نشریه پژوهش های زبانشناختی در زبان های خارجی
سال سوم شماره 2 (بهار و تابستان 1392)

Occasionally, explaining certain lingual phenomena can be very difficult and complex. For example, one may ask why there are certain types of words or combination of words or why a language contains grammatical, conjugation and syntax structure. All these questions are connected to a long term process of the growth and development of language. Everybody uses words without thinking, or rather a combination of words which can be referred to as freeze combination or stable combination, the latter being the inseparable part in every language. Thus, in this article we have examined the noun/verb stable combinations in Russian language in phraseology point of view, which counted as the most frequent type of stable combinations in Russian language. So far on this basis, no comparison has been carried out with its Persian counterpart.

Studies related to the second language acquisition have frequently focused on the role of mother tongue. Since the learner’s knowledge in the first language provides a basis to compare it with that of second language, it is assumed that being aware of the learner’s prior knowledge is affective in the syllabus design which itself is a crucial element in teaching. In this study personal pronouns and verbal subject markers are contrasted regarding the syntactic, morphological and semantic features. Contrastive analysis showed that personal pronouns in Persian and Japanese are similar in total characteristics like person and number. Moreover, they act alike in taking antecedent. Although there are some similarities, it can be seen that there are some problems due to the formal and functional differences like “zero” pronoun in Japanese. The main differences between Persian and Japanese were found to be the forms representing pronouns. Persian shows this feature by the inflections of pronoun but in Japanese these features are of no representation and the context makes it manifested.

This survey study was conducted to explore the place of L1 (Farsi) in teaching and using English in Iran. The participants were 150 students of Translation Studies at Islamic Azad University of Karaj. To collect the required data a questionnaire was developed; the content validity of which was established by a panel of experts of ELT. Cronbach's alpha was employed to determine the reliability of the instrument (α= 0.74). In addition, the construct validity of the instrument was established by conducting factor analysis. The 22 items of the questionnaire were loaded under 6 factors which explained 61.66% of the total variance. The first resultant factor was attributed to apparent negative effects of using Farsi in English classes on the quality and quantity of English learning in general and learning speaking and pronunciation in particular which explained 20.311% of the total variance. After investigating the priorities of the participants regarding the items and resultant factors, suggestions for conducting further comprehensive studies were provided.

Spanglish, a hybrid form of English and Spanish especially popular among young people, is one of the most striking ways two of the world’s most widely used languages are evolving in response to immigration and globalization. Generally, this article calls attention to any fundamental question about Spanglish: If the bilingualism, and here, specifically, Spanglish, is a natural result of the coexistence of the two cultures and languages, or, is considered to be a social challenge that’s cause devastating consequence on Spanish or English. After providing a history and common definition of the Spanglish, first tried to compare it with some similar cases, considering structural characters of this phenomenon, and then verify that Spanglish is included in which linguistic formats. Subsequently, are analyzed general, sociological and psychological reasons for its emergence and using in southern regions of the United States and Mexico. In the following comes a conclusion of evidences and different opinions. A glance at the future of Spanglish, duties of the Spanish Language Academy and conclusion come as a last resort.

One of the by-products of globalization is the need of English spread as a lingua franca. According to the linguistic relativism and World Englishes theories, one expects then, a certain proportion of Anglo-American cultural values and viewpoints will be projected to the outer circle societies. While this transmission could enhance the cultural quotient (CQ) of the learners, it can also bear negative side effects like cultural alienation or home culture detachment (HCD). This study is one of the earliest attempts to study the CQ and HCD of university students studying English Language and Literature (ELL) compared against those of other fields of study. Upon data collection via administering CQ and HCD measures to 517 students and data analysis using MANOVA, ELL students were found significantly different from the contrast group in metacognitive and motivational competencies, as subscales of CQ, and in western culture and literary-artistic orientations, as subscales of HCD. Based on the findings, linguistic imperialism, acquiredness of cultural identity, and trainability of CQ propositions were approved while the political quietism hypothesis was called into question. The study concludes with a number of suggestions for language policy makers, materials developers, syllabus designers, as well as the university teachers.

The research at hand discusses about the notion of the theme in Persian scientific and literary genres from the point of view of Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) and explains and determines the similarities and differences of the two genres in Persian language. In this research, after mentioning the obvious differences of the two genres from the point of view of theme type and its frequency, types of clauses and their relationship with the theme have also been studied and structural features of clauses are compared regarding the two genres. During data analysis, theme position in the clauses and its overlap in the form of intertwined layers, have led to the introduction of the of Layer Theme for the first time. This specialized term, is important and remarkable in functional researches. Layer Theme exists when themes of the complex clauses have simultaneous overlap in terms of constitutive levels or layers.

One of the problems of learners that often impairs learning a second language is syntactic errors. Therefore, the present study investigates the syntactic errors of Arab speakers learning Persian. This research is based on contrastive analysis approach. In this article, interlingual syntactic errors committed in learner’s writings are studied, using field method and through a content analysis of 105 written texts of Persian learners of Arab speakers. Interlingual errors are those which are due to first language interference. The Testee's age was between 22 and 26 and they were from three levels of proficiency (elementry, intermediate and advanced). They were selected randomly from the center of Persian training in Qom. Six cases of interlingual errors were identified and analyzed, which based on frequency degree, respectively, consist of ordering errors, deletion of object marker “ra”, deletion of copular verbs, agreement of subject and predicate in predicative sentences, substitution of “ra” with preposition and agreement of modifier and noun.

Test washback is generally defined as the influence of tests on teaching and learning process. Inspired by Messick’s consequential validity and Shohamy’s critical language testing, this critical impact study explored the transformative or reproductive practices different stakeholders undertake in relation to the detrimental impacts of Konkoor in Iran. The participants were 60 EFL teachers, a sample of 319 pre-university students, and 15 parents in Iran. Questionnaires, observation checklists, and semi-structured interviews were employed to collect the data. The results showed that Konkoor has considerable negative washback on the teaching and learning process. The participants’ pedagogical practices in return only perpetuated Konkoor’s impacts by teaching and learning to the test, practicing test-taking techniques, using in-authentic materials, reviewing previous Konkoor items in class and tests. Finally, it is suggested that pedagogical practices should transform the high-stakes testing situation and the related hazardous test impacts and thus result in fairer learning-oriented language assessment.

Translation includes delicate points that if being ignored, it will damage the text and its meaning. One of these main points is the social dialect which should be considered in translation, just like geographical dialects. The social dialects that sometimes create the main body of a story introduce characters and contain important information concerning the speakers. The following article is concerned with the importance and function of social dialects in the literary works regarding to the translation of Heinrich Mann’s social novel “Fereshte Abi [original title: Professor Unrat oder das Ende eines Tyrannen]”. Mahmoud Haddadi translated this book from German and it was published in 2004 by Avishan Publication Company. The present article aims to analyze the techniques used by the translator to convey the social dialect of the three main characters, as well as investigating which elements should be considered when translating the social dialects.