the non-native speakers’ tendency to exaggerate their findings. Besides, the more authoritative tone of Persian research articles may be regarded as being corroborative of the more persuasive nature of Persian (Hinkel, 2005). To investigate the effect of first language, the English research articles written by Persian native speakers across soft and hard disciplines were put under scrutiny and were compared with the English and Persian research articles. The comparison between the research articles published in soft disciplines by English non-native speakers (Persian researchers writing in English) and their counterparts composed by English native speakers revealed that English native speakers qualify their propositions (18.39 per 1000 words, n = 562) more than their Iranian EFL Journal

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non-native counterparts (14.35 per 1000 words, n = 410). However, the results of the nonparametric statistic demonstrated that the difference between them was not significant (P < 0.10, df = 1, X2 crit.= 2.706, X2 obs. = 0.44). It might be argued that this finding affords clear confirmation of the fact that the non-native English speakers writing in soft disciplines managed to identify and conform to the accepted and established norms of the target discourse community. The same corpus (research articles published in soft disciplines by English non-native speakers), when compared with their Persian counterpart (Persian research articles published in soft sciences), exhibited an insignificant difference (P < 0.10, df = 1, X2 crit.= 2.706, X2 obs. = 1.64). While Persian researchers, when writing in one of the soft disciplines of English, modalised their utterances more (14.35 per 1000 words, n = 410) than when they were composing in one of the soft disciplines of Persian (8.41 per 1000 words, n = 220), the difference was not fundamental. This piece of finding may be invoked to hypothesize that transfer from Persian to English in soft disciplines had taken place. However, given the insignificant difference between the ways in which native English speakers and non-native speakers use epistemic modal markers in soft disciplines, it goes without saying that this hypothesis is rejected. To check whether Persian research articles published in English hard disciplines conform to or deviate from the accepted norms of the discipline, a comparison was made between research articles published in hard science by English non-native speakers and their counterpart published in the same field of study by native English speakers. Unlike the case of the non-native speakers’ soft corpus, the nonnative speakers’ hard corpus revealed a significant deviation from the established and accepted norms of the English hard disciplines, to which they intended to conform in that the results of the chi-square test demonstrated a significant difference (P < 0.10, df = 1, X2 crit.= 2.706, X2 obs. = 3.4)

between the hard corpus of non-native speakers and that of English

native speakers. Put differently, the English native speakers writing in hard sciences modalised their utterances (10.21 per 1000 words, n = 312) much more frequently than their non-native counterpart (3.40 per 1000 words, n = 96). In line with the soft disciplines, to determine whether the deviation from the accepted norms and conventions was instigated by any transfer from Persian to the English research articles of English non-native writers publishing across hard disciplines, a comparison was made between the research articles of hard disciplines composed by Persian native speakers and those by English non-native speakers (Persian researchers publishing in English). The results were suggestive of a rather insignificant difference (P < 0.10, df = 1, X2 crit.= 2.706, X2 obs. = 0.22) between the two corpora in question, which provides evidence in support of the negative transfer from Persian. Iranian EFL Journal

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Hence, this piece of finding is in line with and corroborative of the above finding regarding the failing of the non-native researchers to conform to the norms and conventions of hard disciplines. As for the intra-linguistic comparison between the research articles published across soft and hard disciplines by English non-native speakers (Persian native speakers writing in English), a chi-square test was deployed. The results (P < 0.10, df = 1, X2 crit.= 2.706, X2 obs. = 6.92), being in line with the English corpus and confirming our expectations, showed that research articles published in soft sciences contained significantly more epistemic modal markers (14.32 per 1000 words, n = 410) than their hard counterpart (3.40 per 1000 words, n = 96). Finally, as the author was not concerned with cross disciplinary variations, a comparison was made between the total numbers of the epistemic modal markers of non-native corpus and the English and Persian corpus. With respect to the comparison between English and non-native speakers’ corpus, the results suggested a significant difference between the two corpora in terms of the frequency of epistemic modality exploitation (P < 0.10, df = 1, X2 crit.= 2.706, X2 obs. = 2.82). This piece of finding can be regarded as being suggestive of the non-native speakers’ failure to conform to the accepted norm of English disciplines. Moreover, with regard to Persian and non-native speakers’ corpus an insignificant difference (P < 0.10, df = 1, X2 crit.= 2.706, X2 obs. = 0.64) was identified. As was pointed out in the previous chapter, to address and discuss the fifth question concerning the effect of disciplinary variation upon the manifestations epistemic modal markers, or more precisely, the degree of certainty or uncertainty encoded by epistemic modal markers, in research articles, Nuyts’ (2006) taxonomy for the meanings encoded by epistemic modality (i.e., certainty, probability, and possibility) was taken as our point of departure. Table 4.3 shows the relative frequency of certainty, probability, and possibility markers across the hard and soft disciplines of the English, non-native speakers, and Persian corpus. This table sheds light on the disciplinary variation and any probable effect it might have upon the degree of certainty, encoded by epistemic modal markers. Table 4. 3. Relative Frequency of the linguistic devices used to express epistemic modality per 1000 words: Language

Native Persian speakers

Native English speakers

Non-native speakers

Discipline

Soft sciences

Soft sciences

Soft sciences

Hard sciences

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Hard sciences

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Certainty markers

3.74

2.52

3.46

5.10

4.54

1.56

Probability markers Possibility markers GT

2.75

1.98

6.61

2.81

5.89

1.41

1.91

0.22

8.31

2.29

4.11

0.42

8.41

4.74

18.39

10.21

14.55

3.40

GT: grand total As for the native Persian corpus, the research articles published in soft sciences, quite contrary to our expectations, used certainty markers most frequently (3.74 per 1000 words, n = 98), followed by probability markers (2.75 per 1000 words, n = 72), and then possibility markers (1.91 per 1000 words, n = 50) and the difference between them was revealed to be significant (P < 0.90, df = 2, X2 crit.= 2.11, X2 obs. = 1.51). With regard to the research articles published in the hard disciplines of Persian, as Table 4.3. indicates, certainty markers (2.52 per 1000 words, n = 66) were used most frequently, followed by probability markers (1.98 per 1000 words, n = 52), and then possibility markers, which were used least frequently (0.22 per 1000 words, n = 6) and the difference between possibility, certainty, and probability markers was substantial (P < 0.90, df = 2, X2 crit.= 0.211, X2 obs. = 1.83). As for the research articles published by the English native speakers across soft disciplines, possibility markers accounted for 254 instances of epistemic modal markers (totaling 8.31 per 1000 words) followed by probability (6.61 per 1000 words, n = 202) and certainty markers (3.46 per 1000 words, n = 106), respectively. Mention should also be made of the fact that, besides the more frequent use of possibility and probability makers than certainty markers, the difference between them was revealed to be significant too (P < 0.90, df = 2, X2 crit.= 0.211, X2 obs. = 1.96). In keeping with the research articles published in Persian hard disciplines, those composed by the English native speakers across hard disciplines, certainty markers are deployed extensively (5.10 per 1000 words, n = 156). Probability (2.81 per 1000 words, n = 86) and possibility markers (2.29 per 1000 words, n = 70), as the figures demonstrate, are used less extensively. Moreover, the results of the performed computations (i.e., the chisquare) are indicative of the significant difference between certainty, probability, and possibility markers of English research articles of hard disciplines (P < 0.90, df = 2, X2 crit.= 0.211, X2 obs. = 1.31). The research articles published by the non-native speakers in soft sciences, which are neither in line with English nor Persian research articles of soft sciences, extensively drew upon probability markers to modalise their proposition (5.89 per 1000 words, n = 166).

However, the difference between the three categories of certainty,

probability, and possibility markers was revealed not to be significant (P < 0.90, df = 2, X2 Iranian EFL Journal

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crit. = 0.016, X2 obs. = 0.034). Moreover, it is worth mentioning that although the research articles

published

in

soft

disciplines

of

non-native

speakers’

corpus

were

epistemicallymodalised (14.55 per 1000 words, n = 410) more frequently than their hard counterparts (3.45 per 1000 words, n = 96), to modalise their utterances, they had recourse to certainty markers rather as frequently as did possibility markers, and the difference between the use of certainty, probability, and possibility markers was found not to be significant (P < 0.90, df = 2, X2 crit.= 0.211, X2 obs. = 0.034). Such interesting results tend to support the argument that the total frequency of epistemic modal markers, regardless of the degree of certainty and uncertainty they encode (i.e., certainty, probability, and possibility) is not a stringent criterion for the effect of disciplinary variation on the use of epistemic modal markers. The results of the use of different degrees of epistemic modal markers (i.e., certainty, probability, and possibility markers) across hard disciplines of the non-native speakers coincide with our previous findings regarding the frequency and distribution of epistemic modal markers in the research articles of hard disciplines of English and Persian in the sense that across hard disciplines (P < 0.90, df = 2, X2 crit.= 0.211, X2 obs. = 0. 66), the difference between certainty, probability, and possibility markers is significant.

5. conclusion 5.1. Discussion of the Findings of Linguistic Variation The quantitative analysis of the data, coupled with their textual and qualitative analysis, demonstrated that the number of modalised utterances is highest in the English and lowest in Persian, with the non-native speakers’ corpus being somewhere in between. In point of fact, the Persian research articles, compared to their English counterparts either penned by English native speakers or Persian native speakers, are more direct, objective, and factually-oriented. Put differently, compared to the English corpus, the writers of the Persian corpus seem to express more certainty towards the propositional content of utterance; to increase their commitment to the findings of the study and the proposed claims; to neglect, and at times, to refute alternative views; to mitigate the reader-writer interaction; to increase the illocutionary force of the utterance; and, finally, to indicate lack of respect and deference for differing and alternative views and other scholars in the field. These findings are in keeping with the results of several other cross-cultural studies (Chen, 2010; Hinkel, 2005; Hu and Cao, 2011; Salagar Meyer et. al., 2003; Vassileva, 2001; Vazquez Otra, 2010; Vold, 2006; Yang, 2003), in that all the above studies bear out the conclusion that scholars either native English

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speakers or non-native speakers writing in English, publishing their research articles in English journals, use epistemic markers more frequently than other writers publishing in their native language. The differences observed between the research articles published in English and Persian journals can be attributed to the rhetorical conventions, discourse preferences, and persuasion styles of different cultures which inform the larger socio-cultural contexts in which English and Persian research articles are written. In this connection, Hyland (2002b, p. 1110) argues that “culture shapes our communicative practices in significant ways, influencing our preferences for structuring information, the relationships we establish with our readers and how far we want to personally appear in our texts”. With regard to the degree of certainty, Aijmer (2002, p. 63) claims that “writers form different cultures have different preconceptions about the degree of directness and certainty required in academic writing”. For instance, English research articles are informed by and grounded in the rhetorical norms and discourse preferences of Anglo-American culture, which is characterized by challenging one’s own and others’ claims and beliefs, by evaluating and judging the existing body of knowledge, and by being involved in formal argumentation as the primary and principal way of knowledge construction (Hu and Cao, 2011). In the discourse of scientific writings, it makes itself manifest in the form of “an emphasis on rational reasoning, a preference for reasoned discourse between individuals as a way to approach clarity and truth, the framing of intellectual ideas in adversarial terms, and the anticipation or construction of counterarguments” Hu and Cao (2011, p. 2804). As discussed above, as far as the frequency of epistemic modality exploitation is concerned, the non-native speakers’ corpus is located somewhere between the English and the Persian corpora. Thus, the more frequent use of epistemic modal markers in the nonnative corpus, compared with its Persian counterpart, might be due to the fact that second language writing instruction materials are, likewise imbued with Angelo-American norms and conventions. Besides culturally-determined rhetorical norms and conventions, the negative politeness nature of English academic discourse (Holms, 1984; Hu and Cao, 2011; Vassileva, 2001) can be invoked to account for the observed differences between Persian and English research articles. Bearing the above remarks in mind, it would not be surprising to find that English researchers capitalize on uncertainty markers to minimize imposition on the reader and to avoid

“Face-Threatening Acts”, in general (Brown and Levinson, 1987). Research articles

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and conventions, do not tally with English journals in terms of epistemic marker exploitation. According to Abdollahzadeh (2011), “… It seems to be a common practice in the Iranian tradition to abide by the rules and traditions without questioning or expressing doubt or opinion about them. Cultural and educational upbringing, and traditionally oriented leanings impose sets of orders and instructions in the form of ‘‘musts’’ and ‘‘must nots’’” (p. 295). Audience awareness may be regarded as yet another reason for the observed rhetorical differences in the three corpora under investigation. In this connection, Abdollahzadeh (2011) maintains that, given the critical stance of readers and the high-stake nature of publication, research article writers, when publishing in leading international journals, use modalised utterances as a tactful means of gaining the acceptance and solidarity of an expert audience, as well as, leaving some room for disagreement with, and probable falsification of, arguments. As for the present study, the writers of the Persian corpus have in mind a different perception of the audience of research articles in that the audience in question are different in terms of their size, their expectation of effective arguments, and their mode of criticism. Put more precisely, the research articles published in Persian, compared with their English counterparts, address a more limited audience size. Besides being of a different size, the audience of Persian research articles have a different culture-bound rhetorical construct, different rhetorical sensitivity, different expectations regarding what constitutes an academically effective argument, and different ideology regarding the rhetorical norms, conventions, and practices involved.

Such factors intertwined with each other to impose

their effect upon the extent of the persuasiveness of the text, the extent of certainty with which a proposition is proposed, the extent of writers’ commitment to their claim, the extent to which alternative views are taken into consideration, or broadly conceived, the extent of modalising their findings and claims. Owning to their deferential discourse system and collective culture, Persian research article writers are characterized by not seeking for authorial voice or frequently refuting and dismissing other researchers’ views. Epistemic modality, on the other hand, is recognized as a means of expressing authorial voice, taking stance towards the proposition and findings of the study, and advancing alternative views (Biber et. al., 1999). Accordingly, it might be argued that the rationale behind the infrequent use of epistemic modality in the Persian corpus is reluctance on the part of Persian researchers to seek for authorial voice. Put differently, the result of the present study showed that, to report their findings, Persian research article writers had recourse to categorical, rather than modalised, assertions. The observed results may be accounted for by regarding such categorical assertions as a means of enabling Iranian EFL Journal

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researchers to hide behind their research and of helping them avoid taking individual authorial voice. Moreover, categorical assertions allow for reporting one researcher’s finding without adopting a stance towards other views or challenging them. 5. 2. Discussion of the Findings of Disciplinary Variation To get a more comprehensive grasp of the issue under investigation in the present study, a second dimension - the examination of the effect of disciplinary variation on the distribution and use of epistemic modality markers - was included. As the results of the present study demonstrated, in all the three corpora of the study, the research articles published within soft disciplines were modalised more than the research articles in hard disciplines. The observed difference in epistemic modality exploitation might be attributed to the fact that different disciplines are informed by different research designs, materials, methods, etc. Put more precisely, in hard sciences knowledge proceeds cumulatively and one researcher’s works build upon the work of other researchers, and hard sciences, in general, are characterized as being ‘impersonal’ and ‘value-free’. Soft sciences, on the other hand, are distinguished by being ‘personal’ and ‘value-laden’ in nature, and knowledge in soft sciences, unlike that in hard sciences, proceeds recursively by proposing other researchers’ view so that it may take a stance towards them (Becher and Trowler, 2001, p. 36).

Moreover, Varttala (2001, p. 250) maintains, in this respect, that the theoretical

foundation of soft sciences is more tentative in nature, while hard sciences are "more closely related to the traditional rigorous empiricism of the natural sciences". The findings of the research articles conducted in the soft sciences are not mathematically verifiable; rather, they are proposed as tentative opinions. Accordingly, they are more susceptible to conflicting views and attracting criticism from other members of the discourse community. The observed difference regarding the significantly less frequent recourse to epistemic modal markers in the research articles of hard sciences may also be justified by drawing upon the fact that the research articles published in hard sciences are rooted in positivism and, as Hyland (2005, p. 147) maintains, an important rhetorical aspect of positivist epistemology is favoring and opting for textual authority (rather than individual authority) and seeking writers “to disguise both their interpretive responsibilities and their rhetorical identities behind a screen of linguistic objectivity’’. Thus, it may lend us support to argue that emphasis on the text and the premise that the results are always the same regardless of the person who conducted the study, justify the lack of writer’s presence in the text, or the infrequent use of modality in general, or epistemic modality in particular accounts for the less tentative nature of hard sciences. Iranian EFL Journal

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Besides discovering the infrequent use of epistemic modal markers in the academic discourse of hard sciences, the other striking finding of the present study regarding the use of epistemic modal markers across hard disciplines was the more frequent use of certainty markers, rather than probability and possibility markers, in hard sciences. This might be accounted for by bearing in mind the nature of the evidence invoked to validate and substantiate the claims in question. According to Hu and Cao (2011), the evidence writers of research articles written in hard sciences invoke to verify their claims incorporate the primary data which were obtained in the course of the research by the researcher and the research, in fact, is designed and conducted with the aim of validating these claims. Accordingly, this empirical evidence is conclusive and convincing enough to warrant the frequent use of certainty markers to express stronger commitment to the findings. As for the pieces of evidence cited to substantiate the claims in soft sciences, we can argue that they consist of secondary data obtained by means of unsystematic and indirect observations and controversial theories which are recognized by some scholars in the field but not by others. Thus, such findings are perceived to be limited and inadequate to warrant the expression of a high degree of certainty and strong commitment, hence, to allow for the prevalence of uncertainty markers (probability and possibility markers). The other reason which is invoked by Hyland (2009) to account for the more impersonal nature of hard sciences is that such sciences are universalistic in that they seek for empirical uniformities and generalizations, rather than individuals, and the methods and the procedures which are deployed to propose an argument are of paramount importance. Epistemic modal markers, on account of encoding possibility and probability and hampering making generalizations, are not used very frequently in hard sciences. Other characteristics of hard sciences presented by Hyland (2001, p. 216) are “involving familiar procedures, broadly predictable outcome, and relatively clear criteria of acceptability”. Being concerned with familiar procedures and objectivity, hard sciences do not allow for the prevalence of modal markers in that they are indicative of subjectivity and the researcher’s intrusion into the interpretation of the findings. In soft sciences, on the other hand, the acceptance of an argument is heavily dependent upon the writer’s success in convincing the reader of the reliability and validity of his/her findings and it is mainly achieved through a balanced expression of commitment and detachment (Hyland, 2001). One of the means whereby this can be achieved is the appropriate use of epistemic modal markers in that epistemic modality

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can be deployed to indicate the writer’s stance towards his/her proposition, his/her certainty or lack of certainty about the proposition, respecting differing views. However, one point, which our discussion has bypassed so far, and which might come to our mind at this stage, is how chemistry and physics research articles, despite being conducted within the paradigm of hard sciences, involve possibility and probability markers. This can be traced back to the fact that even in hard sciences, there are some intervening variables whose effect cannot be controlled. Moreover, in all experimental and empirical studies there is a margin of error which exerts a direct influence upon the language used to report the findings. To account for the rationale behind the use of hedging (or probability and possibility markers, according to the categorization adopted in the present study) in the academic discourse of hard sciences, Hyland (1996, p. 257) argues that despite being conducted under laboratory conditions and following experimental procedures, pieces of research conducted in hard sciences are also informed by “experimental limitations, possible exceptions and alternative explanations”. Accordingly, the empirical findings of their studies can never control all variables and account for all exceptions. The preceding remarks confirm the necessity of using probability and possibility markers in hard sciences. However, as was mentioned in passing in the previous section, the other focal point of analysis in the examination of the effect of disciplinary variation on the use of epistemic modal markers is

the investigation of the effect of the disciplinary variation upon the

semantic category of modal markers or, broadly construed, the degree of certainty epistemic modal markers encode. Thus, to address this question, a three-fold distinction, adopted from Nuyts (2006), was drawn between the meanings epistemic modality encodes; namely, absolute certainty, probability, and possibility. However, what is at issue in this section is investigating into which category (i.e., certainty, probability, or possibility) epistemic modal markers, in general, and epistemic modal auxiliaries in particular, fit. With regard to the degree of certainty epistemic modal auxiliaries encode, Halliday (1985) proposes rather the same diagram and rates must as carrying the most degree of certainty. Will

must would should might Certainty markers possibility markers

would (hypothetical)

may could probability markers

Figure 5.1. The Degree of Possibility English Modal Auxiliaries Express As results of the study revealed, the research articles published within hard disciplines represented by the three corpora of the present study used certainty markers more frequently Iranian EFL Journal

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than probability and possibility markers to modalise their findings. The difference between possibility and certainty marker, on the other hand, is huge and considerable in the hard research articles of the three corpora. Bearing in mind what was mentioned above regarding the nature of hard disciplines, it goes without saying that the empirical, experimental, and objective nature of hard sciences accounts for the more frequent use of certainty markers (compared with probability and possibility markers). As for soft sciences, the native English research articles use possibility and probability markers more than certainty markers to modalise the propositional content of their utterances. Likewise, the more subjective and personal nature of the soft sciences can be invoked to account for the observed difference. However, the use of certainty, probability, and possibility markers in the Persian corpus runs counter to our expected use in that across the soft research articles of the Persian corpus, certainty markers are used more frequently instead of probability or possibility markers. Such interesting results make a strong case for the conclusion that there is a particular kind of correspondence which holds between the inherent properties of disciplines (being soft or hard) and the kind of epistemic modality (in terms of their semantic category) used to encode modality. Put more precisely, as Hyland (2009) asserts, all disciplines can be conceived of as falling into two major categories; namely, hard (otherwise known as sciences) and soft (otherwise known as humanities) disciplines. It can schematically be represented as follows: Sciences

social sciences

humanities

Figure 5.2. Continuum of Academic Knowledge (adopted from Hyland, 2009, p. 9) The meanings encoded by epistemic modality, on the other hand, run the whole gamut of certainty, probability, and possibility, which can be represented as follows: Absolute certainty

probability

possibility

Figure 5.3.Nuyts’s Classification of the Meanings Expressed by Epistemic Modality

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Title On the Relationship among Language Learning Attitude, Academic Motivation and Language Proficiency of Iranian EFL learners Authors Jahanbakhsh Langroudi (Ph.D) Shahid Bahonar University, Foreign Language Department, Kerman, Iran Nasibeh Amiri (M.A student) Shahid Bahonar University, Foreign Language Department, Kerman, Iran

Biodata Jahanbakhsh Langroudi, assistant professor of applied linguistics in the foreign languages department of Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman. He has been teaching different courses more than seventeen years at B.A. and M.A. levels. His areas of interest are teaching methodologies, contrastive analysis, issues of psycholinguistics and applied linguistics. Nasibeh Amiri B.A. in English literature from Shahid-Bahonar University, Kerman, Iran. an M.A. student in English Teaching in Shahid-Bahonar University, Kerman, Iran. Her current research interests include various aspects of English teaching and psycholinguistics.

