Teaching English as a Second Language Quarterly
Volume:4 Issue: 2, Summer 2012

The present study sought to investigate the acquisition of referential, quasi and expletive subject pronouns, three different types of obligatory subjects in English, by adult Persian speaking L2 learners of English at different stages of L2 acquisition. A Grammaticality Judgment Test and a Translation Test were designed and developed to elicit the participant's knowledge of obligatory subjects in English. The results revealed that the L2 learners conformed to the natives in their performance on obligatory referential subjects and obligatory expletive subjects, but they did not conform to the natives in the case of obligatory quasi subjects. The obtained results can be accounted for by the fact that Persian as the L2 learners’ native language accepts referential and expletive subjects in certain structures, but no quasi subjects exist in Persian. This lends support to Smith and Tsimpli (1995) and Hawkins and Chan (1997) in that adult second language learners are not able to modify those functional features not already encoded in the entries of their native language.

Framed in a cognitive approach to task-supported L2 vocabulary learning, the present study used a pedagogical approach to investigate the relative effectiveness of tasks with different involvement loads on the vocabulary knowledge of Iranian EFL learners. The goal was to investigate the way that the construct of involvement load is related to the Input Hypothesis (Krashen, 1985) and the Output Hypothesis (Swain, 1996) to see whether the involvement load or input/output-orientation of tasks is the determining factor in task effectiveness. The participants were 127 university students from four General English classes at the Islamic Azad University, Mobarakeh Branch, who were assigned to four instructional groups. Contrary to the predictions of the Involvement Load Hypothesis (Laufer & Hulstijn, 2001), the results of the study indicated that involvement load is not the only determining factor in task effectiveness, but input/output-orientation of tasks is also a decisive parameter in task effectiveness. While Laufer and Hulstijn’s proposal is the first valuable step towards building a theory of vocabulary learning, the results of the study indicated that involvement index may well not function independently of the task type, i.e., input or output orientation of a word-focused task.

The acquisition of argument structures has been studied by a variety of second language acquisition scholars within the past two decades (Atay, 2010; Can, 2009; Chay, 2006, & Kras, 2007, among others). In the present study, ‘Predicate’ as the most substantial element of a sentence is investigated. There are three English verb-types which seem to be more problematic for Persian EFL learners: (a) Paired Ergative verbs (e.g. open); (b) Unergative verbs (e.g. cry) and (c) Unaccusative verbs (e.g. die). The study aims to shed more light on the learnability problems with which Persian EFL learners are faced in the acquisition of the afore-mentioned structures. Additionally, the role of cross-linguistic influence and proficiency is investigated. The results show that the participants had learning problems associated with Unaccusative predicates as well as the intransitive (inchoative & middle) variants of Paired Ergative verbs. Additionally, the role of L1 (Persian) was detected in the acquisition of unergatives and inchoatives more clearly when the learners experienced learning difficulties as the result of negative transfer from L1. In the case of unaccusatives, the challenges are attributed to the lack of L2 intuitive knowledge of the learners.

Originating from Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory, dynamic assessment (DA) proposes a novel approach to second language acquisition (SLA) research according to which a dialectical relationship is envisaged between instruction and assessment. Although DA has been applied to some areas of SLA, there are areas, such as interlanguage pragmatics (ILP), that have been neglected. To address the issue, 40 university students of two proficiency levels were selected and assigned randomly to 1 of 4 groups consisting of two DA and two Non-DA groups. Each group received instruction concerning how to use appropriate request and apology strategies in the English language. However, following Lantolf and Poehner (2011), DA groups received ZPD-sensitive feedback whereas NDA groups received no more feedback but were assessed according to their independent performance. All participants completed a pretest, a posttest, and a delayed posttest of request and apology speech acts that were rated by two native speakers of English on a 6-point Likert scale. The findings revealed that DA groups outperformed NDA groups and that DA groups of both high and low proficiency levels differed significantly from pretest to posttest to delayed posttest. However, high NDA group didn’t show such a difference. The results also showed no interaction between proficiency and instruction indicating that instruction, but not proficiency, had a significant effect on posttest and delayed posttest performance of the students. The findings may be revealing in that they support DA and its applicability to ILP instruction.

