نشریه پژوهش های زبانشناختی در زبان های خارجی
سال دوازدهم شماره 1 (بهار 1401)

The signs in communication are not certainly limited to language. Many concepts are expressed non-verbally. Non-verbal communication is a new field of study that examines and analyzes messages in non-verbal behaviors, such as facial expressions, eye contact, and gestures, which people use to convey the message and help the reader understand it. Paul Ackman and Wallace Frieson have conducted extensive research on nonverbal activities aimed at better understanding people's feelings and behaviors. They have analyzed nonverbal activities in three ways: 1. Source 2. Encryption 3. Application. Source is the origin of every action and can be intrinsic, fixed, and of cultural educational nature. Encryption refers to the relation of action to meaning, and it can be conventional, visual, and instinctive. Application includes the amount of informational nonverbal behavior that can be communicative, interactive, and informational. This research is a descriptive-analytical method based on the approaches mentioned by Ackman and Friesen about body language in Nahj al-Balaghah through which facial expressions, movements of eyes and hands, and tactile gestures are examined and described. The results of analyzing examples of body language used in Nahj al-Balaghah based on Ackman and Frieson's theory show that Nahj al-Balaghah has such a high capacity in terms of body language that it can be analyzed through new theories of non-verbal communication and the origin of "face language", having a high frequency in Nahj al-Balaghah, being inherently and instinctively encoded, and used for informative purposes.Keywords: application, encryption, body language, Nahj al-Balaghah, source

Delaying in doing responsibilities and tasks assigned in language classes is a phenomenon that most of teachers have observed. Language learners’ tendency to put off doing things can take place in different situations and for various reasons. The present study investigated the reasons for such deferments, called procrastination, through interviewing EFL teachers. During a semi-structured interview process, 23 teachers expressed their opinions regarding the causes of language learners’ procrastination. The analysis of the data based on grounded theory methodology and their coding in three phases of open, selective, and theoretical coding led to the emergence of Dilatory Behavior as the core category which covered the situations in which language learners mostly procrastinate such as studying for examination, delivery of assignments, and acquisition of correct spelling. Further data collection and analysis revealed that language learners’ procrastination could be attributed to internal factors such as affective and cognitive characteristics, competence-based issues, and mental and physical conditions as well as external factors such as task quality and context features. The results of this study can be useful for EFL teachers and curriculum developers in raising their awareness regarding the potential causes of language learners’ procrastination and supplying them with the necessary information needed for devising appropriate strategies to reduce language learners’ undue procrastination.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between EFL learners' cognitive styles, their personality types and their willingness to communicate. To this end, 198 English language students (131 females and 67 males) participated in the study. First, the participants' personality traits (introversion/extroversion) were determined through the Eysenck Personality Type Questionnaire, Adult Form (EPQ). In the second stage, the cognitive styles of the participants (field dependence and field independence) were determined through Group Embedded Figure test. Having distributed the relevant questionnaires among all the participants in a step-wise fashion, the researchers divided them into introverted/extrovert learners and field dependent/independent field learners, and finally the WTC questionnaire was administered to determine students' willingness to communicate. Data were analyzed through two-point correlation and Pearson correlation. The obtained results showed a significant relationship between cognitive styles and the desire to communicate. Comparison of individuals with field dependence and field independence showed that the tendency to communicate was higher among field dependent language learners. Extroverted language learners enjoyed significantly higher field dependence and were more inclined to communicate than introverted language learners. The study points to the importance of informing language learners about their cognitive styles and personality types and the need to pay more attention to these variables to improve language skills in general and the possible relationship between these factors and the increased tendency to communicate in foreign languages in particular.

This qualitative study investigated Iranian EFL learners' writing difficulties and proposed a context-sensitive framework considering these difficulties for English language students to practice writing. To achieve the objectives of the study, based on the convenience sampling, 14 undergraduate students majoring in English Language Translation from Islamic Azad University of Tonekabon participated in this study. Each of them wrote a five-paragraph essay. Also, they took part in a semi-structured interview to assert their difficulties regarding writing. The researchers evaluated the essays according to Jacob's five-component rubric (1981) to identify the kind of writing problems. Also, the interviews were transcribed and the data were codified based on Corbin and Strauss (2014) systematic steps of open, axial, and selective coding. The findings revealed that Iranian EFL students had problems in mechanics of writing; grammar; organization including developing the components of the essay, coherence and cohesion; content; and vocabulary as the most to the least frequent problems respectively. Moreover, negative feelings such as anxiety and lack of motivation caused some writing problems. Accordingly, the researchers developed a three-phase context-sensitive framework for practicing writing. In this framework the activities of each phase of prewriting, while writing, and post writing are specified according to the identified writing problems of the students to help them overcome their problems.

The present study investigated the effects of using flipped classroom techniques on Iranian ESP students’ critical thinking and engagement. The flipped classroom model flips the traditional relationship between class time and homework. Students learn at home via online coursework and lectures, and teachers use class time for teacher-guided practice or projects. Participants were 60 ESP students studying at Payam-e Noor University, who were divided into 2 equal groups with 30 students each. Participants’ language proficiency was checked through a language proficiency test. The participants of the experimental group received vocabulary instruction through flipped classroom techniques. A specialist group of EFL/ESP professors who were the researcher's colleagues produced 10 videos, and each video lecture was accompanied by a lecturer's avatar, which used his or her true voice and audiovisual materials representations. The control group received conventional vocabulary instruction. Results of the statistical analyses showed that there was a positive influence of flipped classroom over the participants’ task engagement. Also, it was found that the flipped classroom had a significant effect on the Iranian students' critical thinking in ESP courses. Flipped classrooms enable ESP students to become more independent, which necessitates more critical thinkers. As a result, flipped classrooms can provide a platform for L2 students' potential critical thinking abilities to blossom and develop.