Abstract The present study is an attempt to explore any significant relationships among language learning attitude (LLA), academic motivation (AM), and language proficiency (LP) of Iranian EFL learners. One hundred and twenty Iranian EFL students studying at the Department of Foreign Languages of Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman took part in this study. The participants, including both males and females, were selected using cluster sampling, a type of probability sampling, from junior and senior students majoring in EFL related fields (Teaching, Literature and Translation). In order to obtain the required data, three questionnaires were utilized: the Language Attitude Scale (LAS) to measure learners’ language learning attitude, The Academic Motivation Scale (AMS) to measure learners’ academic motivation, and Michigan Proficiency Test, short version, to determine the level of students’ Language Proficiency. The findings of this study revealed that first, there was a significant positive relationship between LLA and LP (r= 0.24): the more positive language attitude the students have, the

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higher their scores of LP; second, there was a significant positive relationship between AM and LP(r= 0.44): the more motivated the students, the higher their scores of LP; third, there was a significant positive relationship between LLA and AM (r= 0.76): the more positive language attitude the students have, the higher their academic motivation scores.

Keywords: Language Learning Attitude (LLA), Academic Motivation (AM), Extrinsic Motivation (EM), Intrinsic Motivation (IM), Amotivation, Language Proficiency (LP)

1. Introduction Attitude as a psychological concept has been the focus of much research in the fields of psychology, sociology, social psychology and educational psychology. Language learning attitudes, as Fasold (1987) comments, only differ in the sense that they are attitudes about languages and nothing else. It has been suggested that the most likely fundamental and salient factor affecting foreign language proficiency is motivation (Rahman, 2005). According to Bailey, Onwuegbuzie, and Daley (2000), as motivation has a direct effect on the target language proficiency, it is a strong predictor of substantial foreign language proficiency as well. Several studies on learner variables (motivation, attitude, anxiety) and their relationships with learners’ foreign language proficiency have been carried out over the course of more than three decades. All of those studies have proved that learner variables have influences on learners’ language proficiency (Lukmani, 1972; Kachru, 1992; Oxford and Shearin, 1994; Brown, 1994 and 2000; Warden and Lin, 2000; Dornyei, 1994 and 2002; Masgoret and Gardner, 2003; Lamb, 2004; Gardner, Masgoret, Tennant, & Mihie, 2004; and Rahman, 2005). In addition, there has been considerable research demonstrating that attitudinal and motivational variables are related to achievement in a second language, and that this association is independent of language aptitude (e.g., Inal, Evin and Saracaloglu, 2005). Gardner (1982) states that although some possibly negative results have been reported, the overwhelming evidence indicates that attitudinal variables are related to, and possibly influence proficiency in second language. Moreover, the relationship between motivation and attitudes has been considered a prime concern in language learning research. Gardner and Lambert (1972) state that “his (the Iranian EFL Journal

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learner) motivation to learn is thought to be determined by his attitudes towards the other group in particular and by his orientations towards the learning task itself” (p.2).

2. Review of the Literature 2.1. Language Attitude “Learning a language is closely related to the attitudes towards the languages” (Starks & Paltridge, 1996, p.218). Social psychologists started to investigate language attitudes in the 1950s. The increased interest in studying language attitudes in the early years needs to be seen in relation to the growing acceptance of the mentalist approach that regarded language production not as behavior but as cognitive or mental activity. Since then a lot of research has been carried out on describing and understanding language attitudes. The complexity of language attitudes with their linked concepts of language and attitude and their correlation with society make it impossible to devise a definition that is theoretically comprehensible and also applicable in the real world context (Smith, 1996). Attitudes have been explored by many researchers in different parts of the world. A group of researchers (Latif, Fadzil, Bahroom, Mohammad, San, 2011) conducted a research to determine the relationship between various socio-psychological variables like attitude, motivation, anxiety and instrumental orientation on performance in English as a second language. The results indicated that all of the four variables were significantly correlated with learners' performance in the English course conducted at Open University of Malaysia. Moreover, the regression analysis showed that all the variables except for personal motivation exerted significant impacts on performance with anxiety having a negative impact while attitude and instrumental orientation having positive impacts. Liu’s (2007) study on Chinese university students’ attitudes and motivation to learn English and the correlations of both variables with the students’ English proficiency also revealed similar findings. The third-year undergraduates had positive attitudes and high level of motivation towards learning English. Liu (2007) suggested that this may be due to the rapid demand for university graduates to be highly proficient in English. In addition, correlation analysis showed that students who had more positive attitudes towards learning English tend to score higher in the proficiency test. However, Liu suggested that more positive attitudes and higher instrumental and travel orientations might also be the result of students’ higher English proficiency.

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Haitema (2002) and Saracaloğlu (2000) in their studies reveal that there is a positive relationship between affective characteristics and foreign language achievement. In her study, Saracaloğlu (2000) refers to the students’ attitudes that they differ according to the type of high school, that is Anatolian High School and private high school showed high positive attitudes towards foreign language. Bartley (1970) stated that his studies have showed that there was a direct relationship between positive attitudes and high achievement as well as negative attitudes and low achievement. That positive attitudes enhance achievement has been confirmed and described by Lambert et al. (1963), and Spolsky (1969). Chalak and Kassaian (2010) investigated motivation and attitude of Iranian undergraduate EFL students towards learning English. The research focused on the motivation orientations of the students and their attitudes towards the target language and its community. A group of 108 students majoring in English Translation in Isfahan, Iran was surveyed using Attitude, Motivation Test Battery (AMTB). The results revealed that these Iranian non-native speakers of English learned the language for both ‘instrumental’ and 'integrative' reasons and their attitudes towards the target language community and its members were generally found to be highly positive. 2.2. Academic Motivation The relationships between academic motivation and language proficiency have long attracted researchers’ attention. Motivation determines how and why people learn and how they perform (Pintrich & Schunk, 1996). Clement and Kruidenier (1985) and Dornyei (1994) have demonstrated that measures of proficiency in the second/foreign language are related to motivational characteristics of students. In this respect, Corria (1999) claims that a full understanding of students’ motivation is necessary to maximize the English language results and positive outcomes. Kharma (1977) also found that different kinds of motivation to learn a foreign language may produce different rates and ultimate levels of proficiency. Thus, the importance of motivation in enhancing second/foreign language learning is undeniable. Lifrieri (2005) points out that “when asked about the factors which influence individual levels of success in any activity – such as language learning – most people would certainly mention motivation among them” (p. 4). Brown (2000) states that “it is easy in second language learning to claim that a learner will be successful with the proper motivation” (p. 160). With similar views, Gardner (2006) posits that “students with higher levels of motivation will do better than students with lower levels” (p. 241). He further adds Iranian EFL Journal

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that “if one is motivated, he/she has reasons (motives) for engaging in the relevant activities, expends effort, persists in the activities, attends to the tasks, shows desire to achieve the goal, enjoys the activities, etc” (Gardner, 2006, p. 243). Moreover, relations between students’ academic motivation and academic achievement have been routinely established in the literature (Ames, 1992; McInerney, 2001; Pintrich and Maehr, 1995; Wentzel, 1991). Skaalvik and Valas’ (1999) study of Norwegian elementary and middle school students also included a measure of motivation (interest and investment) into their study of reciprocal effects. In the two oldest cohorts, the results revealed that motivation was affected directly by achievement. Gardner (1985) found that motivation has close relationship with learner’s achievement. He analyzed the role of attitude and motivation in second language acquisition through his previous study. The results indicate that the attitudinal-motivational factors were also related to student’s achievement. In Japan, learners’ motivation and attitudes towards the English language were also of concern for many researchers. One of the most relevant studies was that of Benson (1991) who surveyed over 300 freshmen to assess their motivation towards learning English. The results demonstrated the importance of integrative and personal goals as factors in motivation among Japanese college students as he stated, “integrative and personal reasons for learning English were preferred over instrumental ones" (Benson, 1991, p. 34). In Iran, a few similar studies (e.g, Shaikholeslami & Khayyer, 2006; Rastegar, 2003; and Tohidi, 1984) have also been conducted with different groups of students among Iranian students to investigate their motivation. Most of them (learners), however, were college students. Sadighi & Maghsudi, (2000) investigated the effect of the two types of motivation (integrative and instrumental) on the English proficiency of the EFL senior students at Islamic Azad University of Kerman city. The results of their study showed a significant difference between the means of the English proficiency scores of the integratively motivated students and the instrumentally motivated ones and there were significant correlations between the integrative and instrumental motivation with the students' English proficiency scores. It was also found out that the personal, social, and educational factors had significant relationships with the EFL students’ motivation. Other studies done in this area are as follows: Ramazanian (1998); Hassanpur (1999); Salimi (2000); Sedaghat (2001); Roohani (2001); Hassani (2005); Fazel and Razmjoo (2007); Neissi (2007); and Zarei (2009). This study intends to answer the following major questions: Iranian EFL Journal

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1. Is there any significant relationship between language learning attitude and language proficiency? 2. Is there any significant relationship between academic motivation and language proficiency? 3. Is there any significant relationship between language learning attitude and academic motivation?

3. Methodology 3.1. Participants The participants of this study were selected using cluster sampling, a type of probability sampling (Mousavi, 1999). The sample were selected from the population of senior and junior university students who were majoring in EFL related fields (Teaching, Literature and Translation) from Bahonar University of Kerman during the academic year of 2012. In general, 120 students formed the participants of the study among which 50 were males and 70 were females. The rationale behind selecting EFL senior and junior students was that they had already passed more English courses, comparing to the sophomore or freshman students and they had already gained relative language proficiency. This was due to the fact that in this study the researcher aimed at finding whether language attitude and academic motivation could have any contribution to the differences in language proficiency scores among the university students or not. 3.2. Instrument For achieving the required data on the appointed variables, i.e. language proficiency as the dependent variable and language attitude and academic motivation as the independent variables, three different instruments were used.

1. Language Attitude scale(LAS), Saracaloğlu (1992) 2. Academic Motivation scale(AMS), Vallerand, et al. (1989) 3. Michigan Proficiency Test, short version (1997) 3.2.1. Language Attitude scale (LAS), Saracaloğlu (1992) The first questionnaire is Language Attitude Scale (LAS) developed by Saracaloğlu (1992). This Scale, which is 5- point Likert- type, consists of 38 items, 23 of which are positive and 15 of which are negative statements. The lowest score to be obtained from the scale is 38, the highest score is 190. The higher scores refer to positive attitudes towards foreign language. Positive items are scored from 5 to 1; negative ones are scored 1 through 5. Negative items

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are “2, 4, 7, 9, 11, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24, 25, 27, 29, 33, 35”numbered ones. The statements were graded as Totally Agree, Agree, Neither Agree nor Disagree, Disagree, Totally Disagree. In addition, the scale, whose Cronbach alpha reliability was found as .096, has one dimension. 3.2.2. Academic Motivation scale (AMS), Vallerand, et al. (1989) The second questionnaire is Academic Motivation Scale (AMS) developed by Vallerand, R.J., Blais, M.R., Brière, N.M., & Pelletier, L.G. (1989) .This scale is a 28-item measure of students’ motivation for attending university. The AMS uses a 7-point Likert-type scale that measures three major motivation dimensions: Intrinsic, Extrinsic, and Amotivation. They are graded

as

Does

not

correspond

at

all,Corresponds

a

little,Corresponds

moderately,Corresponds a lot,and Corresponds exactly. The Intrinsic motivation has three sub-scales (to know, toward accomplishment, to experience stimulation) like the Extrinsic motivation (identified, introjected, external regulation). However, for the purpose of the present study, the three major dimensions were used. The range on the SDI is from -18 to +18.The higher the score, the more intrinsic the participant is considered to be. Vallerand et al. reported that Cronbach’s coefficient alphas for the subscales ranged from .83 to .86, with the exception of the identified subscale of extrinsic motivation, which had an internal consistency of .62. 3.2.3. Michigan Proficiency Test, short version (1997) In order to evaluate English proficiency of the participants, short version of Michigan English proficiency test was chosen. The examination for the certificate of proficiency in English (ECPE) was developed at English Language Institute of the University of Michigan (ELIUM). It is a test battery for assessing English proficiency as a second language at an advanced level. The short form of this test consists of 35 items which are embedded in 4 different sections: Cloze, Grammar, Vocabulary and Reading.

4. Data collection procedure 120 senior male and female EFL students of Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman took the Michigan proficiency test and two other questionnaires, Language Attitude and Academic Motivation. Each student was provided with an answer sheet and a test booklet. First, the subjects were asked to answer the 35 multiple choice items of the proficiency test in class in 35 minutes and take the two questionnaires home to answer. Before starting to answer, the students were asked to write their student numbers on both the answer sheet and the

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questionnaire in order that the researcher would be able to match the scores of each student. After collecting the proficiency answer sheets, subjects were informed about how to fill the Language Attitude and Academic Motivation. They were assured that neither their teachers nor any other person, other than the researcher, would have access to their responses. At the end, the researcher asked those students who wanted to receive the result of the study to write their Email address in the specified place at the end of the second questionnaire.

5. Results Table 4.1 presents the basic statistical description for the scores of Language learning attitude, academic motivation, each of academic motivation factors, and language proficiency for the sample of university EFL students. Table 1. The descriptive statistics of the variables Descriptive Statistics

Language Attitude Academic Motivatio Language Proficien Amotivation Extrinsic Motivation Intrinsic Motivation Valid N (listwise)

N Statistic 120 120 120 120 120 120 120

Range Statistic 138.00 23.00 30.00 15.33 49.42 72.50

Std. Minimum Maximum Mean Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic 52.00 190.00 148.4500 28.15350 -5.00 18.00 8.2692 6.23576 5.00 35.00 19.8833 8.64829 1.00 16.33 4.1805 3.39877 3.66 53.08 28.2046 17.02860 3.33 75.83 27.2221 16.98883

Variance Statistic 792.619 38.885 74.793 11.552 289.973 288.620

Skewness Statistic Std. Error -.940 .221 -.131 .221 .439 .221 1.231 .221 -.297 .221 -.028 .221

5.1. Learners’ Language Learning Attitude (LLA) In order to describe the variable of language attitude, the five possible answers to each item of this category (“1. Totally agree, 2.Agree, 3. Neither agree nor disagree 4.Disagree, and 5.Totally disagree”) have been coded and then summed up. For the variable of language learning attitude, the scores ranged from a minimum of 52.00 to a maximum of 190.00, with the mean of 148.45 and a standard deviation of 28.15 (Table 4.2). Table 2. The Descriptive Statistics of Students’ Language Learning Attitude

Skewne N

Range

Language 120 138.00

Minimum Maximum 52.00

190.00

Mean

Std. Variance Deviation 148.4500 28.15350 792.619

ss -.940

Attitude The histogram for the distribution of language attitude scores is displayed in figure 4.1. On the whole, the collected data demonstrate a negative skew (Skewness = -0.940) in the

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distribution of students' language learning attitude scores which means that most of the students have positive language attitude. The negative skew means that scores are slightly more spread out at the low end than the high end of the scores. According to Farhady (2009, p.176) “If most of the scores are high and a few scores are low, the peak of the distributon will fall toward the right side of the graph and the few low scores will make the distribution skewed”. So, because a few low scores are the cause of skewness, the distribution is called negatively skewed. 25

Frequency

20

15

10

5 Mean =148.45 Std. Dev. =28.153 N =120 0 60.00

80.00

100.00

120.00

140.00

160.00

180.00

200.00

Language Attitude

Figure 1. Distribution of language attitude scores in the sample 5.2. Learners’ Academic Motivation (AM) In order to describe the variable of academic motivation, the five possible answers to each item of this category (“1.Does not correspond at all, 2. Corresponds a little, 3. Corresponds moderately 4.Corresponds alot, and 5.Corresponds exactly”) have been coded and then summed up. For the variable of academic motivation, the scores ranged from a minimum of 5.00 to a maximum of 18.00, with the mean of 8.26 and a standard deviation of 6.23 (Table 4.3). Table 3. The Descriptive Statistics of Students’ Academic Motivation

N

Range

Minimum Maximum

Mean

Std. Variance Deviation 6.23576 38.885

Skewne ss

Academic 120 23.00 -5.00 18 8.2692 -.131 Motivation The histogram for the distribution of academic motivation scores is displayed in figure 4.2. On the whole, the collected data demonstrate a rather normal distribution because the Iranian EFL Journal

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majority of scores are located in the center of the graph and the curve is somehow bell shaped. Moreover, the number of skewness that is -0.131, is just a few less than zero. So it can be considered as a normal diagram (Figure 4.2). 20

Frequency

15

10

5

Mean =8.27 Std. Dev. =6.236 N =120 0 -5.00

0.00

5.00

10.00

15.00

20.00

Academic Motivation

Figure 2. Distribution of academic motivation scores in the sample 5.3. Learners’ Language Proficiency (LP) For the variable of language proficiency, the scores ranged from a minimum of 5.00 to a maximum of 35.00, with the mean of 19.88 and a standard deviation of 8.64 (Table 4.7). Table 4. The Descriptive Statistics of Students’ Language Proficiency

N Language

Range Minimum Maximum

120 30.00

5.00

35.00

Skewne Std. Variance ss Deviation 19.8833 8.64829 74.793 .439 Mean

Proficiency The histogram for the distribution of language proficiency scores is displayed in figure 4.6. On the whole, the collected data shows a positive skew (shewness= 0.439) in the distribution of students' language proficiency which shows the learners’ low language proficiency. Positive skew means that scores are more spread out at the high end of the scores. According to Farhady (2009, p.177) “If most of the scores are low and a few scores are high, then the peak of the distribution will fall on the left side of the graph”. So, because a few high scores will be the cause of the skewness, the distribution is called positively skewed.