Regarding the literary historical debates, one of the main concerns of modern historiography is the way of representing the concept of reality within the framework of a coherent narrative, a reality that is only achievable through the process of narrative that is supposed to be constructive and ordering. Therefore, in order to examine this ordering process of narrative in James Joyce's novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), as a modernist novel, this article attempts to approach the problem of narrative and history and the role of narrative in the representation of reality in this novel. However, in terms of Hayden White's theory of metahistory, Joyce's impositionalism of narrative on the emplotment of this novel is an attempt to form a line of narrative through the implication of textile and fabric images. To this end, the present study intends not only to unfold these sets of images presented in the novel but also to discuss the question of how this ordering process of narrative is achieved by means of such images in a constant aesthetic act.

This article studies Sir Walter Scott’s use of the family-as-nation trope in Ivanhoe and Anne of Geierstein. The importance of this trope in his figuration of nationhood is discerned by carrying out a close reading of the texts and placing them in their historical context, which primarily consists of a comparison with Edmund Burke and Maria Edgeworth. Consequently, his position is revealed as being between that of Burke and Edgeworth and the significance of his status as a non-English British writer is seen as a source of his opinions. His use of father-son and father(-figure)-daughter couples allows him to examine the existence of multi-lateral ethnicities as well as to express his attachment to a patriarchal view of descent and filiation, whilst simultaneously permitting hybridization through marriage to foreign women. By comparing the manner in which he uses the trope in the two novels, it is seen that his opinion on hybridization changes from one that permits men to be hybrids to one that restricts it to women. Thus Scott permits filiation to both men and women, but limits affiliation to women.

This article presents the question whether it is correct to classify Günter Grass’s The Tin Drum as a work of magical realism. A brief scrutiny of the elements of magical realism, particularly Authorial Reticence and concept of Hesitation indicates that contrary to the advertisement of certain sources and publishers, this novel in certain circumstances, contradicts and opposes these two indispensable elements of magical realism. The scrutiny of the text based on the technique of ‘close reading’, followed by exemplification and providing excerpts from the text, helps one find out that the only distinctive feature of this narrative mode, namely authorial reticence is explicitly neglected and overlooked. Unlike the principles of magical realism, the protagonist of the novel attempts to provide rational explanations and logical justifications for whatever he does. Likewise, due to the lack of a firm and confident voice and lack of matter-of-fact statements of the protagonist, readers begin suspecting the accuracy and validity of his words and actions. This sustained hesitation ultimately harms the total effect of the work as being magical realism. Moreover, based on Franz Roh’s famous statement regarding the palpitating nature of magic, hidden behind our represented world, two conclusions are drawn: one is paucity or scarcity of magic, implying that extraordinary events should not occur incessantly and frequently. Secondly, it should happen momentarily and promptly and consequently should not be controllable, intruding our lives from the outside world. Whereas, in this novel, not only Oskar’s magic power is used frequently, but also is controlled at any time he wishes.

The images of Muslims in media, literature and politics have been mostly black and white portrayals of a people alien to modernity, technology, civilization and progress. Since the end of the Cold War and the onset of deadly terrorist attacks in different areas of the world, especially in the United States, these representations show a palpable difference: Muslims are predominantly represented not only as anti-modern barbarians, but also as terrorists. The present paper examines John Updike’s Terrorist (2006) as one of many American novels which, in line with the dominant political discourse, has focused on representing Muslims as ‘the others’ and Islam as a totalitarian and retrogressive religion which orders its adherents to use violence against unbelievers. The writers discuss Updike’s attempt at introducing Islam as intolerant of Western modernity and democracy (the main inspiration for the Arab-Muslim protagonist of the novel intends to carry out a terrorist attack). The aim is to show how Updike more or less subscribes to and empowers Orientalist conceptions of Islam.