In this research, we tried to give a brief overview of the category of narratology and address the basic and important issue of using past tense in narrative text. According to Jakobson and Nida, interpreting the author's message and choosing the correct equivalent is one of the major problems in translating literary texts, including the translation of narrative texts. The notion of time from the point of view of narratology is very important for a better understanding of history. On the other hand, the use of tenses, especially the past tense, forms the main body of a narrative text; the study of the aspectual system of the verb and tenses made concepts such as order, duration, and the frequency of verbs in history intelligible, and defines the role of the verb from the anachronistic point of view. In this research, we observed that verbal actions in the narrative text have a significant effect on the translation of the meaning of the story and the rhythm of the narrative. To this end, in the translation of Romain Gary's novel, we focused on the study of the translation of the text at the level of the past in terms of the source text, in order to illustrate the function of times in the past in the reconstruction of narrative texts in Persian. This study has shown that the function of verbs and the notion of time in translation have brought the translator closer to the original text.

Fairness in test assessment and evaluation is one of the most important goals in the field of ‎language learning and assessment. In recent decades, experts have focused ‎on the relationship between Validity and Fairness. However, some scholars believe that validity ‎is part of fairness. At the same time others are of the idea that achieving fairness is ‎in fact the acquisition of test validity. To achieve a sound and unified conceptualization of the relationship between these two concepts numerous qualitative and quantitative methods have been proposed and implemented.The Common European Frame of Reference (CEFR) is claimed to be a culture neutral that to the effect that all languages, regardless of the social and cultural backgrounds can be subsumed under the proposed system of descriptors for achieving educational equality and ‎assessment in teaching and learning. In this research, a test of 25 items based ‎on the CEFR descriptors was developed. In order to obtain adequate information ‎necessary to determine the test validity, 150 male and female participants took the test. The participants were all freshman in studying in various engineering courses. In addition to the mentioned test, a questionnaire of 75 items was used to distinguish ‎groups of participants based on their interests, educational, and occupational goals. The data were analyzed to determine the ‎Differential Item Functioning (DIF) of each item by Item Response Theory ‎‎(IRT). Combined together it was determined that in test validation procedure and investigation of test fairness test takers' interest also accounts.

Simultaneous interpretation involves the parallel and temporal decoding and encoding of information within natural language processing framework. And language processing includes change and adaptation. The present researcher tried to analyze simultaneous interpreter’s interpreting strategies in the interpretation of the two groups of the most frequent, effective, complex, and apparently simple discourse monitoring elements, that is, discourse markers (DMs). To carry out the study, the researcher applied parallel data focusing on the comparative analysis of inferential and temporal discourse markers from Persian into English. To meet the aims of the research, three Persian lectures along with their simultaneous interpretation were selected randomly. Coherence theory in discourse analysis and translation spotting in translation studies shaped the theoretical perspectives the study, and an inventory of discourse markers. The basis of this analysis was a comparative analysis of discourse markers in source and target texts. The results revealed that this simultaneous interpreter applied four groups of elaborative, contrastive, inferential, and temporal discourse markers in simultaneous interpretation of inferential and temporal discourse markers. This is a creative, flexible, and innovative approach in construction of discourse substantiated from an awareness of discoursal differences between two languages and application of this awareness in planning and creation of proper discourse for the audience. Moreover, this analysis revealed that this Iranian simultaneous interpreter applied a theory in pragmatics, that is, underspecification and another theory in linguistics, that is, co-operative principles. Different implications in various research and educational perspectives about curriculum planning, material preparation, and educational discourse were suggested.

By comparing the linguistic structure of epithets in Shahname with the same structures in literary works of classical Western epic tradition, many similarities can be achieved, all of which indicate a common cultural and linguistic tradition among Indo-European peoples based upon similar functions in semiotics. One of the most important features of Shahname, which is comparable linguistically to classical epos, is the epic formulas. These elements are often accompanied by repetition and emphasis and appear frequently in order to form the epic effect. The history of epic formulas in classical Western literature dates back to Homer; the linguistic functions of epic formulas also play an important role in Ferdowsi's Shahname, but their prevalence differs from that of Homer and Virgil in terms of the prosodic structure and literary traditions prevalent in Persian epics. One of the common ways to use the epic formulas is inserting epithets as the titles and attributes that come after the names of the heroes; in this structures with the aid of repetition, the writer increase the effect of speech on the audience. In the present article, we have tried to measure the linguistic effects of the application of epic formulas in Western literature compared to Ferdowsi's masterpiece as the supreme model of Persian epic. In our interdisciplinary research approach we aimed to analysis the various functionalities of these structures particularly from the perspective of discourse analysis.

The present study explored the comparative effectiveness of three focus-on-form instructional techniques on Iranian learners’ ability to interpret, produce, and reconstruct English inversion structures. To do this, 122 participants were assigned to Processing Instruction, Text editing, Textual enhancement, and Control groups and received instructions. Results of repeated measures ANOVA showed the superiority of Processing Instruction and the possibility of transfer of training through this input-based technique to output tasks. The effectiveness of Textual Enhancement instructional technique in triggering changes in learners’ performance suggested that implicit instruction is not adequate for inducing the necessary cognitive processes needed for learning. The findings also indicated that output-based Text Editing technique could be effective in improving learners’ performance of the target structure and retaining the effects of instruction on delayed posttests. Based on the results of the study, teachers are encouraged to provide learners with opportunities to process both form and meaning through Processing Instruction.