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20

Frequency

15

10

5

Mean =19.88 Std. Dev. =8.648 N =120 0 5.00

10.00

15.00

20.00

25.00

30.00

35.00

Language Proficiency

Figure 3. Distribution of language proficiency scores in the sample. 5.4. Statistical Analysis In this section, the statistical analysis of the data will be presented. 5.4.1. Analysis of the relationship between LLA and LP To answer the first research question (Is there any relationship between language learning attitude and language proficiency), Pearson Correlation was conducted. The analysis of the collected data shows that Pearson correlation coefficients between language learning attitude and language proficiency is 0.24 with the P-values of 0.008 which is less than the significant level of α= 0.05 (Table 4.8). Moreover, according to the correlation coefficient which is positive and the gradient of the fit line in Figure 4.7, the relationship between the abovementioned variables is positive. Therefore, it can be concluded that there is a high positive significant relationship between language learning attitude and language proficiency, that means by increasing the learners’ language attitude (independent variable), the scores of learners’ language proficiency (dependant variable) increases too. Table 5. Pearson Correlation between LLA and LP Correlations Language Attitude Language Attitude


Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N

1 120 .242** .008 120

Language Proficiency .242** .008 120 1 120

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

According to scattering of the dots in the scatter diagram below, it is clear that as the scores of language attitude increase, the scores of language proficiency increases too, which shows a Iranian EFL Journal

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positive relationship between the variables. Moreover, fixing coefficient between language learning attitude and language proficiency is 0.059. In other words, %5.89 of the changes between above-mentioned variables is common.(%5.89 of changes of dependant variable is justified by the degree of independent variable). 200.00

180.00

Language Attitude

160.00

140.00

120.00

100.00

80.00 R Sq Linear = 0.059 60.00

5.00

10.00

15.00

20.00

25.00

30.00

35.00


Figure 4. The scatter Diagram for Correlation between LLA and LP 5.4.2. Analysis of the relationship between AM and LP To answer the second research question (Is there any relationship between academic motivation and language proficiency), Pearson Correlation was conducted. The analysis of the collected data shows that Pearson correlation coefficients between academic motivation and language proficiency is 0.44 with the P-values of 0.00 which is less than the significant level of α= 0.05(Table 4.9). Moreover, according to the correlation coefficient which is positive and the gradient of the fit line in Figure 4.8, the relationship between the abovementioned variables is positive. Therefore, it can be concluded that there is a significant positive relationship between academic motivation and language proficiency, that means by increasing the learners’ academic motivation (independent variable), the scores of learners’ language proficiency (dependant variable) increases too. Table 6. Pearson Correlation between AM and LP Correlations Academic Motivation Academic Motivation



1 120 .440** .000 120

Language Proficiency .440** .000 120 1 120


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According to scattering of the dots in the scatter diagram below, it is clear that as the scores of academic motivation increase, the scores of language proficiency increases too, which shows a positive relationship between the variables. In other words, the more motivated the students are, the higher their scores of language proficiency will be. Moreover, fixing coefficient between academic motivation and language proficiency is 0.194. In other words, %19.4 of the changes between abovementioned variables is common. (%19.4 of changes of dependant variable is justified by the degree of independent variable). 20.00

Academic Motivation

15.00

10.00

5.00

0.00 R Sq Linear = 0.194

-5.00 5.00

10.00

15.00

20.00

25.00

30.00

35.00


Figure 5. The scatter Diagram for Correlation between AM and LP 5.4.3. Analysis of the relationship between LLA and AM To answer the third research question (Is there any relationship between language learning attitude and academic motivation), Pearson Correlation was conducted. The analysis of the collected data shows that Pearson correlation coefficients between language learning attitude and academic motivation is 0.76 with the P-values of 0.00 which is less than the significant level of α= 0.05 (Table 4.10). Moreover, according to the correlation coefficient which is positive and the gradient of the fit line in Figure 4.9, the relationship between the abovementioned variables is positive. Therefore, it can be concluded that there is a significant positive relationship between language learning attitude and academic motivation, that means by increasing the learners’ language learning attitude (independent variable), the scores of learners’ academic motivation (independent variable) increases too.

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Table 7. Pearson Correlation Coefficient between LLA and AM Correlations Language Attitude Language Attitude

Academic Motivation


1 120 .769** .000 120

Academic Motivation .769** .000 120 1 120


According to scattering of the dots in the scatter diagram below, it is clear that as the scores of language learning attitude increase, the scores of academic motivation increases too, which shows a positive relationship between the variables. Moreover, fixing coefficient between language learning attitude and academic motivation is 0.592. In other words, %59.2 of the changes between above-mentioned variables is common. (%59.2 of changes of language attitude is justified by the degree of academic motivation). 200.00

180.00

Language Attitude

160.00

140.00

120.00

100.00

80.00 R Sq Linear = 0.592 60.00

-5.00

0.00

5.00

10.00

15.00

20.00

Academic Motivation

Figure 6. The scatter Diagram for Correlation between LLA and AM 6. Discussion In order to answer the first research question (Is there any significant relationship between language learning attitude and language proficiency), the data obtained from Language Attitude Scale (LAS) and Michigan Proficiency Test were analyzed. Pearson Correlations was conducted to find any significant relationships between LLA and LP. The results revealed that there was a significant positive relationship between LLA and LP(r= 0.24). Moreover, the result of this study supports previous established results. For example, Oxford and Shearin (1994), Lukmani (1972), and Kachru (1992) found similar findings in their Iranian EFL Journal

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studies. According to them, learner variables (attitude, motivation, anxiety) have positive influences on learners’ language proficiency. In their classic study on attitude and motivation, Gardner and Lambert (1972) also concluded that attitude and motivation are factors that influence the development of second-language proficiency. Successful language learners “must be psychologically prepared to adopt various aspects of behavior which characterize members of another linguistic–cultural group” (Gardner and Lambert, 1972, p.3).In addition, Liu’s (2007) study on Chinese university students’ attitudes and motivation to learn English and the correlations of both variables with the students’ English proficiency also revealed similar findings. In Liu’s (2007) study, correlation analysis showed that students who had more positive attitudes towards learning English tend to score higher in the proficiency test. Considering their studies, it can be concluded that the more positive attitudes the students have, the higher the scores of their language proficiency will be. In order to answer the second research question (Is there any significant relationship between academic motivation and language proficiency), the data obtained from Academic Motivation Scale (AMS) and Michigan Proficiency Test were analyzed. Pearson Correlations was conducted to find any significant relationships between AM and LP. The results revealed that there was a significant positive relationship between AM and LP(r= 0.44). In fact, the more motivated the students, the higher their scores of LP. Concerning the significant positive relationship between AM and LP in this study, Bailey et al.(2000), also found that as motivation has a direct effect on the target language proficiency, it is a strong predictor of substantial foreign language proficiency as well. In addition, Kharma (1977) found that different kinds of motivation to learn a foreign language may produce different rates and ultimate levels of proficiency. Clement and Kruidenier (1985), and Dornyei (1994) also have demonstrated that measures of proficiency in the second/foreign language are related to motivational characteristics of students. In this respect, Corria (1999) claims that a full understanding of students’ motivation is necessary to maximize the English language results and positive outcomes. In order to answer the third research question (Is there any significant relationship between language learning attitude and academic motivation), the data obtained from Language Learning Attitude (LLA) and Academic Motivation (AM) were analyzed. Pearson Correlations was conducted to find any significant relationships between LLA and AM. The results revealed that there was a significant positive relationship between LLA and AM (r= 0.76). The result of this study supports previous results, for example, (Dörnyei, 2001; Gardner, 1985; Gardner & MacIntyre, 1993; Liu, 2009; Tremblay & Gardner, 1995) have Iranian EFL Journal

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confirmed that positive attitudes towards a language often lead to higher motivation to learn and higher proficiency in the language as well. In addition, Gardner and Lambert (1972) state that the learners’ motivation to learn is thought to be determined by his attitudes towards the other group in particular and by his/her orientations towards the learning task itself .Moreover, Gardner (1999) in one of his research using Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) to measure the major attitudinal and motivational variables, and indices of anxiety associated with learning a second language concluded that it was obvious the basic associations between attitudes and motivation on the one hand, and achievement on the other were quite stable. Cook (1996) in his research concluded that the usual meaning of motivation for the teacher is probably the interest that something generates in the students and it relates to the attitudes of students towards the target language, as these are rooted in their minds and their background (Cook, 1996). So, attitudes are related strongly to motivation, it is evident that people with a negative attitude towards a language could not be motivated learners, and there is evidence to support the correlation between the positive attitude about a language and high achievement (Wilhelm, 1999).

7. Conclusion This study sets out to find out 1) relationship between language learning attitude and language proficiency, 2) the relationship between academic motivation and language proficiency, 3) the relationship between language learning attitude and academic motivation. The study found that first, there was a significant positive relationship between language learning attitude and language proficiency; Second, there was a significant positive relationship between academic motivation and language proficiency; third, there was a significant positive relationship between language learning attitude and academic motivation. In fact, the more students have positive language attitude, the higher their scores of language proficiency; the more motivated the students, the higher their scores of language proficiency, and the more students have positive attitude, the higher their scores of academic motivation.

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Title The Effect of Different Text Types on Cognitive and Metacognitive Listening Comprehension Strategy Use among Iranian EFL Learners Author Anis Behzadi (M.A) Iran

Biodata Anis Behzadi holds an M.A. degree in TEFL. She has been teaching as a lecturer at Sirjan Payame Noor University, Sirjan, Iran. Her research interests include task based teaching, cognitive and metacognitive styles and strategies, psycholingustic, motivation, photographic memory.

Abstract Listening comprehension is viewed theoretically as an active process in which individuals focus on selected aspects of aural input, construct meaning from passages, and relate what they hear to existing knowledge. This theoretical view has not been sufficiently supported by direct research which clarifies what listeners actually do while engaged in listening tasks. If you have ever listened to a paragraph and realized that you were not paying attention or did not understand something, you were engaging in metacognitive monitoring. In fact, listening was a complicated phenomenon for English foreign language learner. However in recent years, there has been an increased focus on L2 listening ability because of its perceived importance in language learning and acquisition. The present study investigated the effect of static and dynamic (expository and narrative) task/text types on listening comprehension among Iranian EFL learners. Brown & Yule (1985) categorized spoken texts into three broad types (narrative and expository & abstract ).In fact , texts which describe an object or give an instruction are expository, those that tell a story or recount an incident are narrative. To comprehend every kind of spoken texts, students should apply some specific strategies. After training and practicing sessions, the researcher distributed metacognitive listening questionnaire with 24 questions in total. To analyse the result SPSS software was used. The result showed that some cognitive and

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metacognitive strategies were used more than the others in the experimental and control groups. Keywords: Listening comprehension, Narrative texts, Expositorytexts, Metacognitive strategies.

1. Introduction There is a wealth of research substantiating the fact that both cognitive and metacognitive strategies are used by both expert and novice learners. More importantly, researchers have shown that when learners combine both, i.e., learning strategies and strategy regulation, they not only learn more (Brown 1982), but they can also transfer the strategy from task to task and their ability to use the strategy over time endures. Research indicates that effective use of strategies depends on a number of variables: the demands of task, the genre of the written or spoken text (for example narrative, expository, instructional), the proficiency level of the learner, the ability of the learner, and beliefs about the nature of language learning. Tasks can be rated as to their case or difficulty in the amount of cognitive control required to perform them. Some can be performed quite mechanically while others require a great deal of attention, hypothesis formation and transformation of language. Effective use of learning strategies has come to be one of the hallmarks of the good or successful language learner. Learning strategies are the operations or steps used by a learner to facilitate the acquisition, storage, retrieval and use of information. As Wenden (1998), notes ‘Learners are actively involved in the process of learning – selectively attending to incoming data, hypothesizing, comparing, elaborating, reconstructing its meaning, and integrating it with previously stored information for future use. In other words, learning strategies are the processes which learners use to learn a language, to make sense of the information being presented. In this view of learning, learners are constantly active as information processors. However, while all learners use learning strategies, successful learners learn how to use them effectively. In fact, listeners maybe unable to process information quickly enough to make sense of what is said. This problem could be due to different factors including cognition and metacognition factors. More concisely, without comprehensible input at the right level, learning cannot take place. Therefore, listening is a fundamental and vital skill in the acquisition of languages (Nunan, 2002). In the light of cognitive theory, O' Mally and Chamot (2001) classified learning strategies into three major types:

Metacognitive Strategies, Cognitive strategies, and

social/effective strategies. This classification would prove useful and has since been drawn up on by Vandergrift (2004), Nation (2006) and indeed this paper. Strategies are learner's Iranian EFL Journal

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deliberate attention to their comprehension processes in order to construct meaning (Cohen 2000). There are many different types of listening, which can be classified according to the number of variables, including: purpose for listening or type of task, the role of listener, and the type of text being listened to. These variables are mixed in many different configurations, each of which will require a particular strategy on the part of listener. Listening purpose is an important variable, for instance listening to a news broadcast or a lecture to get main idea involves different processes and strategies from listening to a sequence of instruction for operating a new piece of a computer software requires different listening skills and strategies. Actually, the purpose of listening is changed according to specific text and task. This study is mainly composed to answer to two main questions: 1-Are there any differences in the use of cognitive and met cognitive strategy use between static and dynamic groups? 2- What are the cognitive and metacognitive strategies employed by participants in

two

groups?

2. Review of the related literature Anderson (2002a, p.1) defines metacognition as "thinking about thinking." As Anderson states, the use of metacognitive strategies ignites one's thinking and can lead to higher learning and better performance. Furthermore, understanding and controlling cognitive process may be one of the most essential skills that teachers can help second language learners develop. According to (Flavell, 1987, p. 252) metacognition involves "active monitoring and consequent regulation and orchestration of cognitive process to achieve cognitive goals". It included interpretation of ongoing experience, or simply making judgments about what one knows or does not know to accomplish a task, as other features of metacognition. Along with the notions of active and conscious monitoring, regulation, and orchestration of thought process, Flavell (1987) believed through repeated use of metacognition, it might in time become automatized. Most of the early investigations of metacognition were particularly interested in processes concerned with conscious and deliberate storage and retrieval of information. Anderson (2002a) has proposed five main components for metacognition. They include: 1) preparing and planning for learning, 2) selecting and using learning strategies, 3) monitoring strategy use, 4) orchestrating various strategies, and 5) evaluating strategy use and learning. By preparation and planning in relation to their learning goal, students think about what their goals are and how they will go

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about accomplishing them. Students, with the help of the teacher, can set a realistic goal within a set time for accomplishing that goal. Setting clear, challenging, and realistic goals can help students see their own progress and hopefully, by becoming consciously aware of their progress, the students' motivation for learning would be increased. The metacognitive ability to select and use particular strategies in a piece of listening for a specific purpose means that the learner can think and make conscious decisions about the learning process. Learners should be taught not only about learning strategies but also about when to use them and how to use them. Students should be instructed on how to choose the best and most appropriate strategy in a given situation. The next main component of metacognition is monitoring strategy use. By examining and monitoring their use of learning strategies, students have more chances of success in meeting their learning goals (Anderson, 2002a). Students should be explicitly taught that once they have selected and begun to use the specific strategies, they need to check periodically whether or not those strategies are effective and being used as intended. For example, when listening, they can use context to guess the meaning of some unknown vocabulary parts. To monitor their use of this strategy, they should pause and check to see if the meaning they guessed makes sense in the listening and if not, go back and modify or change their strategy. One of the most important metacognitive strategies is to evaluate effectiveness of strategy use. Self-questioning, debriefing discussions after strategies practice, learning logs in which students record the results of their learning strategies applications, and checklists of strategies used can be used to allow the student to reflect through the cycle of learning. At this stage of metacognition the whole cycle of planning, selecting, using, monitoring and orchestration of strategies is evaluated. It should be noted that different metacognitive skills interact with each other. The components are not used in a linear fashion. More than one metacognitive process along with cognitive ones may be working during a learning task (Anderson, 2002b). Therefore the orchestration of various strategies is a vital component of second language learning in general and vocabulary learning in particular. Allowing learners opportunities to think about and talk about how they combine various strategies facilitates strategy use.Metacognitive strategies do not only help learning in general but also have a lot to offer to listening comprehension specifically. Vandergrift (1997) indicates that metacognitive strategies such as analyzing the requirements of a listening task, activating the appropriate listening processes required, making appropriate predictions, monitoring their comprehension and evaluating the success of their approach cause the difference between a skilled and a less-skilled listener. Similarly,

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Goh (2008) lists some of the positive effects of metacognitive strategy training on listening comprehension.

3. Methodology 3.1. Subjects In the current survey, 60 intermediate students were chosen from 120 English students learning English in different language institutes .Then, they were divided randomly into two groups , experimental group and control group , and 30 subjects in each one. Their age range was between 19 and28.One of the classes was randomly selected as the control group and another class as experimental group. The number of the students in the control was 30 and there were 30 subjects in the experimental group. 3.2. Instrumentation Different kinds of research instruments were constructed for current study , including proficiency test, static and dynamic listening , listeningtests, cognitive

metacognitive

questionnaire with 24 questions. 3.3. Data Analysis Both qualitative and quantitative data analyses were performed. To address these issues, the researcher used statistical analysis of t-test was used to test possible differences between the two groups at the beginning and end of the study. In order to establish the homogeneity of the two groups in terms of vocabulary knowledge an independent-samples t-test was conducted to examine the difference among the performance of the two groups on the listening test before the experiment. The result indicated that there was not any significant difference (t (51) = 1.00 a< .05) between the mean scores of the subjects in the control group with the participants in the experimental group. Besides, the qualitative method was also added

in

this study

to prove the role of using 'Static and Dynamic(narrative and

expository)' texts among Iranian EFL learners. To evaluate metacognitive and cognitive questionnaires, “ Likert-scaled which had an ordinal scale of one to five was used. The ordinal scores were transformed into interval variable category. A high interval score indicated frequent use the specific strategy or increased perception of difficulty. The result is presented in the following tables.

4. Results Table 1 Listening Planning Strategies (Experimental group) Iranian EFL Journal

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Listening Planning Strategies (Metacognitive strategies)

Mean

SD

1-I clarify the objectives of an anticipated listening task .

1.55

0.81

2-Before listening, I prefer my mind to concentrate.

2.58

2.40

3-Before listening,I request myself to make progress.

3.10

3.02

Table 2 Listening Planning Strategies (Control group) Listening Planning Strategies (Metacognitive strategies) 1-I clarify the objectives of an anticipated listening task.

Mean 2.11

SD 1.25

2-Before listening, I prefer my mind to concentrate.

4.03

0.67

3-Before listening, I request myself to make progress.

3.89

0.74

Chen (2009) stated that previewing the questions before the text was helpful to the learner’s comprehension. From statement 1 to 3, we can conclude that least students in dynamic group could clarify the objectives of listening task (1.55) and prepared their mind to concentrate (2.58) and requested themselves to make progress (3.10) .On the other hand, participants in control(static) group could prepare their mind to concentrate (M=4.03) and requested themselves to make progress (M=3.3.89) rather than clarify the objectives and propose strategies (M=2.11).Therefore, the researcher conclude that the control group prefer to use more listening planning strategies than dynamic group. However, for learners, their lack of knowledge of grammar and vocabulary would definitely affect their listening comprehension, and thus reduced their confidence (Yang, 2006). Weinstein (2005) suggested teachers list the new vocabulary on the board and offered the pictures to help the students predict the listing questions. Nevertheless, Conner (2006) considered that pre-teaching vocabulary before listening might negatively influenced the student’s strategy using because the students might focus on clues and not pay attention to understand the whole content. Table 3 Monitoring strategies(Experimental group) Monitoring Strategies(Metacognitive strategies)

Mean

SD

4- While listening, I don’t understand if I am unfamiliar with speakers’ accent 5- While listening, I will check what part of content I don’t understand. 6- While listening, I will double check again for my answer.

3.43

10.2

3.39

0.83

1.78

0.92

7- I am aware of my inattention and correct it while doing listening test.

1.39

0.85

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Table 4 Monitoring strategies(Control group) Monitoring Strategies(Metacognitive strategies)

Mean

SD

4- While listening, I don’t understand if I am unfamiliar with speakers’ accent 5- While listening, I will check what part of content I don’t understand. 6- While listening, I will double check again for my answer.

1.77

0.91

3.78

1.13

2.26

1.06


2.39

1.02

While listening, most students in experimental (dynamic) group were aware that they did not concentrate on listening, and correct it immediately (M=1.39). However, the speakers’ accent, stress and speed would influence their mind. In the statement 4, most of the listeners confused about what they heard because of speakers’ accents (M=3.43). The results corresponded with Yang’s (2006) study, reporting that there were 66.25% of learners influenced by speakers’ accent. The unfamiliar accents might hinder listeners from understanding the contents. However, as English is an international language used by variety of nations around the world now, different accents of materials should be introduced in accessing

listening

exercises

in

the

classroom.

Comparatively,

students,

in

experimental(dynamic) group , showed low interests if they were willing to check the parts they didn’t understand (M=3.39) and did not often check again their answers when they finished the test (M=1.78).On the other hand, control(static) group were aware that they did not concentrate on listening and correct it immediately( M= 2.39). The speaker accent would influence their mind in control group(M= 1.77) ; the students check the parts they did not understand(M = 3.78) and often check again their answers when they finish the test (M=2.26) either, in control group. As different types of materials can cause different barriers for variety of listeners, Yang (2006) stated that 87.5% of students thought news was the most difficult listening materials while 85% of students suppose short conversation was somewhat easier. In this statement, students in experimental group were not used to look over their answers again but the student in static group do it more. Some possible explanation might result from their losing patience, out of time etc. Yet, Bacon (1992) suggested that teachers should provide “a variety of text, tasks, strategies, and overt practices in order to help listeners develop that unique compound that is most effective for them as individuals.” Table 5 Evaluation Strategies(Experimental group)

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Listening Evaluation strategies(Metacognitive Strategies)

Mean

SD

8- After listening, I reflect on my problems, such as the key words that I don’t understand

2.86

0.98

9- After listening, I evaluate how much I could understand.

