فصلنامه مطالعات میان رشته ای در علوم انسانی
سال نهم شماره 1 (پیاپی 33، زمستان 1395)

The fundamental change in language research, which started with Saussure in the early twentieth century and led to the establishment of modern linguistics, restricted the said research within the so-called central part of language, i. e., the language system, without taking into consideration anything that was conceived as external to language as an autonomous system. In terms of its clearly-defined theoretical structure and subject, modern linguistics once again became an influential leading discipline in the humanities and social sciences. It achieved a great deal, but its achievements took place at the cost of isolating language from its environment and excluding the user of language and the context in which language is used from the scope of linguistic analysis. Although this stance has long been criticized by scholars who prefer to see language within a more extended context, it has generally been ignored by mainstream linguists who dominate linguistic circles. However, in the last few decades of the twentieth century, significant changes have taken place in linguistic studies. These changes have brought about a new era, the era of ″post-modern linguistics″, in which the theoretical foundations of modern linguistics are problematized and the way language is viewed and investigated is profoundly renewed. This article is written in a narrative form describing the linguistic change from modernism to postmodernism and in the course of this review it will become clear in which research perspective the two main linguistics directions (theoretical and applied) are located: disciplinary interdisciplinary and transdisiplinary? In other words what is the object of linguistics research?

Culture teaching generally focuses on helping foreign language learners develop an understanding of the culture of the target language and, ideally, positive attitudes towards it. In today’s world, the domination of English in entertainment, mass media and new media may sometimes be accompanied by unbalanced views. This interdisciplinary paper draws upon pragmatics, anthropological and cultural studies findings and shows how they can be utilised in language pedagogy. It argues that in a world where non-native speakers of English outnumber native speakers, culture teaching should widen its aims: in addition to helping learners develop positive attitudes towards and knowledge of the culture of the target language, it should also aim to develop a more explicit understanding of the rules of the learners’ own culture. It focuses on the concepts of communicative competence and pragmatic failure, and then presents a model of analysis of Persian culture, analysing the concept and components of ‘face’ and the principles of politeness in Persian (deference, humility and cordiality). It then demonstrates how this analysis can be used to develop classroom strategies.

Since the 18th century, Rousseau has been often credited with egalitarian and liberal views worldwide; however, his potent pen in shaping ideas has led to women’s extreme suppression. It seems that Rousseau had been suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder to the extent that through one of his personality states he leads women to utter subservience, and through the other one he gives them an aura of holiness. The present paper depicts such dualities through the analysis of Rousseau’s three books, Emile, Social Contract and Confessions. In Emile, women are pictured as subservient to men. In the Social Contract, the most important book by Rousseau and an early work on the discourse of equality in the modern era, women are largely ignored, while in Confessions they are worshipped. In order to analyze and interpret these three perennial works, the author-based hermeneutic approach of Quentin Skinner was utilized in an attempt to unpick Rousseau’s intentions. Moreover, the theoretical and conceptual categorization of Luce Irigaray, the post-modern feminist who believes that the method of oppression of women by men on women is used in elaborating Rousseau’s unfair judgments. In this interdisciplinary study of women, Rousseau’s discourse and political thought on gender inequality are intermingled. In short, under the influence of psychological complexities, Rousseau gives women a subservient, far-from-human status through his use of language.

Persia (Iran) is considered one of the oldest civilisations; because of its especial geographical and geopolitical position, economic conditions and numerous other factors, it has always attracted the attention of rulers and natives of other countries. This has resulted into extensive relations between Persians (Iranians) and other nations throughout history. As a result, along the Persian (Farsi) language which has been used to communicate by different people settled in this territory, as befitting each era, a variety of foreign languages also rose in popularity. Moreover, the issue of teaching and learning foreign languages across this land, especially in recent centuries, has been among the concerns of its inhabitants. Employing historical and linguistic research, this article, which is prepared by scholars of linguistics and history for the very first time in the relevant world literature, aims to discuss the position of foreign languages in Persia (Iran) and the changes in their status in different eras, from the past to the present. The examination of historical and linguistic documents as well as of existing knowledge depicts an impressive picture of the number of languages that were spoken throughout Persian (Iranian) history as well as their diversity.

The present study critically evaluates the current status of ESP textbooks. To this end, a critical evaluation of four ESP textbooks developed by SAMT organization in the soft sciences, namely Architecture and Insurance Management, and the hard sciences, namely Computer Sciences and Civil Engineering was carried out using McDonough and Shaw’s (2003) Materials Evaluation Model. Both visual and content-based aspects of the books were thoroughly evaluated in order to identify their general pedagogical values. The findings demonstrated that the textbooks suffer from some deficiencies and flaws, such as not being up to date, using formulaic exercises, having a monotonous, assembly-line method of presenting texts and exercises, a misconception of the aims of ESP courses and their nature in materials development and lack of face validity. These books also tended to ignore or pay little attention to the development of writing, speaking, and listening skills as well as the reflection of Iranian culture, traditions and local knowledge in their materials. Despite these drawbacks, they enjoyed a good number of merits. Their outstanding features included a main focus on reading comprehension skills, coverage of technical vocabulary and terms and a high level of content relevance in texts conferring a specialized knowledge of the respective fields to the readers. They were also found to adhere to a suitable grading of course content materials. Finally, this paper provides some practical suggestions and solutions for the remedy of the weaknesses in the ESP materials currently in use.

Extensive changes in today’s world, especially in the field of communications, has brought to the fore the role of public relations. This field requires professional experts with specific competences in each of its sub-sectors. Managers are always the most important people of an organization, within which the role of public relations managers is of paramount importance. The main aim of this article is to present a conceptual framework of managers’ competency model of public relations by using theoretical approaches to management and communication science. In pursuit of this goal, the article proceeds in two steps. First, the design of the initial conceptual framework for the research and secondly, measurement of the conceptual framework validity. We referred to academic literature and surveyed the employment indices of the focus group for managers. Firstly, we extracted dimensions, factors and indicators from patterns of national and international competence, and secondly we surveyed and verified the validity of the theoretical framework in consultation with communication science and public relation experts. The statistical population consisted of experts in communication science, public relations and management. A focus groups was put together 15-strong focus group, which was selected from the statistical population through the use of the judgmental method, arrived at the indicators and the factors after going through two steps of confirmation of dimensions and components of the conceptual framework. Because of the increased importance of the role of public relations in communication competence and organizational success, the conceptual framework put forward in this article can be of use to managers of organizations.

The most basic step in policy analysis is problem structuring. If the problem is not correctly formulated, it will not have the right solution. Misunderstanding of the problem situation or its negligence, as for example in the field of justice, will at best lead to putting forward a good solution to an incorrect problem. Therefore, correct analysis of the conditions of justice issues is necessary for the production of the right solution. Due to the lack of analytical tools in the field of justice decision-making and performance, this article seeks to design an algorithm of problem situation analysis as a tool in a step-by-step analysis of the justice problem situation. The task is carried out through extracting analytical elements and dimensions from justice literature, especially influential theories of justice. The algorithm of problem situation analysis in justice research includes seven dimensions: philosophical foundations, context, actor, the variable of the creator of right, object of distribution, time and result. Decision makers in the analysis of problem situation define their views relative to the elements of each of these dimensions. This work raises self-awareness in the decision-makers and policy-makers in relation to intervention characteristics. With using this algorithm, we can explain what, when, on which view, in what condition, by whom, to whom, with what criteria, and for the realization of which outcome will be or should be distributed.