2.87

0.98

10- I will write down the words I don’t know after the listening tests and look up the dictionary

2.74

1.04

Listening Evaluation strategies(Metacognitive Strategies)

Mean

SD


3.30

1.19


2.04

0.90

10- I will write down the words I don’t know after the listening tests and look up the dictionary

1.83

0.85

Table 6 Evaluation Strategies(Control group)

From statements 8 to 10, results demonstrated that most students in static group found out the problems by checking the key words (M=3.30) and contents (M=2.04) they didn’t understand. However, for the further study of looking up the words in the dictionary, we found that students in experimental group showed their conservative attitude in it (M=1.83) and control(static) group(M=2.74) for, post-listening evaluation strategies, having a large lexicon could help EFL learners improve their listening comprehension (Yang, 2006). Most of the listeners had problems of poor vocabulary. When they heard some words they could not figure out, they would feel confused. How to expand the vocabulary was an important issue in language learning (Chu, 2004). In Goh and Yustina (2006) research, it indicated that most subjects looked up the unknown vocabulary in the dictionary. Yet, in this study, almost half of the subjects did not look up the unknown vocabulary in the dictionary. Actually, many non-native students are used to the ways of acquiring information from teachers instead of self-searching. It is essential for instructors to stimulate students’ learning autonomy in problem-solving while designing instruction. Table 7Cognitive Strategies(Experimental group) Cognitive listening strategies 11-I will practice English listening actively in daily lives, such as listening to English Radio, English songs, talking to foreigners. Iranian EFL Journal

Mean

SD

3.30

1.19

174

12-While listening, I try to translate words or sentences into Persian.

2.87

0.98

13-While listening, I can apply the new vocabulary, phrases, or grammar I have learned to understand the content.

1.78

0.99

Mean

SD

11-I will practice English listening actively in daily lives, such as listening to English Radio, English songs, talking to foreigners.

1.78

0.99


3.11

1.14


3.39

1.02

Table 8 Cognitive Strategies(Control group) Cognitive listening strategies

In this category of evaluating learners’ cognitive translation, most learners can utilize the new words, phrases, or grammar to comprehend the content in the article in control group (M=3.39) and they like to translate words or sentences into Persian in order to understand (M=3.11). However, while asking students if they will practice actively in daily lives, so many persons show their strong motivation in learning listening comprehension in experimental(dynamic) group (M=3.30) and less students show their interest in control (static) group(1.78). In Conner’s (2006) study, subjects frequently practiced English by watching films or TV programs, listening to English songs, radio programs, and English lectures and interesting topics and some popular songs could attract students’ learning motivation. In a study, Hedgcock (2005) found most of the subjects in his research did not receive proper training in English listening comprehension. The data indicated that 86.4% of them accessed their listening ability by their teachers’ pronunciation of vocabulary, and phrases or oral reading of sentences and passages, and only 28.7% of the students practiced listening through audiotapes. In this study, the result illustrated that most of the students only studied in the English classroom, and were lack of passion to utilize any facilities around them to improve their listening comprehension. Chu (2004) stated that students tended to be panic in listening the real materials since authentic materials were faster in speaking speed. After all, instead of giving listening tests, the instructor might consider to create an authentic and friendly listening environment for promoting students’ learning motivation. Iranian EFL Journal

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Table 9 Bottom-up Cognitive strategies(Experimental group) Bottom-up(Cognitive strategies)

Mean

SD

14-While listening, I will notice the information questions with who, how, when, where and what in the content.

1.93

0.85

15-While listening, I try to understand each word.

1.89

0.29

16-While listening, I repeat words or phrases softly or mentally.

2.10

0.62

17-While listening, I piece things together from the details

2.72

0.40

18-While listening, I will take note.

1.81

Table 10 Bottom-up Cognitive strategies(Control group) Bottom-up(Cognitive strategies)

0.25

Mean

SD

14-While listening, I will notice the information questions with who, how,when, where and what in the content.

2.31

0.29

15-While listening, I try to understand each word.

3.35

1.06

16-While listening, I repeat words or phrases softly or mentally.

2.87

1.02


3.61

1.08

18-while listening ,I will take note.

2.89

1.04

The bottom-up strategies tend to understand the details such as words or phrases of the content. Among statements 14 to 18, it seems that listeners in control(static)group like to put details together to understand what the sentences mean(M=3.61), and notice the information of who, how, when, where, and what (M=2.31)), piece things together from the details , try to understand each word (M=3.35), However, the skills of repeating words or phrases softly or mentally are comparatively not used by most students (M=2.87).On the other hand, in experimental group, students notice the information of who ,how ,when ,where ,and what(M= 1.93), try to understand each word(M=1.89),repeating word or phrase(M=2.10) .In this part, the students in Control group(use more bottom-up strategies than the students in experimental group. Actually, for applying of bottom-up processing, it is necessary to learn how to break the content down into its components and combine together. However, learners need a large Iranian EFL Journal

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vocabulary and good working knowledge of sentence structure to process texts bottom-up. Traditionally, the exercises of dictation, cloze listening, the use of multiple-choice questions after the texts etc. are applied to process the bottom-up strategy. Richards (2008) pointed out that the recognition of key words, transition in a discourse, grammatical relationships between elements in sentences, and use stress, intonation to identify word and sentence functions were the essential elements in processing bottom-up strategy. Table 11 Top-down cognitive Strategies(experimental group) Top-down Strategies (Cognitive Strategies)

Mean SD

19-I listen for main ideas first and then details.

4.01

1.09

20-I predict or make hypotheses on texts by titles

2.52

1.07

21-I can guess the meaning based on the context.

3.11

1.14

22-I try to think in English instead of Persian.

1.93

0.85

23-While listening, I form pictures mentally to help me comprehend texts.

1.77

0.99

24-I collect the contents of listening to my personal experiences.

2.73

1.04

Table 12 Top-down cognitive Strategies(Control group) Top-down Strategies (Cognitive Strategies)

Mean SD

19-I listen for main ideas first and then details.

1.37

0.83


1.33

0.82


2.02

0.98

22- I try to think in English instead of Persian.

1.93

0.85


3.39

1.02

24-I collect the contents of listening to my personal experiences.

2.26

1.06

Top-down skills are also essential strategies in listening comprehension, and they evaluated from statements 19 to statement 24. The results indicated that most students in experimental(dynamic) group were good at applying guessing the meaning based on the context (M=3.11) but not familiar with trying to think in English instead of Iranian EFL Journal

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(M=1.93). Other top-down skills were applied by students in improving their listening comprehension. For example, predicting or making hypotheses on texts by titles (M=2.52), listening for main ideas first and then details (M=4.01) and collecting the contents of listening to my personal experiences (M=2.73).On the other hand, least of the students in control(static) group were good at applying listening for main ideas(M=1.37), predict or make hypotheses on texts by title(M=1.33) , guess the meaning based on the context(M=2.02), think in English instead of Persian(M=1.93), form picture mentally to help comprehension(3.39) ,and collecting

the contents of listening to may personal

experiences(M=2.26). Generally speaking, it is concluded that students still need more guidance in developing top-down strategies. As top-down processing went from meaning to language, the background knowledge required for top-down processing might be previous knowledge about the topic of discourse, situational or contextual knowledge, or knowledge in the form of “schemata” or “scripts”-plans about the overall structure of events and relationships between them (Richard, 2008). It is quite natural for learners to choose their familiar ways to process the information in terms of “trying to think in English instead of persian”. However, Some exercises were also suggested by Richard (2008) in developing topdown strategies: use key words to construct the schema of a discourse, infer the setting for the text, role of the participants and their goals, causes or effects, unstated details, and anticipate questions related to the topic or situation.

5. Discussion and Conclusion This study investigated the cognitive and metacognitive listening strategies employed by Iranian EFL students. In fact, there was difference between students use of cognitive and metacignitive in listening comprehension between experimental and control groups. The findings implied that for the metacognitive strategies, there still left lots of space for students to improve among their application of pre-listening planning, while-listening monitoring, and post-listening evaluating strategies. In addition to making progressing in basic skills such as vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure, it is more essential to promote students’ learning listening variety and build up their learning autonomy. In terms of cognitive strategies, bottom-up strategies seems to be applied more often than top-down strategy in control (static) group and top-down strategies were used

more among experimental

(dynamic) group. The findings of this study support the foreign language research literature on strategy training of other components and skills of the language such as reading

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comprehension. Moreover, it can be asserted that the model used to teach metacognitive. In fact, the present study have implications for learners, teachers, and teacher educators in the realm of TEFL in particular and education in general. It helps teachers in accomplishing their challenging task of teaching English in EFL contexts where learners have less exposure to language compared to ESL contexts. Teachers can help learners use different metacognitive strategies to facilitate their listening. Textbook writers, especially in the context of EFL, do not include a sufficient amount of information on learning strategies. A need for the inclusion of and emphasis on learning strategies is obvious. There is a need for more comprehensive research on a wide range of variables affecting language learning strategies use. Variables such as cultural background, beliefs, learning style, motivation, and attitude that may have a bearing on language learning strategy use should be studied with students of different language backgrounds and proficiency levels. Moreover, research on the frequency of use of the social and affective strategies and choice of given strategies is recommended since it is helpful for both learners and teachers. Although this study sheds some light on the usefulness of metacognitive strategy training in listening classes, the findings cannot be generalized to all EFL contexts ,as the number of participants, the duration of the strategy training and practising program and different variables can easily change the results of such studies. Therefore, further studies should explore the effectiveness of metacognitive strategy training with higher number of students and allocate a longer period of time than only 6 weeks that is the time spent on the training for the current study. In addition, more comprehensive research on different variables such as participants’ cultural background and proficiency levels of English is necessary. Different strategy training models and test types should also be used in future research studies to come to the sound conclusion that metacognitive strategy training does actually matter as far as L2 listening comprehension is concerned. More research is needed on a possible cause and effect relationship between some other learning strategies (e.g. cognitive and socio affective) and listening performance as well. As this study is only about the influence of cognitive and metacognitive strategy training on L2 listening, more research should be carried out to investigate the effect of certain metacognitive strategies on different language skills or sub-skills performance in order to claim that metacognitive strategy training is effective in learning English in general. English teachers in different local settings should take such studies as their starting point and engage in classroom research in order to come to more sound conclusions about the effectiveness of strategy training on students’ performance in their classrooms. By reflecting upon their teaching experiences, they can even develop their own strategy training models suitable for their local context. Iranian EFL Journal

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The results suggest that: 1-Teachers need to advise learners about how to apply strategic knowledge – in our case, prior knowledge – flexibly and in combination with other listening strategies. 2- Teachers are more likely to be successful if they use a variety of approaches to developing listening comprehension. 3-Throughout the different phases of language learning teachers should bear in mind that a mixture of approaches will be the most beneficial for long-term listening skill development. 4-The complexity of the interrelationship between top-down and bottom-up processing strategies suggests a wide variety of listening texts and tasks for learners. Implications for choosing which texts to use when are probably the following: A-Topic-specific texts with high prior knowledge (PK) – develop the ability to infer without knowing all words B-Topic-specific texts with low PK – develop the ability to decode and gradually develop schema C-Non-topic specific or multi-topic texts – ability to switch from PK reliance to non-PK reliance. To sum up, it should be noted that the traditional idea of only exposing EFL students to listening texts in listening classes should be challenged by an approach in which strategies can effectively and successfully be embedded to the listening course by means of strategy training program. It is hoped that this study will trigger more research exploring the effect of different strategy training models on students’ performance in different basic skills. Studies proving the effectiveness of strategy training are likely to convince English teachers, teacher trainers, course book writers and curriculum designers to be more aware of the benefits of strategy training and include these strategies in their lessons, course books and curricula.

References Anderson, N.J. (2002a). The role of metacognition in second language teaching and learning. ERIC Digest, April 2002, 3-4. Brown, H.D. (1985). Principles of language learning and teaching. Engelwood Cliffs, NJ; Prentice Hall. Chen (2009), the implementation of strategy instruction in the regular EFL listening curriculum in the context of a Taiwanese college . Asian EFL journal Cohen, A. D. (2000). Strategies in Learning and Using a Second Language. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.

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Conner, L. N. (2006). Cuing Metacognition to Improve Researching and Essay Writing in a Final Year High School Biology Class. Research in Science Education. Chu, J. Y. G. (2004). The influence of strategy use on comprehension and recall of authentic English listening texts by Chinese EFL students in Taiwan. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Minnesota, MN, USA. Flavell, J. H. (1987) . Speculation about the nature and development of metacognition. In F. Goh, C. (2008). Metacognitive Instruction for Second Language Listening Development: Theory, Practice and Research Implications. Regional Language Centre Journal, 39(2), 188 - 213. Goh, C., & Yusnita, T. (2006). Metacognitive instruction in listening for young learners. ELT Journal 60(3), 222–232 Hedgcock.(2008). Investigating learners performed metalingual and preference tasks. Foreign language Annals, volume 26, Issue 3. Nation,R.( 2006): An information processing approach to the good language learner problem. Applied Psycholinguistics. Nunan, D.(2002) . Teaching listening. Nin J.C.Richards & W.A.Renandya (Eds.),Methodology in language teaching:An anthology of current practice(pp.235-237).Cambridge:Camridge University Press. O’Malley, J.M. and Chamot, A.U.( 2001). Learning strategies in second language acquisition. London: Cambridge University Press.

Richards,J.C.(2008). Conversational competence. RELC Journal, 16(1),84-96. Vandergrift, L. (1997). The comprehension strategies of second language (French) listeners: A descriptive study. Foreign Language Annals, 30, 387-409. Vandergrift, L. (2004). Orchestrating strategy use: Toward a model of the skilled second language listener. Language Learning, 53 (3), 463-496. Weinstein, C. E., & Mayer, R. E. (2005). The teaching of learning strategies. In M. C. Wittrock (Ed.), Handbook of research on teaching (pp. 315-327). New York: Macmillan. Wenden, A. L. (1998). Metacognitive knowledge and language learning. Applied Linguistics, 19, 51537. Yang, C. (2006). Astudy of metacognitive strategies employed by English listeners. International Education Studies. 2(4), 134-139. Yule,G.(1985). Pragmatics. Oxford University press.

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Appandix Cognitive & Metacognitive ListeningQuestionnaire Directions: Please respond to the following questions using the scale provided: (1) strongly disagree (2) disagree (3) neutral (4) agree (5) strongly agree Name

Strategies

Likert Scale

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1-I clarify the objectives of an anticipated listening task .

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PL PL

2-Before listening, I prefer my mind to concentrate. 3-Before listening,I request myself to make progress.

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4- While listening, I don’t understand if I am unfamiliar with speakers’ accent

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5- While listening, I will check what part of content I don’t understand.

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6- While listening, I will double check again for my answer.

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10- I will write down the words I don’t know after the listening tests and look up the dictionary.

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11-I will practice English listening actively in daily lives, such as listening to English Radio, English songs, talking to foreigners.

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14-While listening, I will notice the information questions with who, how, when, where and what in the content.

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15-While listening, I try to understand each word. 16-While listening, I repeat words or phrases softly or mentally.

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B-up

18- While listening, I will take notes.

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TDown TDown Tdown Tdown

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19-I listen for main idea first and then details.

22-I try to think in English instead of Persian.

Tdown


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Tdown

24-I collect the contents of listening to my personal experiences

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Pl= Planning strategy Ev= Evaluation strategy Mo= Monitoring strategy Co= Cognitive strategy B-up= Bottom –up strategy T-down= Top down strategy

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Title Text Linguistics and Systemic Functional Grammar: Platforms of Reform in Literacy Author Maryam Eftekhari (Ph.D candidate) Department of English Language, Kashan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kashan, Iran

Biodata Maryam Eftekhari, Ph.D candidate of TEFL at Al-Zahra University, Tehran, Iran. Her research interests include CALL, Linguistics, Psycholinguistics, and Teaching techniques.

Abstract The aim of this study is to shed more lights on systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) as well as text linguistics as frameworks in teaching writing to EFL learners. Working as an EFL teachers provided the researchers with the opportunity to focus on the writing process and observe different aspects in relation to written texts such as considering the text as a way of communication, applying functional tools to writing effective text, recognizing the importance of theme and rheme differentiation, and reflecting on learners' common errors which bring to the fore the fact that students should improve their writing and reading skills using SFG and text linguistics. To investigate the significance of the twofold framework, a corpus of thirty essays written in English by the thirty English majors studying EFL at Kashan University were examined so as to identify those problematic aspects of grammar which demand more instruction and attention. The results highlighted the contributions made by SFL and text linguistics as tools which both play a vital part in enhancing learners' literacy level in general and help them analyze the grammatical features of written texts. Keywords: Text linguistics, systemic Functional Grammar, theme, rheme, literacy

1. Introduction

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Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) has recently proved efficacious in many areas including discourse analysis (Djatmika 2007; Wiratno 2003, Priyanto 2003), English Language Teaching (Wiratno 2003, 2006) as well as translation studies (Manfredi, 2008) .It is defined by Tucker (2002) as: “a socially oriented theory of language, the task of which is to explain how meanings are made and exchanged through the resource of grammar and lexis”. SFL views language as a social phenomenon including both social and semiotic reality (Santosa 2003). As a semiotic reality, language is a symbol that displays the social realities occurring in the context of culture and context of situation. In fact, language is the realization of social process; therefore, language learning should be regarded as a social process as well. Educational learning is also taking place in a social environment, whether in the form of classrooms and schools, or even in the more abstract sense of the educational process as it is perceived in the society. Halliday and Hasan (1985) further assert that knowledge is transmitted in social contexts through relationships which are manifested in the value systems and ideology of the culture, like those of teacher and student or parent and child. The immediate context where the discourse happens, the participants involved, and the issue being discussed determine the contextual configuration as well as meaning of the language. In other words, the immediate or wider context where text takes place is the context of culture (genre) coined by Malinowsky (1923) and which according to Halliday (1989, p.6) includes'' not only the immediate sights and sounds surrounding the event, but also the whole cultural history behind the participants and behind the kind of practices that they were engaging in…''. Malinowsky (1923) has also coined the term context of situation to refer to extralinguistic factors that are present in the text and affect the social process realized by the language. The concept of situation itself is associated with the concept of register which involves a configuration of three variables namely, field, tenor, and mode. These variables realize three metafunctions of language including textual (language used to create coherent discourse), interpersonal (language used to enact our social relationship with others), and ideational (to represent human experience) metafunctions (Halliday and Hasan, 1985; Martin, 1992). However, the social process affected by extralinguistic factors is expressed by the language which plays its role as text. For Halliday and Hasan (1976) the notion of text is: '' [A term] used in linguistics to refer to any passage-spoken or written, of whatever length, that does form a unified whole [….]. A text is a unit of language in use or a sentence; and is not defined by its size [….]. A text is best regarded as a semantic unit, a unit of not form but meaning'' (pp.1-2). Iranian EFL Journal

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Halliday and Hasan (1985) argue that a text can be both a product and a process. As a product, it is understood as an obvious manifestation of a mental image that can be studied and realized in systemic terms. As a process, on the other hand, it is regarded as a continuous movement through a network of meaning potential involving a lot of choices. Therefore, text linguistics is “...devoted to describing how texts are created and understood” (Donnelly 1994, p.18) and in so doing studies the “... defining properties of texts - what constitutes their textuality or texture...” (Crystal,1992, p.387). It provides the necessary tools to write effective text incorporating ideas compatible with the cultural conventions in which the text is written; in this way, changing writing into a coherent text. Furthermore, it raises the awareness of the weaknesses as well as the recognition of the text as an obvious instrument of communication. Since SFL deals with production and analysis of texts, it has significantly influenced literacy. In other words, it provides the required instrument for syntactic analysis of written text including: lexical choices, types of verbs and nouns, theme and rheme position, cohesion, etc. Having access to such tools for analyzing these features, the context of the text, and their applications in writing would enhance learners' level of literacy. In addition, SFL brings to the fore the significance of writing effective texts which consist of ideas compatible with shared cultural conventions (Unswoth, 2008). Moreover, since reading is regarded as a meaning seeking skill and meaning is a central notion in SFL, therefore adopting a functional approach in a reading class can be of great aid to learners' comprehension of the written texts (Goodman, 1994).Considering reading as a socio-psycholinguistic process, Goodman (1994, P.1103) argues that'' characteristics of writer, text, and reader will all influence the resultant meaning''. He applied information taken from Halliday and Hasan (1985) SFL which is based on socio-cultural view of language. To investigate literacy within the socio-cultural context, Goodman (1994) stated that Halliday's concepts of field, mode, and tenor should receive great attention. As a result, achieving a satisfactory level of reading comprehension is a demanding task which can be enhanced by a systemic Functional Linguistics approach to text analysis in that it would result in a better comprehension of reading text through enabling learners to elucidate different meanings conveyed in a written text. Therefore, SFLis going to be taken as the theoretical framework of this study which presents an enhanced insight into the text and also provides the required instruments to analyze form and content aspects in the text suggesting that students need to be aware of the three metafunctions of language (Halliday & Hasan, 1985). The idea of 'choice ' is also accented in SFL as Ragan (1989, p.117) points out: '' a systemic perspective focuses on Iranian EFL Journal

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choice, a relevant perspective as ESL students are often unable to draw freely from the choices which exist in the English linguistic code for aligning language with the context in which it is used''. By applying an SFL perspective, students may be able to recognize the role of social experience in the linguistic choices made by writers as well as the relationship between language and context as Coffin (2001, p.95) points out: “One of the most important features of SFL is the way its theoretical framework is designed to explain the interrelationships between culture, society and language use.” It tends to highlight the importance of having students write about things they are really interested in. Based on what was mentioned above, this study aimed to examine a corpus of thirty essays written by English undergraduates at University of Kashan. Twenty one students were female and nine were male. Their final examination essays were analyzed to identify the possible weaknesses as well as problematic areas which required more attention and pedagogical considerations. They had been asked to write an essay choosing their own favorite topic.

2. Students' major writing errors After close observation of student's essays, the following list of errors was found in most (at least 70 percent) of their essays. It is reflecting the most frequent problems students had in their writing task. The errors were located and highlighted so as to offer students feedback and draw their attention to some aspects of SFL and text linguistics which could help them improve their writing. 2.1. Interlingual errors: due to mother tongue interference which results from structural differences between L1 and L2. In other words, wrong vocabulary, grammatical patterns, and even incorrect pronunciation are rooted in differences between students'L1 and L2.For example: People have interest in fast foods for some reasons. Forinterlingual errors it is reasonable that ''remedial measures should be taken to implement approaches that could best assist students in these problematic areas'' (Maros & Salehuddin, 2007). 2.2. Overgeneralization: caused by excessive application of overgeneralization strategies such as ignorance of rule restrictions or incomplete application of rules. That is, due to uncertainty in learners' minds, they applied incorrect preposition in their essays. They used one preposition to express different meanings, e.g. they overgeneralized the preposition 'at' to be used instead of 'in'. Examples include: we had a nice time at the winter. Or we enjoyed our trip to Shiraz at the last year.

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2.3. Misformation errors: occurred when students replaced the correct forms of the words with the wrong ones. It commonly happens in case of subject-verb agreement e.g. They has three children. The wrong tense may be used as well, e.g. the use of past tense forms to express present or future time e.g., I thought my father was right. 2.4. Lexical errors 2.4.1. Misselction errors including those words which have the same root, but different suffixes e.g. production and productivity. 2.4.2. Distortion errors including omission (e.g. intresting instead of interesting) and overinclusion as dinning room instead of dining room) 2.5. Semantic errors 2.5.1. Confusion of sense relations (i.e. using a hypernym for a hyponym). For instance: we have to buy new equipment instead of appliances for our house. 2.5.2. Collocation errors: e.g. our city is growing (instead of developing) so fast. 2.5.3 Stylistic errors including: 2.5.3.1. Verbosity (we were invited to the party through the medium of a letter) 2.5.3.2. Under-specification: when the writer cannot communicate her or his message in their writing (e.g. however the number of public transportation vehicles in this city are lower instead of however, there are fewer public transportation vehicles in this city) 2.6. Spelling errors These are caused by substituting one letter for another (e.g. as in s for c in desicion), omission of letters in a word (e.g. frindship), addistion in a word (e.g. tommarrow). 2.7. Word order errors These errors are concerned with learner's tendency to follow the syntactic order of their mother tongue in their writings. They may not be familiar with English SVO word order and stick to Persian SOV structure and especially with the position of adverbs in the sentence. Here are two examples: My dream for living abroad with my family is great. I never could forget those nasty days. They had also difficulty with inversion as the following examples display: 2.8. Article errors Another problematic part in students' essays was incorrect usage of definite and indefinite articles. They didn't keep in mind that abstract uncountable nouns don't take articles when they are generally referred to. For example,: The life is not interesting at all. Iranian EFL Journal

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Moreover, they had trouble using definite article with abstract uncountable nouns when bringing a specific example as in: honesty for which she is always praised. Here the student is talking about a specific honesty which requires the use of definite article. 2.9. Theme-rheme errors Sometimes students had mistakenly used new information in the place of old information (the beginning of the clause) reflecting their lack of familiarity with theme-rheme position in the sentence as it is vividly realized in this example: Widespread TV advertisement is the most important reason. 2.10. discourse-markers errors Students used to provide links between sentences using illogical and unreasonable cohesive devices which made the whole paragraph sound odd. In the Following example additionally has been wrongly used instead of 'as a result' that shows effect: TV movie programs that show violence affect children behavior. Additionally, they may act violently imitating what they have seen.

3. SFL and text linguistics' contribution to literacy Pedagogically, learners' errors enable teachers to provide them with necessary devices which could be used to facilitate the learning process (Lightbown&Spada, 1999). In order to help students improve their literacy through dealing with their writing errors, some aspects of SFL and text linguistics frameworks shall be emphasized. The purpose of providing these suggestions was to stress the pedagogical application of SFL to the teaching of writing in EFL context as Coffin (2001, p. 98) puts it:'' educational application of SFL are generally designed to teach students how to operate in social contexts relevant to their educational, social, and cultural needs''. 3.1. Text as a means of communication Each unit of language in use can be thought of as a text. De Beaugrande and Dressler (1981) define a text as a communicative occurrence. It is not simply a linguistic unit, but a means of action, interaction, and communication (De Beaugrande 1995, p.17). A real text, in fact, can fill the gap between the real world and the classroom (Guariento and Morley, 2001).That is when we write we are trying to interact with the intended reader which necessitates the awareness of various interactive sources. Therefore, students should realize the fact that by creating a text, they are able to communicate their thoughts and ideas through language and language is as Halliday (1978, p.27)''what speaker can do''.

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3.2. Highlighting the importance of different contexts Making learners aware of different types of context especially context of situation and context of culture described earlier would help them write more effectively. In fact, without direct knowledge of context of situation, Leckie-Tarry (1995) believes that learner ''must construct a possible context of situation for the text, which must drive from his/her background knowledge, that is knowledge of the context of culture, and the possible configuration of contextual elements which that context of culture allows'' (p.28).Apart from context of situation (Register) and context of culture (Genre) which were described earlier, students have to learn about intertextual, intratextual, and extratextual context as well (Van Dijk,1985). Intertextual context is concerned with the relation between a given text at hand and other potential texts that are partly like or unlike it. Intratextuality refers to the relationships between piece of a single text or its internal coherence (Halliday 1994). Extratextual dimension refers to the relationship between a text and its world. 3.3. Introducing cohesive ties Halliday and Hasan (1976) believe that coherence quality in a text results from the available cohesive ties within that text. They argued about cohesion such that:'' if a learner of English reads a passage of the language which is more than one sentence in length, he can normally decide without difficulty whether it forms a unified whole or is just a collection of unrelated sentences'' (p.1).Hence, Halliday and Hasan (1976) conclude that for a text to be coherent, it should include some linguistic features such as cohesive ties. Since students mostly face problems when trying to link their ideas in a text in a logical manner, they must get familiar with the importance and necessity of using cohesive ties to compensate for the lack of coherence and cohesion of in their writings. 3.4. Emphasizing theme-rheme structure Within textual metafunction theme is defined by Halliday and Hasan(1985) as: ''the point of departure of the clause'' while rheme is '' part of the message that is presented as most important or most newsworthy'' (Lock, 1996, p.222).Students should be taught to use various themes and not the same theme to refer to the same person or idea throughout the whole paragraph. In other words, in academic writing, what is written at the end of one clause then appears at the beginning of the next clause, providing a logical link with previous sentence. Therefore, theme/rheme specification can be very helpful in comprehension and production of texts as well as evaluating L2 writing at the level of discourse. They provide teachers with

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an instrument to focus on the level of text and to identify problematic areas associated either with thematic progression and/ or thematic selection 3.5. Introducing text type and genre The specification of different text types and genres to be taught in the writing classrooms would be based on many systemic functional linguists (e.g. Butt et al 2000; Derewiank, 1990). They argued for a classification of text which requires a distinction between text types and genres. As Lin (2006) pointes out text types are concerned with prototypes of text which are defined based on their main social purposes. These text types include: narrative, recounts, information reports, instruction, explanation, and expository texts (Butt et al, 2000). However, genres refer to classes of text which are used for more specific purposes such as recopies. Lin (2006) further suggests that a genre-based approach can be adopted in writing classes since it provides clear links to the students' purposes for writing.

4. Conclusion The purpose of the present study was to focus on EFL learners' writing errors having SFL and text linguistics in mind. It was emphasized that both SFL and text linguistics are involved in improving learners' literacy for several reasons. First, Using SFL and text linguistics as frameworks of the study offered the possibility of analyzing students' pieces of writing as well as judging their appropriateness based on the text type and context within which they were written. In other words, they provided the necessary tools for analyzing various features of written texts such as theme and rheme position and cohesive devices. By familiarizing learners with these features, they are able to recognize different texts and genre types and apply them in their writing and therefore improve their literacy. SFL highlights the relationship between text and context in which it occurs as Halliday and Hasan (1985, p.47) put it:'' the relationship between text and context is a dialectical one: the text creates the context as much as the context creates the text. Meaning arises from the fiction between the two. This means that part of the environment for any text is a set of previous texts, text that are taken for granted as shared among those taking part''. Finally, the communicative role of language is emphasized in this study which implies that it is necessary to learn to use it in an EFL/ESL context because it is associated with communication and interaction with others depending upon what we intend to achieve in a particular context. For this reason, students should be given the opportunity within EFL/ESL context to learn context

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of culture and situation, the concept of theme and rheme, different cohesive ties, and text types and genres.

References Butt, D. et al. (2000).Using Functional Grammar.An Explorer's Guide. Sydney: NCERLTR. Coffin, C. (2001). Theoretical approaches to written language: A TESOL perspective. In A. Burns & C. Coffin (Eds.), Analysing English in a Global Context (pp. 93-122). London: Routledge. Crystal, D. (1992). An Encyclopediac Dictionary of Language and Languages. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. De Beaugrande, R. A. &Dressler, W. U. (1981).Introduction to Text Linguistics. London: Longman. De Beaugrande, R. A. (1995). Text Linguistics. In Verschueren, J. e. a. (eds) 1995. Handbook of Pragmatics, Manual. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benhamins. pp.536-544. Derewianka, B. (1990). Exploring How Texts work. NSW: Primary English Teaching Association. Djatmika, M.A.(2007). What makes legal contracts difficult to understand: a systemic discourse analysis. Journal BahsaSastra danstudi Amerika, 1. Donnelly, C, (1994). Linguistics for writers. Buffalo: SUNY Press. (1994).Halliday, M. A. K.(1978).Language as Social Semiotics: The Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning. London: Edward Arnold. Goodman, K. S. (1994). Reading, writing, and written text: A transactional socio-psycholinguistic view. In R.B. Ruddell, M.R. Ruddell, & H. Singer (eds.),Theoreticalmodelsand process of reading, 4th edition. Newwark, DE: International Reading Association. Guariento, W. & Morley, J (2001).Text and Task Authenticity in the EFL Classroom. ELT Journal, 55, 347-353. Halliday, M. A. K.(1978).Language as Social Semiotics:ThSocial Interpretation of Language and Meaning. London: Edward Arnold. Halliday, M.A.K. (1989). Spoken and written language. Second edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Halliday, M.A.K. (1994).An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold. Halliday, M.A.K. & Hasan, R. (1976).Cohesion in English. London: Longman. Halliday, M.A.K. & Hasan, R. (1985). Language, Context, and Text: Aspects of Language in a Social-Semiotic Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Leckie-Tarry, H. (1995). Language and Context: A functional Linguistic Theory of Register. London: Printer. Lightbown, D. &Spada, N. (1999). How languages are learned. New York: Oxford University Press.

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Lin, B. (2006). Genere-based Taeching and Vygotskian principles in EFL : The Case of a University Writing Course. Asian EFL Journal, 8, 226-248. Retrieved September, 20, 2010, from http: //www. Asian-efl-journal.com/sept_06_bl.php Malinowski, B. (1923). The problem of meaning in primitive languages, Supplement to C.K. Ogden and I.A. Richards (eds.), The Meaning of Meaning. New York: Harcourt Brace and World, 296336. Manferedi, M. (2008).Translating text and context: translation studies and systemic functional linguistics. Bologna: DUPress. Maros, M., Kim hua, T. &Salehuddin, K. (2007).Intereference in learning English: Grammatical errors in English essay writing among rural Malya secondary school students in Malaysia. Retrieved January, 12, 2011 from http://eprints/ukm/my/114/1/Marlyna.pdf Martin, J. (1992). English Text: System and Structure. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Priyanto, A.D. (2003). Integrating SFL in designing syllabus for EFL classroom. NUESP International Conference. Jember: Jember University Press Ragan, P.H. (1989).Applying Functional Grammar to teaching the writing of ESL, in word 40, 1-2: 117-127. Santosa, R. (2003). Semiotics: social aspect. Surabaya: Pustak Eureka dan JP Press. Tucker,g. (2002). Sytemic functional linguistics in language education. Retrieved December, 26, 2010, from: http://www.lang.1stn.ac.uk/resources/paper.aspx?resourceid=103 Unworth, L. (2008).New literacies and English Curriculum. London: Continuum Wiranto, T. (2003).Text deconstruction in English language teaching. The second international seminar on English language studies, Universitas Dharma, Yogyaktara. Wiratno, T.( 2006). Discourse of competence and its place in the English language teaching. The Sixth International Conference on Competency-based English Teaching: Theory and Reality,ITB Bandung Van Dijk, T. (1985).A handbook of Discourse Analysis. Vol.1. New York: Academic Press.

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Title The Effects of Brain Compatible Vocabulary Learning Strategy Instruction on EFL Students Authors Seyed Mahdi Araghi (Ph. D) Payam e Noor University, Tabriz, Iran Alireza Navid Moghaddam (M.A) Islamic Azad University, Maragheh, Iran

Biodata Seyed Mahdi Araghi assistant professor of TEFL at Payam e Noor University in Tabriz, Iran. His research interests include ELT, psychology of language learning, and applied linguistics. Alireza Navid Moghaddam M.A, graduate of Islamic Azad University in Maragheh, Iran. His research interests include ELT, psychology of language learning, and neuropsychology.

Abstract The aim of this study is to investigate those brain compatible vocabulary learning strategies and their effects on first grade high school students in their English learning process. This experimental study, which was designed as pre, post, and post delay test control group model, was conducted in 2012 education year at Misagh private high school in Tabriz, Iran. Two classes, namely 1-A and 1-B, were determined as experimental and control groups respectively. The participants of this study were 28 in each group. The study lasted 12 days for a total of 6 class hours. During the research process, the experimental group was administered a brain compatible vocabulary learning strategy, whereas the control group was administered a traditional teaching approach. Analysis of pre, post, and post delay test revealed a significant difference between the groups favoring brain-based learning. Results show that word knowledge in experimental group enhanced. Keywords: Brain-based learning, Brain compatible instruction, word knowledge

1. Introduction

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Today, new theories and approaches (e.g. constructivism, multiple intelligence, and connectivism) are put forward to lessen the shortcomings of the traditional way of teaching and in result learning of second and foreign language. In addition, various theoretical (Gardner, 1993; Krashen, 1981; Vygotsky, 1978) and practical (Asseline, 2002; Foil & Alber, 2002; Rupley, Logan, & Nichols, 1999; Schmitt, 2000; Greenwood, 2002; Rekrut, 1996; Towell, 1998). Studies are performed to come up with different views for teaching. Brainbased learning is new paradigm in which the brain and its functions and structures play main role in learning phenomenon that learning a language is not an exception. With advances in technology and knowledge about the brain, there has been the development of brain-compatible or brain-based learning. The word brain only began to replace the word mind in popular self-help books as late as the 1970s. Studies in the field of neurobiology have improved understanding of how the brain functions and how learning is formed. The concept of brain-based learning did not emerge until the 1980s, driven by the advances in neurobiology and cognitive neuroscience (Jensen, 2008). One of the first researchers to establish the connection between brain functions and traditional education practices was Hart (1983). In sum, brain-based learning aims to enhance the learning potential and, in contrast to the traditional approaches and models, provides a teaching and learning framework for educators Materna (as cited in Ozden & Gultekin, 2008).

2. Review of the Related Literature Brain-based learning can be defined as an interdisciplinary answer to the question of what is the most efficient way of the brain's learning mechanisms (Jensen, 2005). Cain and Cain (1994) define brain-based learning as recognition of the brain's codes for a meaningful learning and tuning the teaching process in relation to those codes. 2.1 The Principles of Brain-based Learning The principles of brain-based learning provide a theoretical framework for the effective learning and teaching process, seeking the best conditions in which learning takes place in the brain. Based in neurobiology, these principles guide educators to select and prepare learning environments. Caine and Caine (1994) list these principles as follows: Brain is a parallel processor, Learning engages the entire physiology, The search for meaning is innate, The search for meaning occurs through patterning, Iranian EFL Journal

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Emotions are critical to patterning, Every brain simultaneously perceives and creates parts and wholes, Learning involves both focused attention and peripheral attention, Learning always involves conscious and unconscious processes, We have at least two types of memory systems: spatial and rote learning The brain understands and remembers best when facts and skills are embedded in natural spatial memory Learning is enhanced by challenge and inhibited by threat, Every brain is unique. Furthermore, the principles of brain-based learning propose that effective learning could occur only through practicing real life experiences, activating students' prior knowledge, gaining students' attention, actively involving students' in the learning process, and helping students to construct meaning. Learning becomes more expressive when the brain supports the processes in search of meaning and patterning. Accordingly, it enables the learners to internalize and individualize learning experiences. Therefore, it is essential that learners be encouraged to participate in the learning and teaching process actively and that teaching materials be chosen according to their learning preferences. For example, Wolfe (2001) argues that teachers can use the visual and auditory senses to enhance learning because she claims that visuals are powerful retention aids and can serve to increase understanding. She enumerates classroom strategies using visual processing, such as mind or thinking maps, webs, bubble maps, clusters, network tress, or graphic organizers, because the structure of these frameworks mirrors the structure used by the brain to organize information. Monroe also confirms that the use of graphic organizers can involve students in deep processing of words (1998). 2.2 Brain compatible vocabulary strategy instruction The research of the mid-1970s and after that led to some very careful defining of specific learning strategies (Brown, 2000). Many of strategies were proposed in response to individuals' second language learning process and learning styles. Auditive style, Visual style, and Kinesthetic style are a few learning styles that taken into account by researches to teach language components such as word. At the beginning of the 1990's that a solid vocabulary is necessary in every stage of language learning is now being openly stated by some methodologists and SLA (Second Language Acquisition) researchers. Most work in the field of vocabulary has been concerned Iranian EFL Journal

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with vocabulary acquisition in L1 (First Language); vocabulary acquisition in L2 (Second Language); and ESL/EFL (English as Second/Foreign Language) learners' lexical knowledge (Schmitt, 2002). Because of the complex nature of word knowledge, some researchers think that vocabulary acquisition is the most serious challenge that L2 learners face, and L2 learners have found that it is difficult to transfer receptive vocabulary to productive vocabulary. Unlike studies on acquiring L2 or FL vocabulary from media and wide reading – incidentally vocabulary learning – a number of researchers have also begun to collect empirical evidence regarding the students gaining benefits from vocabulary instruction. The results of such researches were emergent of vocabulary strategies instruction like "semantic mapping, the verbal visual word association, concept wheels, word maps and individual vocabulary notebook"(Greenwood, 2002, p. 2). Above all, the role of vocabulary within the curriculum was enhanced due to its crucial role in the four main language skills. Many scholars admit the intimate relationship between vocabulary and four skills. Due to the limited effectiveness of incidental vocabulary learning, how teachers approach vocabulary instruction and explain vocabulary items to promote communication and provide vocabulary knowledge to student is an important issue. Many empirical studies aim to explore the effect of the strategy-based vocabulary

instruction on

word learning (e.g., Hopkins & Bean, 1999; Huang, 1999; Zarry, 1999). In this part of the paper, I want to discuss some research-based and effective strategies offered in educational domain and used in this study to teach foreign language vocabulary. Then, I will show how they can be corroborated from brain-based theory. Those strategies that were the aim of this study include the verbal-visual association strategy, sentence plus definition method, and semantic mapping. These selected strategies intertwine most of the elements suggested by both educational and neuroscientists researchers. They contain those criteria that we know about the brain for the moment; like practicing real life experiences, activating students' prior knowledge, gaining students' attention, actively involving students' in the learning process, and helping students to construct meaning. 2.2.1 Verbal-visual Association Information can be moved from the sensory register to working memory if a learner pays much attention to it. Many scholars indicate that emotion is a powerful tool for gaining and maintaining learners' attention. As pointed by Jensen (2005) "emotions give us a more activated and chemically stimulated brain, which helps us recall things better" (p.79). In addition, brain research emphasizes the importance of an enriched environment in learning because providing a rich learning environment is need to create the type of emotional climate Iranian EFL Journal

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necessaary for studdents learninng and affecting the reewiring of the t brain. S Some ways used to providee an appropriate level of o emotion include usiing a game-format, muusic, or draama, and using taangible artiifacts or piictures that allow learrners to vissually connect to the learning (Banikoowski,1999)). The verbbal-visual association a strategy moodified by Hopkins an nd Bean selectedd in this stuudy includees of a pictuure of word d. As its naame suggests, it has tw wo sides visual and a verbal. The verbal part of thiss strategy in nvolves the definition d aand examplees of the target word w underr studying while w the visual v part of the strattegy includdes its draw wings or picturess. Hopkins and a Bean (1999) claim m that vocab bulary learnning throughh visual imaages can help stuudents remeember a word's definitiion. The faccilitative vaalue of pictuures have been also found and a acknow wledged inn recent brrain neuroimaging stuudies by C Chee et al (2002). Therefoore, we cann use this strategy to increase i stu udents' visuual processing leading to their much understandin u ng of vocabbulary instruuction. Wollfe (2001) and a Monroee (1998) agrree with this vieew and urgee teachers to t use visuaal informatiion is mem morable and enhances students' s understanding. 2.2.2 Seemantic maapping As menntioned befoore, evidencce obtained from brain n-based reseearch revealls that the brain b is a pattern--seeking deevice whichh has tendeency to maake associaations betw ween to be learned materiaals and prevvious learniing experiennces. Thus,, integratingg prior knoowledge with to be learned materials is crucial for f optimal learning a new wordd. Moreoverr, the strucctures of mappinng instructioon, such ass semantic mapping can c reflect the structuure used by y human brains to t organize or store innformation (Wolfe, ( 200 01; Weiss, 2000) and satisfy the existing criteria that we knnow about the t brain. Semantic S maapping not only providdes students with a m of organizing o content infformation (iit is what abovementiioned strateegy was visual means upon), but it funcctions in a way that brain b acts while w sortinng informattion. In facct, brain constructs information conteently. The use of seemantic maapping hass been emp pirically demonsstrated to facilitate f sttudent succcess in voccabulary deevelopment Anderson Inman, Knox-Q Quinn, Hornney, Bos, Anders, A Mooore, and Readance R (aas cited in G Greenwood d, 2002). Followiing diagram m helps us unnderstand thhis issue beetter.

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In fact, applying this vocabulary instruction is to allow language learners' brain to make a solid neuron networks of information intertwined and interacted to each other firmly which will help them to have long stable data of vocabulary. According to Sokman (as cited in Huang, 1999), semantic mapping refers to "brainstorming associations which a word has and then diagramming the results"(p.387). In this method, teacher might write vocabulary words connected to content area concept such as weather and have students read a selection from their textbooks containing the new vocabulary words. After the students read the selection, have them arrange the vocabulary word into categories. 2.2.3 Sentence plus Definition Mostly often active involvement leads to deep processing in learners' brain. Active involvement itself occurs when teachers provide their students with rich information. An appropriate strategy for this purpose can be what selected in this study as sentence plus definition method. This vocabulary instruction strategy not only evolves students with rich information about each word through multiple exposure to vocabulary items, but it stresses that students need to learn the connection among several words by using them in a natural occurrences in a real sentences, phrases and clauses. Results obtained from neuroimaging studies (Brewer et al., 1998; Chee et al., 2002; Chee et al., 2003;) also suggest that a positive learning outcome can be expected from active and deep processing of the materials, whether the learning goals are lists of words or complex concepts. Genesee (2002) also claims that with experience, practice, and exposure the neural circuits will become more complete by listing evidence gained from brain research. Moreover, researchers (Read, 2000; Schmitt, 2000) have pinpointed that word knowledge has a complex nature; teachers should provide their students with rich information about each word through multiple exposures to vocabulary items (Asselin, 2002; Foil & Albert, 2002). This method suggested by Greenwood (2002) is suitable for teaching new words representing known concepts. Furthermore, this method offers real context where single word can be used out of vocabulary lists. It provides students' brain with direct exposure of using words in real situation. At first, teachers present students with a sentence using this new word (sneaker) and its definition. Then, students are required to learn this word. Following example indicates how this method exposes student with rich information around a word. New vocabulary: Sneaker He put on his sneaker to go jogging Sneaker = Casual shoes with rubber bottom Iranian EFL Journal

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2.3 Word Knowledge Words are the fuel of language. The number of words you are familiar with determines your language abilities. The more words you know, the better you are. Thus, the role of vocabulary within the curriculum may be enhanced due to its crucial role in the four main language skills. Many scholars admit the intimate relationship between vocabulary and four skills. Due to the limited effectiveness of incidental vocabulary learning, how teachers approach vocabulary instruction and explain vocabulary items to promote communication and provide vocabulary knowledge to student is an important issue. Studies also suggest that vocabulary instruction has its vital place in ESL/EFL reading and listening (e.g., Asselin, 2002; Smith, 1997). Language learners need to have extensive vocabulary knowledge in reading and listening as input skill from one side and from another side production will be desired in the future .So, without having enough knowledge on vocabulary one can not receive his goal upon learning L2 properly. With increasing findings from brain research, it is hoped that the application of brain research to vocabulary instruction will maximize L2 learners' effort in vocabulary acquisition. Moreover, the previous studies have shown that teachers can choose vocabulary enhancing strategies to make vocabulary instruction rewarding and fascinating. In view of the significance of the vocabulary learning problem and the purpose of this study, the present paper will address the following research questions: 1-Do freshman high school students who receive BVLSI achieve higher score on the vocabulary achievement test than those who do not receive it? 2-Does BVLSI have longitude effect on students' memory?

3. Methodology Designed as pre- and post-test control grouped model, this experimental study was conducted in order to determine the effects of the brain-based learning on vocabulary achievement test in first grade high school students. The study was carried out with two intact classes selected randomly. One of the classes was defined as the experimental group and the other as the control group. Both classes were tested before and after the experiment. 3.1 Participants Participants under study were chosen randomly to make control and experimental group of the study from Misag, a non-profit-making, high school in Tabriz. They were male, and15 years old. Each class was composed of about 28 students totally 56 participants were in this study. Making sure about homogeneity of participants a pre-test was held before treatment. 3.2 Material

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There were lots of available ranked books considering the learners state of English vocabulary knowledge for English language learners. According to the level of participants in this study English Vocabulary in Use (2sdEdition) by Stuart Redman was picked out. Five Units of this book were taught in both control and experimental group, but with different strategies. 3.3 Instruments In view of the nature of the construct of vocabulary knowledge being multi-dimensional, Henriksen (1999) and Read suggest using a combination of item formats to investigate different aspects of vocabulary knowledge. Moreover, Pike argues that "the words in context items had greater face validity because they presented the words in the sentences. The test items should have presented in the context. Of course, taking some consideration this issue was not taken into account. Avoidance of context effect in learning vocabulary and grammar impact, participants were asked to recognize the meaning of the target words in their own official language (Persian). This deliberate utters vocabulary assessment. All the words appearing in each item were selected from the book that was taught via the instruction program. There were three tests in this study. First one, which was used as pretest, recognized the homogeneity between two groups of participant. Test items were selected from lessons of English Vocabulary in Use that was taught to each group with different instruction. Of course, at the end of each lesson there was a standard test relevant to that lesson which applied as reliable test items. Second test admitted research main question. 3.4 Procedure This study, which was set up in quasi-experimental pattern, was in need of making participants into two groups, one as a control group which received traditional vocabulary instruction and experimental group which was under BVLSI. Each group should have been at least 30 participants, but due to some limitation in each group I had 28 participants, totally they were 56 individuals. I should note that in a pre-test was applied to homogenize two groups. English Vocabulary in Use (pre intermediate & intermediate) by Stuart Redman (Cambridge University Press, 2003) was taken into the experimental and control class depend on participants' language ability and five lessons of this book was taught to both classes with different instruction. It should be highlighted that this book intentionally was selected. The idea behind of selecting this book in this study was the way that it was edited. This book covers those strategies by which I wanted to manage this study hoping that I will be able to illustrate Iranian EFL Journal

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they are brain compatible. Another reason of selecting this book is its unique feature in gathering all kind of word knowledge in English. According to what mentioned in literature of this study, chosen items to teach and to test should be from a wide range of word knowledge whether collocation, phrase, concert noun, and other sort of word power. In fact, it teaches vocabulary via audio-visual association, sentence plus definition method, and word mapping strategy. In control group selected vocabulary from above mentioned book was taught traditionally (reading vocabulary and memorizing with mother language translation). For the avoidance of disturbing a normal teaching program, one of the intact classes of students was instructed by researcher and the other one which received traditional instruction was educated by its own typical teacher. Because of class schedule constraints, the teaching program extended no more than a period of one month, 12 sessions each session of 6 class hours. All participants, furthermore, should have a similar social and educational background. To more check on the similarity of background knowledge, I depended on the pre-test to make sure that they were not grouped based on their English language abilities. After instruction, a post-test was taken in regard to the first question of the study. Relevant to second question of the study, 30 days after posttest a post delay test was taken. At the end, outcomes received from both groups were analyzed.

4. Results and discussion After the experimentation process, the data obtained through achievement tests were analyzed in order to determine the effects of brain-based learning approach on the achievement and retention levels of the experimental group. The data obtained by the pretest, post-test and post delay test were scored. Since the achievement test included fifty items, each correct item was graded as 1 point out of 50 in general. The mean scores and standard deviations of the grades obtained via pre-test, posttest and post delay test administered to both groups were calculated. The performances of two groups in a vocabulary test were examined through a repeatedmeasure ANOVA, because SLA researchers often collect more than one score from each participant group. For instance, score on pre-test, post-test, and post delayed test are usually collected from each group to examine possible treatment, retention, and delayed effects. Repeated-measure ANOVA applies to designs where each participant contributes more than one score (Sanz, 2005). Thus, results from repeated measure ANOVA were used to compare the achievement and retention levels of the experimental and control groups. The SPSS 12.0 software program was used in the statistical data analysis procedure.

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An achievement test was administered as a pre-test to the experimental and control groups in order to test the first hypothesis, which claims that the experimental group using principles and criteria of brain-based learning will perform significantly better than the control group using traditional instruction on the achievement test designed for English vocabulary learning. Right after treatment to both groups, a post-test administered to indicate if brain-based vocabulary learning strategies have impact on learners. Then, the mean scores and standard deviations of the scores received by the participants from the pre-test, post-test and as well post delay test were statistically evaluated and the differences between the mean scores were examined (Table 1). Table 1. Mean score and Standard Deviation in pre- vs. post- vs. and delayed tests (p1, p2, p3) of Control and Experimental Groups.

Group

Mean

Pre-Test Experimental

Std.Deviation

N

12.36

6.805

28

Control

12.04

6.752

28

Total

12.20

6.719

56

Post-Test Experimenta

32.68

12.789

28

Control

21.93

10.374

28

Total

27.30

12.749

56

Post Delay Test Experimental

27.21

10.609

28

Control

20.93

9.817

28

Total

24.07

10.612

56

SPSS output for testing the between-subjects effects indicates that the first null hypothesis of this study was rejected with F (1, 54) = 5.831 with p= 0.019. What this data shows is that brain compatible vocabulary strategy instruction (BVSI) has high effect on learners compared with traditional methods (Table 2). Test of Between-Subjects Effects Table 2 Source

Intercept

Type ||| Sum of squares

df

Mean Square

1

75438.095

F

Sig.

75438.095

312.893

.000

5.831

.019

Group

1405.929

1

1405.929

Error

13019.310

54

241.098

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According

to

data

obtained

from

vocabulary

achievement

tests

during

the

experimentation, we see that the experimental group using brain-based learning strategies performed significantly better than the control group using traditional instruction on the achievement test designed for this English vocabulary learning classes. Figure 1 shows clearly the whole path of experimental and result of this research. Figure 1 Estimated Marginal Means of MEASURE_1 40

Estimated Marginal Means

30

20

GROUP expermental control

10 1

2

3

FACTOR1

Regarding the reasons behind the loss in retention by the traditional method in the vocabulary learning it can be explicated that the traditional instruction does not focus on the learning process. On the other hand, the brain based method of teaching primarily based on process learning. As it is obviously known the process-based learning, which is a part of brain based method of teaching, the process of teaching and learning focuses on higher level learning, profound thinking and permanence as well as transfer of knowledge. The very first aim of such a teaching and learning process is to enable the learners to organize and internalize newly encountered information. However, this organization and internalization should be regarded as an emphasis on meaningful learning rather than memorizing.

5. Conclusion A brain-based education uses research in neuroscience on how the brain works to gain an understanding of how students learn and develop in a classroom. In fact, Brain-based or brain compatible learning is student centered learning that utilizes the whole brain and recognizes that different learning instructions should be used in education domain. It is also an active process where students engage in constructing their own knowledge. Applying brain research to instructional design can result in the practice of brain-compatible instruction instead of brain-antagonistic instruction. Iranian EFL Journal

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Tirado has said that the principal objective of education is to generate cognitive strategies that help make the student more perceptive, a better learner, with increased ability to remember and generalize acquired knowledge, which as a consequence favors more productive and creative thinking (as cited in Robles, 2003).In these vocabulary instructions, students got novel ways of enhancing word power. They learned how to connect already learned words to new ones. They might use word mapping, visualizing and word definition even out the formal class. In brief, from the results we can see that BVLSI enriched the materials and content of vocabulary instruction. Therefore, concerning the effects of the brain-compatible vocabulary learning instruction on the students' vocabulary achievement test, it was found that students receiving these treatment got better scores on the vocabulary achievement test. In a word, it is evidenced that the effects of the brain-compatible vocabulary learning instruction can facilitate High school EFL student' word learning. To conclude, we can claim that equipping students with more vocabulary learning instruction based on brain-compatible is essential.

References Asselin, M. (2002). Vocabulary instruction. Teacher Librarian, 29, 57-59. Banikowski, A. K. (1999). Strategies to enhance memory based on brain-research. Focuse on Exceptional Children, 32, 1-16. Brewer, J. B., Zhao, Z., Desmond, J. E., Glover, G.H., & Gabrieli, J. D. E. (1998). Making memories: brain activity that predicts how well visual experience will be remembered. Science, 281, 1185-1187. Brown, H. D. (2000). Principles of language learning and teaching (4th ed.). New York: Longman. Caine, R., & N. Caine. (1994). Making connections: Teaching and the human brain. Somerset, NJ: Addison Wesley. Chee, M. W. L., Hon, N. H. H., Caplan D., Lee, H. L., & Goh, J. (2002). Frequency of concrete words modulates prefrontal activation during semantic judgments. NeroImage, 16, 259-268. Chee, M. W. L., Westphal, C., Goh, J., Graham, S., & Song, A. W. (2003) Word frequency and subsequent memory effects studied using event – related FMRI. NeuroImage, 20, 1042-1051. Foil, C. R., & Albert, S. R. (2002). Fun and effective way to build your students' vocabulary. Intervention in School & Clinic, 37,131-139. Gardner, H. (1993). Frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books. Genesee, F. (2002). Brain research: implications for second language learning. ERIC Digest. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 447-727).

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Greenwood. S. C. (2002). Making word matters: vocabulary study in the content areas. Clearing House, 75(5), 258-263. Hart, L. A. (1983). Human brain and human learning. New York: Longman. Henriksen, B. (1999). Three dimensions of vocabulary development. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 21, 303 – 317. Hopkins, G & Bean, T.W. (1999) .Vocabulary learning with the verbal-visual word association strategy in a Native American community. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 42, 274-281 Huang, T. L. (1997). A study of word analysis and inference on vocabulary teaching and learning. Taipei: The Crane Publishing Co. Jensen, E. (2005). Teaching with the brain in mind. USA: The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Krashen, S. (1981). Second Language acquisition and second language learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Monroe, E. E. (1998). Using graphic organizers to teach vocabulary. Does available research inform mathematics instruction? Education, 118(4), 538-540. Ozden, M. & Gultekin, M. (2008). The effects of Brain-Based Learning on Academic Achievement and Retention of Knowledge in Science Course. Electronic Journal of Science Education, 12 (1), 1-17. Read, J. (2000). Assessing vocabulary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rekrut, M. (1996). Effective vocabulary instruction. High School Journal, 80, 66-74. Robles, T. & Uglem, C. (2003). Multisensory Instruction in Foreign Language Education. ERIC Digest, (ERIC Document reproduction Service No. ED 482576). Rupley, W. H., Logan, J. W., & Nichols, W. D. (1999). Vocabulary instruction in a balanced reading program .Reading teacher, 52, 336-346. Sanz, C. (2005). Mind and Cortex in Adult Second Language Acquisition. Methods, Theory, and Practice. Washington, DC. GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY PRESS Schmitt, N. (2000). Vocabulary in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Smith, C. B. (1997). Vocabulary instruction and reading comprehension. ERIC Digest, (ERIC Document reproduction Service No. ED 412506). Towell, J. (1998). Fun with vocabulary. Reading teacher, 51, 356-362. Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Weiss, R.P. (2000). Brain-based learning. Training & Development, 54, 20-24. Wolfe, P. (2001). Brain matters: translating research into classroom practice. U. S. A. Association for supervision and Curriculum Development. Zarry, L. (1999). Vocabulary enrichment in composition: a grade six study. Education, 120, 267- 272.

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Title Sacrificed Elements of TEFL in Secondary Education of Iran Authors Fatemeh Poorebrahim (Ph. D candidate) Maragheh State University, E. Azarbaijan, Iran Mohammad Reza Talebinejad (Ph. D) Department of Foreign Languages, Islamic Azad University, Shahreza branch, Shahreza, Iran

Biodata Fatemeh Poorebrahim, Ph. D. student at Sheikhbahaee University and teacher of EFL at Maragheh State University, E. Azarbaijan, Iran. Her research interests include improving EFL textbooks and teaching methods using cross- cultural materials, discourse analysis, and ESP. Mohammad Reza Talebinejad, Ph.D, Department of Foreign Languages, Islamic Azad University Shahreza branch, Shahreza, Iran

Abstract This paper introduces a framework to show sacrificed elements of TEFL in Iranian Secondary Education. In spite of the undeniable progress of language education in Iran, there are a number of problems which frustrate teachers and learners provoking poor results. Some of the problems involve decisions about language and methodology taken by teachers who are still too concerned about form and grammar. These elements of TEFL are based on four pillars: the task-based approach, the content-based approach, language awareness and intercultural competence. The task-based approach is the framework in which academic contents are dealt with. Language awareness represents a new perspective on form and grammar within a communicative approach. Finally, the intercultural competence is the educational objective of language education. Each of these four concepts has theoretical and practical implications which may help redefine the curricular design of English teaching in Iran. Key words: Task-based, Content-based approach, Language awareness, Intercultural competence

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1. Introduction In recent days a number of publications have announced a “paradigm shift”, following T.S. Kuhn’s terminology (1970), in second language teaching. This revolutionary paradigm shift takes second language teaching from positivism to post-positivism (Jacobs and Farrell, 2001, p.2) or, in a more specific comparison of educational paradigms, from a positivistic to a constructivist-interpretive and, finally, a critical-emancipatory paradigm (Kohonen, 2001, p.15). There is no doubt that something is changing in the profession, at least considering those recent publications. However, is that change taking place in the schools? The case of TEFL in Iran is particularly interesting. Our educational decision makers, unfortunately, have not made it clear which linguistic skill they have in mind as the purpose of learning EFL in Iran. Choosing an eclectic approach which equally incorporates all linguistic skills at the same length seems a good excuse for such decision makers. Nowadays a child can start learning English within the kindergarten and private institutions from her early childhood, with specialized teachers and in a motivating and positive social context. However, there seems to be a growing sense of dissatisfaction among language teachers in Iran. The efforts made in teaching do not seem to correlate with enough fluency or accuracy, being the communicative competence is still a utopia. There may be a number of reasons for this frustration. Some of them are historical, ranging from a poor tradition in language teaching, anchored in the grammar-translation method, to the difficulty of finding parents who can speak in English to support their children. Other reasons are structural problems of the educational system. One of these, for example, is the ratio of students per teacher, which is still too large (not to mention the university, of course). The solutions to these problems depend on many different people and institutions. The government must make a continuous effort to improve education in general and FLL in particular; schools should participate facilitating cooperation of teachers across the curriculum and even bilingual programs as well as in-service teacher training; parents could accept the responsibility of promoting the acquisition of a foreign language at home; teachers must make the effort of using the best techniques to teach the language, being critical with themselves and earnestly demanding whatever they may need to improve their practice. One of the problems which may be hampering the acquisition of English in the educational system affects teachers directly. In Iran there is a generation of teachers of

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English working in the schools who have learnt themselves with the methodologies of the 60s and 70s, basically the grammar-translation and the audio lingual methods. However, this generation of teachers has been trained at the university in the communicative and more upto-date approaches. This situation is provoking a dilemma in the teachers’ minds, who would like to use communicative activities in a learner-centered curriculum but who actually tend to implement more structural, guided, teacher-centered activities in the classroom. Furthermore, teachers see themselves compelled to do this by all the problems mentioned above, as they perceive that sort of methodology works better when there are too many students, sometimes with problems of discipline and very little motivation. However, this way of thinking becomes, in the long run, the main source of dissatisfaction. Due to all those problems, teachers believe that they cannot use the most efficient methods to teach a language, which then provokes poor results, not in relation to the assessment but to the communicative competence they have aimed at. This vicious circle can be broken by the teacher. A redefinition of the teaching practice is needed to establish which are the objectives of learning a foreign language within the educational system as well as the procedures to achieve them. Furthermore, this redefinition is particularly necessary in Secondary Education, when children make the most important effort, in number of hours, to learn the language. In fact, that growing sense of dissatisfaction we have commented upon above is especially acute among Secondary teachers, overloaded with responsibility and problems, and this paper is written with their situation in mind. Hence, this paper tries to suggest some ideas for this redefinition of TEFL in Secondary Education. Four key concepts are discussed: the task-based approach, the content-based approach, language awareness and the intercultural competence. These four concepts, supported by research on Second Language Acquisition, represent a step forward of teachers as the people directly responsible for FLT.

2. The task-based approach The notion of “task” is, on the one hand, as old as humankind may be in the common sense of the concept and it is even quite well established in the rapidly changing world of TEFL. On the other hand, it is still a “new” term in the lexicon of many TEFL practitioners in Iran. In TEFL, the term task has received a number of definitions, which are summarized in Nunan (1989, pp. 5-11). Nunan himself defines it as "a piece of classroom work which involves

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learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than form. The task should also have a sense of completeness, being able to stand alone as a communicative act in its own right" (Nunan 1989, p.10). Skehan (1998, p.95) prefers to collect the most important features of tasks from other authors’ works, saying that “a task is an activity in which: - Meaning is primary; - There is some communication problem to solve; - There is some sort of relationship to comparable real-world activities; - Task completion has some priority; - the assessment of the task is in terms of outcome.” From our perspective, a task is the sum of activities performed to produce something from an input. These activities are the means to achieve the goals established in the teachinglearning process. The output of the task must be a real-world material product. During the performance of the activities the teacher and the learners must assume different roles, which go beyond the teacher as the centre of the classroom. The emphasis on a product as a result of the task is justified for two reasons: on the one hand, research on second language acquisition has shown that, apart from some comprehensible input, it is necessary to produce some comprehensible output to provoke acquisition, and the creation of a material product and its subsequent presentation can foster that comprehensible output (Ellis 1985, pp.157-159; Swain, 1995; Skehan, 1998, pp. 16-22); on the other hand, the realization of the product is part of the activity motivation which tasks seek to promote (Ellis,1985, p.300). The product is the rationale for the task, and for that reason the realization of the product must be related to the learners’ interests and needs. In Iran, even though the term task is not new at all in the academic field, the concept is not part of the lexicon of TEFL practitioners in the schools. The more well-known concept of the “didactic unit” is frequently used for planning the syllabus. However, both terms are not exclusive, but complementary, tasks representing a methodological option which does not exclude, for instance, the use of textbooks and other common teaching practices. Regarding the organization and planning of tasks, Dave Willis and Jane Willis (2001, p.163), after stating six propositions to guide FLT, explain that what is needed is a methodology rooted in meanings and which exploits natural language behavior, activities which encourage a focus on form and a syllabus which is holistic and which is specified both pragmatically and linguistically. Iranian EFL Journal

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To achieve these demands, they create a task-based framework (Willis and Willis 1996 and 2001). This task-based framework, which creates a bridge between the concepts of “task” and “didactic unit”, consists of three parts and some sub-elements: PRE-TASK Introduction to topic and task TASK CYCLE Task > Planning > Report LANGUAGE FOCUS Analysis and Practice

This task-based framework represents an interesting way of organizing the FLT curriculum, at least for the Iranian FLT traditional procedures. On the one hand, the teacher does not explicitly establish the list of structures and the range of vocabulary which would be studied during a unit, but they devise tasks to fulfill some goals based on the learners’ needs and interests. On the other hand, it goes beyond the traditional method of organizing language teaching described by Skehan (1998, pp. 93-95) as the 3Ps, Presentation, Practice and Production. Furthermore, this framework, like the task-based approach itself, has some interesting advantages. First, it focuses on meaning while it does not forget about form. Second, it fosters not only individual work, but basically pair- and group-work. Third, this framework does not constrain the selection of activities or the use of the textbook. Moreover, the taskbased approach encourages the integration of skills in a realistic manner. Finally, this framework moves beyond the concept of assessment as the measure of the acquisition of a closed set of linguistic items predefined by the teacher. In conclusion, a task-based approach, within this task-based framework, can provide teachers and students with a space for communication which is not present in many Iranian language lessons. Now, this approach must be complemented with the three following elements, the content-based approach, language awareness and the intercultural competence.

3. The content-based approach The second element for the redefinition of TEFL in Secondary Education is the content-based approach. This approach is originally related to the immersion programs in Canada and the USA as a response to the problems of language learners who must cope with a new language and with the contents of curricular areas in second language contexts. From this original objective, it has evolved to become a way of language instruction used in foreign as well as Iranian EFL Journal

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second language situations, and in that sense it is related to some of the most important teaching movements in TEFL, namely the natural approach, the communicative approach, experiential learning or the whole language movement. Basically, the content-based approach, also called “curricular integration” (Jacobs and Farrell, 2001,pp. 6-7) can be described as that type of instruction in which “ESL, bilingual, or foreign language teachers use academic texts, tasks, and techniques as a vehicle for developing language, content, and thinking/study skills” (Crandall,1993, p. 114). He defines it and at the same time explain its advantages: "Curricular integration serves to overcome the phenomenon in which students study one subject in one period, close their textbook and go to another class, open another textbook and study another subject. When various subject areas are taught jointly, learners have more opportunities to see the links between subject areas. By appreciating these links, students develop a stronger grasp of a subject matter, a deeper purpose for learning and a greater ability to analyze situations in a holistic manner". Mimi Met (1994, pp.159-182) describes, step by step, how to implement a content-based approach. Some very interesting suggestions are made in that chapter, such as the difference between content-obligatory and content-compatible language objectives (p.161), the importance of experiential, hands-on, cognitively engaging and collaborative activities (p. 164), the integration of culture in the syllabus (p.166), the negotiation of meaning (p.167), the roles of the teacher (pp.170-173), and the need of adequate assessment procedures. In the Iranian context, some scholars introduce some techniques and strategies to develop a content-based approach: 1) use of visual aids (graphs, diagrams, tables, etc.); 2) use of redundancy and reformulation; 3) active learning through experiments, manipulation, problem solving, etc.; 4) comprehension checks by different procedures (including TPR); 5) inclusion of cognitive skills in the language planning, and 6) learn-to-learn techniques. Obviously, these techniques and strategies require more than an adaptation; the authors are describing a real modification of TEFL through the integration of tasks and contents. There are a number of reasons for implementing a content-based approach. The contentbased approach can be beneficial from the language learning perspective as well as the cognitive perspective. Thus, Stoller (1999, p.9) explains the following benefits of a contentbased approach:

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1. A content-based approach eliminates the artificial separation that often exists between language instruction and subject-matter courses, lending a degree of reality and purpose to the language classroom. 2. Students learn content in the L2 and in the process develop both language and academic skills. 3. Content-based instructional units lend themselves naturally to an integrated-skills approach. 4. Thematically organized materials, which are typical of content-based classrooms, are easier to remember and learn. So, the content-based approach can help develop the foreign language, but it can also help the cognitive growth of the learners, as it is explained in McKeon (1994, p.28). The developmental sequence of the curricular areas is also followed in the foreign language classroom, where, instead of considering concepts from their everyday realities, the learners deal with contents with an increasing level of abstraction and complexity. Furthermore, the content-based approach suits the task-based approach described above. Tasks represent the how whereas the academic contents represent the what of the teaching process. Thus, the task cycle can include mathematical problems, natural science projects or historical argumentation, among many others. Similarly, the content-based approach is closely related to cooperative learning. Fathman and Kessler (1993: 128) define it as follows: “Cooperative learning refers to group work which is carefully structured so that all learners interact, exchange information, and are held accountable for learning.” Then, they make clear the value and use of this technique: “Cooperative learning is designed to engage learners actively in the learning process. Through inquiry and interaction with peers in small groups, learners work together towards a common goal.” (Fathman and Kessler, p. 127) Therefore, tasks, contents and cooperative learning can become a powerful collection of techniques to redefine TEFL. In that sense, the content-based approach would run against the traditional isolation of ELT as a separate subject, different from the other, more “serious” curricular areas. The whole curriculum would gain coherence and the students might see that the contents of one subject are not relevant only during one hour, but for them as individuals and members of a community, as it is reflected by the coordinated work of the ELT teacher and the rest of the staff. But, then, logically this approach requires from the staff a greater coordination than it is normally found. It implies sharing information about each one’s curricular areas, not only Iranian EFL Journal

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about the contents but also about the methodology used in each subject, including the activities which are normally performed. These activities would be, after the normal adaptation to a language learning situation, the axis of the task-based approach (see Vale and Feunteun 1995 for suggestions on a content-based approach within an activity-based framework in primary education).

4. Language Awareness One of the characteristics of the Iranian language teaching culture is its concern about the grammatical aspects of language teaching. In spite of the progressive introduction of new methodologies, the general acceptance of the communicative approach and the use of notions and functions, grammar is still at the core of language teaching, sometimes explicitly but normally implicitly under more or less communicative syllabuses. For that reason, it is important to make clear this concept of “Language Awareness” as a new way of incorporating a focus on form into language teaching. The term “Language Awareness” is used here in two senses. First, it refers to “any pedagogical effort which is used to draw the learners’ attention to language form either implicitly or explicitly” (Spada 1997, p. 73). Second, it also means the conscious attention of language learners towards language form as a procedure to improve learning. So, language awareness covers many other terms such as attention focusing, focus on form (Williams, 1995), consciousness raising (Fotos, 1993; Schmidt, 1990), noticing, explicit instruction, or analytic teaching. Interestingly, research on SLA has shown that the “best way” to learn a second or foreign language is through comprehensible input and comprehensible output or negotiated interaction. These two pillars of the communicative approach, however, must be accompanied by a monitor device in order to avoid the lack of accuracy in favor of fluency (Schmidt, p. 1993). That monitor device is Language Awareness. It should be noticed, however, that this paper does not advocate a grammar-based instruction. What is being discussed here is a focus on form within a communicative taskbased approach. Thus, Spada (p. 77) explains, in the light of SLA, how to implement Language Awareness: “learners who benefited most in these studies were those who received form-focused instruction which was operationalized as a combination of metalinguistic teaching and corrective feedback provided within an overall context of communicative

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practice.” So, two of the basic instruments of Language Awareness should be metalinguistic teaching and corrective feedback. Three procedures will be mentioned in relation to metalinguistic teaching, namely input flood, input enhancement and grammar consciousness-raising tasks. Input flood implies the inclusion of a great number of samples of the structure under focus in the texts being used. Input enhancement refers to the artificial highlighting of the structure by means of typographic devices such as underlining, bold letters, etc. Finally, grammar consciousnessraising tasks are a type of task which provides learners with grammar problems to solve interactively (Fotos, 1994). Six possible types of corrective feedback have been analyzed (Lightbown and Spada, 1999, pp. 103-106): Explicit correction, recasts, clarification requests, metalinguistic feedback, elicitation and repetition. This list of types of corrective feedback requires two comments. First, research has shown that, in general, explicit methods of correction are more effective than implicit methods, elicitation, clarification requests, metalinguistic feedback and repetitions being the most efficient ones (Spada, 1997, pp.78-79). However, and that is our second comment, the importance of corrective feedback compels teachers to investigate their own practice on correction, in order to find out not only which type of corrective feedback one normally uses, but also the effectiveness of that feedback. Finally, with this third element, language awareness, the outline to redefine the teaching practice in Secondary Education is complete. The suggestion made here is that teachers should wisely use a task-based approach in which the contents from other curricular areas might be at the centre of the syllabus and in which the focus on form should have an important role but within a communicative framework. However, a fourth element is missing. Learning a language cannot be considered simply as skill development. Learning a language is a very complex educational adventure which engages the whole person and the whole group. Terms such as “negotiation of meaning” or “collaborative learning”, so common in those theoretical issues we referred to at the beginning of this paper, demonstrate that language learning aims at something more than learning the present progressive. That “something” is the Intercultural Competence.

5. Intercultural Competence In recent article Dwight Atkinson (1999, p. 625) stated that “(e) except for language, learning and teaching, there is perhaps no more important concept in the field of TESOL Iranian EFL Journal

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than culture.” Probably this has been so since the very first historical attempts of learning a foreign language as a way of approaching a community of speakers and their culture. However, in recent years there has been a special emphasis put on the relation between culture and learning, as well as on the importance of culture in language learning. One of the most difficult issues in relation to culture is its own definition (LessardClouston (1997) reports that Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1963) found over three hundred definitions of culture, nearly forty years ago!). Culture in FLT has received, traditionally, two types of definitions (Bueno, 1995, p. 362). First, Formal Culture is said to include the history, the arts and the great achievements of a community. Second, Deep Culture includes the customs and the way of life of a community. A third definition, more updated from the anthropological point of view, could be added, Cognitive Culture, which is defined as “learned and shared systems of meaning and understanding, communicated primarily by means of natural language”. (D’Andrade, 1990, p. 65) So, considering, primarily, these definitions of culture, what is the intercultural competence? To begin with, it must be said that the “intercultural competence” is a term which appears not exclusively in the field of language teaching. The wider field of Education coined the expression “multicultural and intercultural education”, from which the intercultural competence is derived. Secondly, the appearance of the intercultural competence is related to the evolution of language teaching objectives expressed as competences and to the general evolution of the field of language teaching as explained in the introduction to this paper. Oliveras (2000, p.35) has analyzed the different proposals and establishes two sets of definitions of the Intercultural Competence. On the one hand, it is defined as a skill or ability to behave adequately in a multicultural context (as, for example, Meyer’s (1991, p. 137) definition). On the other hand, it is defined as an attitudinal stance towards cultures in general or a culture in particular. So, according to these definitions, the Intercultural competence consists of three components: attitude, knowledge and skills. Kramsch (1993, pp. 205-6) proposes four new ways of dealing with language and culture in a teaching context: first, establishing a “sphere of interculturality”, which means not only a transfer of information but a deep reflection on the target and on the native culture; second, teaching culture as a interpersonal process which “applies itself to understanding foreignness or otherness”; third, teaching culture as difference, showing diversity as an inherent feature of culture; and, finally, crossing disciplinary boundaries to include studies from other social sciences. Iranian EFL Journal

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From that perspective, we define interculturality as critical participation in communication, having in mind that the view of “cultures” as watertight compartments is a simplification of a complex reality marked by diversity as its main feature; the intercultural competence, then, is defined as the development of the cognitive environments of the students to understand and accept diversity as a constituent of society, and critical analysis and communication as instruments of knowledge and awareness in a complex society. Thus, the intercultural competence means, among other things, critical education, cooperative learning and reflection on social problems at the language classroom. Hence, the Intercultural Competence becomes the authentic educational objective of FLT, as a number of authors have suggested. Vez (1996, p. 20) redefines the purpose of ELL: English language learning from the point of view of the curriculum does not simply aim to fulfill practical and utilitarian purposes. And neither is this the underlying philosophy of a communicative approach to language teaching. Through the process of learning a foreign language at school students are also encouraged to become involved in the construction of the world around them. Thus, modern FLT must regain the educational, humanistic and cultural ambition which originally underpinned learning a foreign language. Learning a foreign language, as seen from the perspective of the intercultural competence, contributes to personal development. Second, it also contributes to intellectual development, as learning about other languages and cultures enhances your general knowledge of the world; and, finally, adding a cultural element to FLL can also help improve the receptive and productive language skills, as some aspects of language are culture-bound, as the contrastive rhetoric hypothesis has explained (Connor, 1996).

6. Conclusion The gap between theory and practice is the space where teachers can act to improve their practice and enlighten the theory with classroom results. This action, which constitutes a real lifelong learning process, will provoke an improvement in their students’ learning and will ameliorate the teaching experience. In this paper a framework has been introduced to redefine TEFL in the Iranian Secondary Education. The framework is defined by four pillars, tasks, contents, language awareness and the intercultural competence. The latter defines FLT as an educational enterprise, while the three first concepts establish the procedures to make it a fruitful venture. Learning a language is, then, one of the most exciting personal decisions and

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one of the most relevant cultural projects. Communication is a sociocultural event which involves people in a complex process of cooperation and negotiation of meanings. This same definition applies to a language learning context: activity, cooperation, negotiation, culture, communication.

References Alptekin, C. (1993). Target-language culture in EFL materials. ELT Journal, Vol. 47 (2), pp. 136-143. Atkinson, D. (1999). TESOL and Culture . TESOL Quarterly, 33 (4), pp. 625-654. Bueno, A. (1995). Sociolinguistic and Sociocultural Competence. In N. McLaren and D. Madrid. A Handbook for TEFL. Alcoy: Marfil. Connor,U. (1996). Contrastive Rhetoric. New York: Cambridge University Press. Crandall, J. (1993). Content-centered learning in

the United States. Annual Review of Applied

Linguistics, 13, 111-126. D’Andrade, R. (1990). Some Propositions about the relations between culture and human cognition. In James W. Stingler, R.A. Shweder, and G. Herdt. Cultural Psychology: Essays on comparative human development. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 65-129. Ellis, R. (1985). Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Fathman, A. K. and C. Kessler. (1993). Cooperative Language Learning in School Contexts. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 13, pp. 127-140. Fotos, S. S. (1993). Consciousness raising and Noticing through Focus of Form: Grammar Task Performance versus Formal Instruction. Applied Linguistics, 14 (4), pp. 126-141. Fotos, S. S. (1994). Integrating Grammar Instruction and Communicative Language Use Through Grammar Consciousness-Raising Tasks. TESOL Quarterly, 28 (2), pp. 323-351. Jacobs, G.M. and T.S.C. Farrell. (2001). Paradigm Shift: Understanding and Implementing Change in Second Language Education. TESL-EJ,5(1). [Available at http://www-writing. berkeley. edu/TESL-EJ/ej17/a1.html] Kohonen, V. (2001). Towards experiential foreign language education. In Viljo Kohonen et al. Experiential learning in foreign language education. Harlow, Essex: Pearson, pp. 8-60 Kohonen, V, R. Jaatinen, P. Kaikkonen and Jorma Lehtovaara. (2001). Experiential learning in foreign language education. Harlow, Essex: Pearson. Kramsch, C. (1993). Context and Culture in Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kroeber, A., & Kluckhohn, C. (1963). Culture: A critical review of concepts and definitions. New York: Random House. Kramsch, C. (1998). Language and Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press. rd

Kuhn, T.S. (1970), The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2 edition.

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Lessard-Clouston, M. (1997). Towards an understanding of culture in L2/FL Education. The Internet TESL

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Culture.html] Lightbown, P.M. and N. Spada. (1999). How Languages are Learned. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Met, M. (1994). Teaching content through a second language. In F. Genesee. Educating Second Language Children: The whole child, the whole curriculum, the whole community. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 159-182. Meyer, M. (1991). Developing transcultural competence: Case studies of advanced language learners. In D. Buttjes and M. Byram (eds.) Mediating Languages and Cultures: Towards an Intercultural Theory of Foreign Language Education. Clevendon: Multilingual Matters, pp.136158. Nunan, D. (1989). Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Schmidt, R. W. (1990). The role of Consciousness in Second Language Learning.

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Linguistics, 11/2, pp. 129-158. Schmidt, R. W. (1993). Awareness and Second Language Acquisition. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 13, pp. 206-226. Skehan, P. (1998). A Cognitive Approach to Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Spada, N. (1997). Form-focused instruction and Second Language Acquisition: A review of classroom and laboratory research. Language Teaching, 30, pp. 73-87. Stoller, F. L. (1999). Time for Change: A Hybrid Curriculum for EAP Programs. TESOL Journal, 8/1, pp. 9- 13. Swain, M. (1995). Three functions of output in second language learning. In G. Cook and B. Seidlhofer (eds.) Principle and Practice in Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Vale, D. and A. Feunteun. (1995). Teaching Children English. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. Vez, J. (1996). The Social context of EFL. In Neil McLaren and Daniel Madrid. A Handbook for TEFL. Alcoy: Marfil. Williams, J. (1995). Focus on Form in Communicative Language Teaching: Research findings and the classroom teacher. TESOL Journal, 4/4, pp. 12-16. Willis, D. and J. Willis. (1996). A Framework for Task-based Learning. Harlow, Essex: Longman. Willis, D. and J. Willis.( 2001). Applying linguistics to task-based learning: Six propositions in search of a methodology. Harlow, Essex: Longman.

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Title The Use of Annotations and Pictures in Storytelling Classes and Their Impacts on Critical Thinking and Writing Abilities of Young Iranian EFL Learners Authors Mojgan Rashtchi (Ph.D) Islamic Azad University, North Tehran Branch, Iran Samaneh Gorji (M.A) Islamic Azad University, North Tehran Branch, Iran

Biodata Mojgan Rashtchi Associate professor of Applied Linguistics in the faculty of Foreign Languages of Islamic Azad University, North Tehran Branch, Iran. She has published several articles in local and international journals and has published some books. Her main areas of interest include second language teaching to children and adults, theories in second language learning, and teaching philosophy for children (P4C). Samaneh Gorji M.A in TEFL from Islamic Azad University, North Tehran Branch. She has been teaching English to young and adult language learners in different private language schools in Tehran, Iran.

Abstract Stories, as a pedagogical tool, can play a crucial role in teaching thinking and language skills to children. The researchers of the present study aimed to investigate whether pictures and annotations could have a significant impact on writing and critical thinking abilities of young Iranian EFL learners. To this end 133 junior high school girls in four intact groups were selected based on convenience sampling. Three stories from Family and Friends Series (2009) were selected as the teaching materials. In the first group, storytelling was accompanied by pictures whereas in the second group the participants were encouraged to write annotations including underlining, highlighting, and glossing. The third group, however, benefited from annotations and pictures simultaneously and finally the fourth group experienced story re-telling without using annotations or pictures. The results of the MANOVA showed that using pictures during storytelling could enhance writing ability of the participants. However, as the results indicated, the Iranian EFL Journal

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three experimental groups did not differ in terms of critical thinking ability though they significantly outperformed the control group. The results of the study could be of special importance to EFL and ESL teachers and practitioners as well as educators in the field of philosophy for children. Keywords: Annotations, Critical Thinking, Pictures, Storytelling, Writing Skill

1. Introduction With numerous theories present and countless impeding factors to consider, planning and teaching a course in writing can be a daunting task especially when it is aimed to teach young learners; however, it can even be more challenging when practiced in a second language. Writing is a skill that many teachers find difficult to teach and, perhaps consequently, a skill many learners do not relish(Reilly & Reilly, 2005). Moreover, Effective writing skills are important in all stages of life, from early education to future employment (Snyder & Wirt,1998); yet, most students in Iran have problems with learning how to write in their foreign language context. Preparation for writing literacy consists of more than knowing how to form letters. It includes treating language as an object, maintaining cohesion and reference in oral language, and making one’s communicative intentions known (Cazden,1976).Writing needs the audience to comprehend, interpret, and criticize what has been written, characteristics which elucidate its complexity (Gunning, 1998; Langan, 1978) and show to what extent it could be challenging to learners (Parker, 1993); a skill which its share in developing good early literacy skills cannot be ignored in young learner classrooms (Maley, as cited in Reilly & Reilly, 2005).In addition to knowing correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation, as Tsui (2000) argues, writing requires strategies which enable learners to express their ideas and involves an understanding of how ideas can be put together to convey a broader meaning. Writing as a process of several complex cognitive tasks (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1987) is a social act (Reither & Vipond, 1989) which requires precision of thought and precise use of the language (Hedge, 2000). Nevertheless, an important task of education is to teach students to think effectively; as Robinson (1987) states, “if students are to function successfully in a highly technical society, then they must be equipped with the lifelong learning and thinking skills necessary to acquire and process information in an ever-changing world" (p. 16). With the beginning of the twentieth century, education has taken over this task and h a s aimed to generate accurate information on the ways thinking skills should be taught to students (Dombayci, Demir, Iranian EFL Journal

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Tarhan, & Bacanli, 2011). Based on classroom experimentation, it may be asserted that students who think critically can ask appropriate questions, gather relevant information efficiently and creatively, sort out and reason logically based on the information obtained, and come to reliable conclusions about the world that would enable them to live and act successfully (Lau & Chan, 2012; Özkan, 2010; Schafersman, 1991). These student are more productive while using their second language (Özkan, 2010).Luke and Elkins (2002) believe that teaching EFL learners to become effective thinkers is increasingly recognized as an immediate goal of teaching. By developing an understanding into the arguments and views of others, critical thinking, through different activities, can improve students’ academic performance (Özkan, 2010). According to Richards and Schmidt (2002) critical thinking strategies in language teaching are considered as a level of reading comprehension or discussion skills when the learner is able to question and evaluate what is read or heard. By and large, different studies have aimed to show the importance of critical thinking in different areas of education. For example, in his study, Toscano (2011) has worked on developing technological awareness in the technical writing classroom. He has signified the role of student engagement in discussions on critical technological awareness and has attempted to foster critical thinking by promoting student’s engagement in discussions about social constructions of technology. In another study, Rashtchi (2007) has shown that cooperative writing could have a significant impact on critical thinking of a group of Iranian college students. Marashi (2007) has investigated the effectiveness of community of inquiry method on the development of reasoning skills in children and has concluded that the implementation of community of inquiry method can positively affect the reasoning skills of the students. Alternatively, Alagozlu (2007) has examined whether elements of critical thinking and voice could be traced in the writings of a group of Turkish students and believes “that EFL students need to be supported in terms of critical thinking skills” (p.118). Correspondingly, one of the instruments which receives a special focus in many of the English language teaching methods and is utilized for the enhancement of children’s thinking, academic success, and emotional well-being is storytelling (Eckhoff & Urbach, 2008; Liu, Chen, Shih, Huang, Liu, 2011; Mokhtar, Abdul Halim, & Kamarulzaman, 2011).As an innovative pathway, it can enhance learning, critical thinking, and meaning construction (Pereira, Vega, Filippo, David, Raposo, & Fuks, 2009); and it is also powerful enough to promote critical literacy, evaluation skills, and decision making (Luke, 2004). Being interesting and motivating for learners, stories induce listeners to construct communication, provides learners with the opportunity to listen, think, ask questions, take Iranian EFL Journal

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notes, and focus on the chain of events. As students engage in storytelling, as Mallan (1992) puts forward, they learn to participate in and understand narrative discourse and create a path to a more sophisticated use of language, that is reading and writing. Storytelling, according to Brice, (as cited in Mokhtar et al., 2011) is a successful strategy to increase pragmatic oral skills, the ability to use language in specific contexts for specific purposes leading to greater ability to write and read. As a learning tool, storytelling improves learners’ oral communication skills (Harriot& Martin, 2004), “fosters empathy, compassion, tolerance, and respect for difference” (Baskerville, 2011, p. 107), meets children’s social and emotional needs (Wright, Bacigalupa, Black, & Burton, 2008), helps them understand the goals of writing, and assists them to express their ideas and feelings (Paley, 1990). The main focus of oral practice in storytelling is on educating and transmitting knowledge and skills (Haigh& Hardy, 2011). Baskerville (2011) believes that storytelling creates a friendly classroom environment, helps children learn how to work with others, enables them to express their ideas in their personal stories, and strengthens relationships among them. There are numerous studies related to storytelling in healthcare education. According to Haigh and Hardy (2011), stories have been used at the healthcare ‘front line’ to promote healthy behaviors and have been used effectively to promote professional identity and group cohesion. It is noteworthy that many of the emergent literacy skills are acquired first in the context of children’s interactions with peers in early play contexts (Teale & Sulzby, 1986). For example, Preece (1992) has found that children’s interactions with each other contribute to the modification, expansion, increased coherence, and complexity of their anecdotes and stories. Preece’s study reveals that children are active, alert, engaged, and even aggressive listeners; in fact, stories are the bridges between the individual experiences and social patterns. Also, Palmer, Harshbarger, and Koch in their study observe a group of children during storytelling sessions and conclude that storytelling initiates imagination, creative thinking, and language abilities; it also, stimulates learning and social interaction. Another study carried out by Cassel (2004), indicates that technology can play a unique role in supporting emergent writing literacy activities. Therefore, since the ultimate goal of education is teaching students the way of thinking (Lochhead & Clement, 1977), the strategies which can facititate teaching thinking skills require special attention. The four indicators of critical thinking which include “promoting interaction among students, asking open-ended questions without one right answer, giving students

sufficient time to reflect on the questions and problems, and Iranian EFL Journal

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teaching for transfer” (Potts, 1994, p. 1) seem to be accessible through storytelling classes. Story telling can initiate interaction among students; it could be used as a trigger for the improvement of critical thinking as well as students’ writing skill. As Özkan, (2010) contends, “while students interact, they share their ideas and have a chance to hear others’ ideas, as well, which helps them develop their critical thinking skills”(p. 211). Children’s readiness for learning those aspects of writing literacy related to functions and features of the outside world begins in play and storytelling activities (Cassel, 2004) through which children practice talking about deixis (Scarlett & Wolf, 1979) as well as thinking and talking about detached objects, actions, and feelings (Nicolopoulou, 1996). Structuring experience as stories “narrative thought” and telling those stories are skills that come naturally to children, who have ‘‘an abundant and early armament of narrative tools’’ (Bruner, 1990, p.79). All in all,to achieve the main purpose of the study which was to investigate whether using pictures and annotation writing in storytelling classes had any statistically significant effect on the improvement of Iranian EFL learners' writing and critical thinking abilities the following questions were proposed: 1. Which of the strategies namely using pictures, annotations, annotations and pictures simultaneously, in storytelling classes have a significant impact on writing and critical thinking ability of Iranian EFL learners? 2. How does the students’ attitude compare as a result of the different strategies used in each of the treatment groups?

2. Method 2.1 Participants Participants of the present study consisted of133 Persian speaking 13 and 14 year old junior high school girls who had studied English for one year at their school in Tehran, Iran. They were selected based on convenience sampling and were randomly assigned to one control and three experimental groups. 2.2 Instrumentation Four instruments for data collection were used in this study. The first instrument was a general proficiency test consisting of five sections: vocabulary section (8 items), matching section (7 items), grammar section (9 items), reading comprehension section (5 items) and a section on dictation (8 items). This test was administered to homogenize the participants in

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terms of their language knowledge. However, before administration, the test was first given to 30 students whose language proficiency level was similar to the participants of the study and who were studying at the same school. The results of the item analysis disclosed none of the items as mal-functioning and thus no items were discarded from the test. The reliability of the test estimated through KR-21 (r=0.82) showed a relatively high reliability index. The piloted proficiency test, as mentioned earlier, was administered to the 133 elementary EFL learners to examine whether they were homogeneous before receiving the treatment. The second instrument was a writing test used both as the pre and posttests to evaluate the writing ability of the four groups before and after the treatment. The students were asked to choose a topic for a series of pictures and describe them afterward. There was a series of pictures at the top of each exam paper. The students looked at the key pictures and tried to deduce a story from them. These pictures were taken from Writing Tutor 1A (Lewis, 2011) which is a sentence writing book. The pictures had a beginning, an ending, and illustrated an event that a boy and his friend had experienced at a park. This activity was used to examine whether the participants were homogeneous in terms of their writing ability before the treatment and accordingly to examine whether their writings had improved after the treatment. The writings of the students were scored by two raters who were experienced in teaching junior high school students. Jacobs, Zinkgraf, Wormuth, Hartfiel, and Hughey’s (1981) writing scale was adapted and used to rate the writing levels of the present study’s participants. Since not all parts of Jacob et al.’s rubric scale were appropriate for evaluating the students' writing skill at elementary level, the researchers decided to choose some of its aspects and merge them with other aspects of the rubric scale used in American schools to make it more suitable for scoring the elementary level writings of the participants of the present study. Based on this rating scale, the scripts were rated on five aspects: writing process, content, organization, style, and conventions (Appendix A). The five aspects were separately scored with each having a maximum score of four. Therefore, the students were given scores from 0 to 20 by the two raters. The inter-rater reliability showed a high consistency between the two sets of scores (r=.92); thus the mean of the two sets of scores was considered as the final score for each participant. The next instrument was New Jersey Test of Reasoning Skills (1983) utilized to assess the critical thinking of the participants before and after the treatment. The translated version of the questionnaire (Shahrtash Educational Publications, 2011 by the permission

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of Montclair University) was administered to the participants before and after the treatment and its reliability was computed through Cronbach’s alpha (r=.79). The Test is originally developed by Shipman (1983) and “has taken the first steps toward statewide assessment of students’ thinking skills” (Morante & Ulesky, 1984, p.72). Moreover, an attitude retrospective questionnaire (in Persian) was employedto assess the participants’ attitude toward the different types of treatment. The questionnaire consisted of 22 questions (17 were general questions and five were specific to the type of treatment they received); it was reviewed, modified, and finally its content validity approved by two experts with more than 20 years of experience in the field of Applied Linguistics (see Appendix B for the English version). 2.3 Materials To achieve the objective of the current study, three story books appropriate for the age and proficiency level of the participants were utilized for storytelling. Four criteria, as proposed by Lehman (2003), were taken into consideration in selection of the books; the ethical issues which were open to different interpretations could encourage group discussions as well as questions and answers among the members of each class for which they had to make decisions, take sides, and evaluate. The three selected volumes from Family and Friends Series (2009) included: The Camping Trips(Grainger, 2009) with 29 pages, The Shoemaker and the Elves (Arengo, 2009) with 29 pages, and Two Kites(Casey, 2009) with 37 pages. These books provided extra reading practice. Illustrated glossary items on each page helped children understand the text, while integrated comprehension questions and puzzles provided a means for checking the students' understanding and helped them develop their literacy skills. At the onset of the study the pictures of the selected stories were reprinted in big posters (250cm x 150cm) to be used in two groups of the study. The first story's posters consisted of 36 pictures, the second and third stories’ posters included 15 pictures which were on view for the students during the storytelling classes. 2.4 Procedure 2.4.1 General proficiency test The standardized general proficiency test (as explained above) was administered to examine the homogeneity of the participants in terms of their language knowledge. Since the participants were at the same language level no outliers were identified in the selection of the participants with regard to the results of the test. 2.4.2 Pretests

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Subsequent to administering the general proficiency test and before starting the process of story telling, as mentioned in the instrumentation section, the students took a writing pretest using a series of pictures. Moreover, the participants were asked to complete the Persian version of the New Jersey Test of Reasoning Skills (Shipman, 1983). 2.4.3 Treatment The instruction for all of the groups consisted of 20 sessions, each session taking 30 minutes. All of the groups were taught by the same teacher to control the differences caused by teacher variable. To sustain teacher’s impartiality and control her possible inclination toward one of the groups, she was made entirely unaware of the aim of the study. In all of the four groups, narration of the stories was followed by some questions posed by the teacher. The questions led to classroom discussion and the students stated their viewpoints while the teacher purposefully tried to create a challenging yet friendly atmosphere in the classroom regarding the different ideas proposed by the students. At the end of each session the learners, in all four groups, went through the activities of the story books individually or cooperatively. Most of the activities were done in classroom although some were done as homework and were checked and corrected by the teacher in the subsequent sessions. Furthermore, the students were asked to write a summary of what had been narrated in the class. During every session the teacher collected the summaries and provided feedback on them. The activities and homework were identical in all groups of the study. The first and second stories took seven sessions to complete while the third story was finished in six sessions. Nonetheless, every group of the study enjoyed differing activities as follows: 2.4.3.1 Experimental Group 1 (+Picture - Annotation) The first experimental group was shown pictures but did not write annotations, the teacher narrated the stories while the learners were exposed to the posters. The posters were mainly drawn based on the pictures of the story book depicting events of the story. The students were asked to look at the pictures and relate them to what they were hearing. After the narration procedure, the students were asked to look at the posters, remember the events, and negotiate the chain of events with their peers before beginning to respond to the questions posed by the teacher. Nevertheless, there was no annotation writing in this group. 2.4.3.2 Experimental Group 2 (-Picture +Annotation) Participants in the second experimental group were not shown pictures but were asked to write annotations while listening to the story narrated by the teacher. Annotation writing consisted of activities such as underlining, glossing, highlighting, and note taking. After the

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story telling procedure, like the first group, questions written on the board were followed by classroom discussions. 2.4.3.3 Experimental Group 3 (+Picture + Annotation) The third experimental group was exposed to the pictures while the stories were being narrated and the members of the group were asked to write annotations while listening to the stories. This was followed by activities similar to the other groups. 2.4.3.4 Control Group (-Annotation -Picture) In the control group, there were neither annotation activities nor pictures available while the teacher narrated the stories. The students listened to the story while the reprinted picture-less story books were in front of them. After the narration, the same exact activities were undertaken as practiced by the other groups. It is worth noting that certain strategies which are commonly used in writing classes including prewriting, drafting, and revising were taught and practiced in all of the four groups in order to help students summarize and write well. Sometimes the best summaries of all classes were copied for the rest of the students in order to provide them with a good sample for the following sessions. Also, students were asked to volunteer and retell the stories at the beginning of each session not only to attract every student’s attention to the theme of the story in general but also to interest those who were absent in the previous session and hence, had missed part of the story. 2.4.4 Posttests A writing posttest similar to the pretest in the form of a personal narrative writing was administered to measure the effects of the treatment at the end of the study. Moreover, the Persian version of the New Jersey Test of Reasoning Skills (1983) was administered to examine whether there were any significant differences in the thinking ability of the participants after the treatment. Since the study had two independent variables (annotation and picture) and two independent variables, the participants’ scores on the posttests were compared through a Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) in order to observe whether there were any significant differences among the means of the four groups on the writing and critical thinking posttest scores.

3. Results The results of the writing and critical thinking questionnaire on the pretest showed that the four groups were homogeneous at the onset of the study. Table 1 describes the descriptive

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statistics of the four groups on the writing and critical thinking questionnaire pretests. The results of skewness analysis showed that the assumption of normality was observed in the distribution of scores in the four groups, as well (with the skewness ratios falling between the acceptable range of 1.96). Moreover, as Table 2 indicates, since Leven’s test was greater than 0.05, the assumption of homogeneity of variances was not violated. Thus a one-way ANOVA was run to see whether there was a significant difference among the means of the writings and critical thinking questionnaire of the four groups before the treatment. The results of the ANOVA (Table 3) on critical thinking [F (3, 129) =.61, p= 0.60] and writing [F (3, 129) =1.02, p= 0.38] yielded no significant difference among the groups. Table 1.Descriptive Statistics, Writing & Critical Thinking, Pretest N

Mean

SD.

Std. Error of

Pretest

Groups

Critical Thinking

+Picture -Annotation -Picture +Annotation +Picture +Annotation -Picture -Annotation

30 34 35 34

27.5 26.29 27.25 28.91

9.10 8.71 8.11 6.02

1.66 1.49 1.37 1.03

-0.17 -0.53 -0.85 0.79

Writing

+Pictures +Annotation +Picture +Annotation - Picture-Annotation

30 34 35 34

12.45 12.60 11.27 11.70

3.62 1.93 3.70 4.63

0.66 0.33 0.62 0.79

-1.44 0.07 0.042 0.25

Mean

Skewness Ratio

Table 2.Test of Homogeneity of Variances, Pretest Pretest Critical Thinking Writing

Levene Statistic

df1

df2

Sig.

1.134

3

129

.338

1.842

3

129

.125

Table 3. One-way ANOVA, Critical Thinking & Writing, Pretest Pretest Between Groups Within Groups Critical thinking Total

Writing

Between Groups Within Groups Total

Sum of Squares 119.25 8349.98 8469.23

Df 3 129 132

Mean Square 39.75 64.72

39.93 1681.29 1721.23

3 129 132

13.31 13.033

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Sig. .61

.60

1.02

.38

229

In order to be able to answer the first research question of the study, the researchers had to compare the performance of participants in the control and experimental groups on the writing and critical thinking questionnaire through a test of MANOVA. This was of course made possible with all sets of scores enjoying normality of distribution as displayed in Table 1 above. Table 4. Descriptive Statistics, Writing & Critical Thinking, Posttest Posttest

Groups

N

Mean

SD.

Std. Error of

Skewness

Mean

Ratios

+Picture

30

31.96

7.04

1.28

0.96

+Annotation

34

32.08

7.25

1.24

-0.53

Critical

+Picture +Annotation

35

30.85

7.65

1.29

0.32

Thinking

-Picture -Annotation

34

32.05

6.35

1.09

0.42

+Pictures

30

24.08

3.62

1.47

0.24

+Annotation

34

16.25

1.93

0.61

0.61

+Picture +Annotation

35

17.48

3.70

0.409

-0.24

- Picture -Annotation

34

14.79

4.63

0.59

-0.26

Writing

Table 5. Between-Subject Factors Groups 1 2 3 4

N

Value Labels +Picture +Annotation +Picture +Annotation -Picture -Annotation

30 34 35 34

To begin with, Table 5 shows the between-subjects factors which include the groups and types of treatment (independent variables) they received. It was necessary to check for the homogeneity of intercorrelations to see if for each level of the between-subject variable (i.e., type of treatment) the pattern of intercorrelation among the levels of within-subjects variables (i.e., writing and critical thinking) were the same. To test this assumption, Box’s M statistic with the more conservative alpha level of 0.001 was used. In other words, Box’s M statistic tested the null hypothesis that the observed covariance matrices of the dependent variables were equal across groups. Table 6 displays the result and indicates that the assumption was met (p = 0.785  0.001). Iranian EFL Journal

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Table 6. Box’s Test of Equality of Covariance Matrices Box’s M F Df1 Df2 Sig.

61.946 1.689 9 179500.4 .785

Table 7. Multivariate Tests Effect

Value

F

Partial Eta Squared

Sig.

(η2) Intercept Pillai’s Trace Wilks’ Lambada Hotelling’s Trace Roy’s Largest Root

0.971 0.029 33.084 33.84

2117.400 2117.400 2117.400 2117.400

.000 .000 .000 .000

.971 .971 .971 .971

Groups Pillai’s Trace Wilks’ Lambda Hotelling’s Trace Roy’s Largest Root

0.395 0.609 0.637 0.627

10.577 12.015 13.473 26.958

.000 .000 .000 .000

.192 .210 .228 .362

According to Table 7, the result of the Pillai’s Trace Test specified that F =10.577 and p< 0.001; it could thus be concluded that the treatment was effective between the groups and there was a statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups. Furthermore, with the partial eta squared coming out to be 0.19, the treatment accounted for 19% of the overall variance in the scores. As illustrated in Table 8 which demonstrates the test of between-subjects effects as part of the MANOVA output, the four groups turned out to have a statistically significant difference in the writing and critical thinking posttests, F = 23.115 and p