فهرست مطالب خدیجه آقائی

One rich educational trait in Iranian culture is to respect the aged ones and keep their dignity, enjoying their lived experiences. Here, the concept of age is defined as an identity representation with a positive connotation which signifies enriching experience / knowledge. In keeping with, the main objective of the present study was to disclose how ageism as a social-ideological construct not a biological concept has been represented in English language schooling textbooks. Theoretically framed in Laclau and Muffe Critical Discourse Analysis based on Foucauldian reading, the current study was to do a content analysis of English language textbooks in Iranian junior and senior secondary schooling systems (Prospect and Vision series). The researchers extracted the dominant discourses represented in the exercises, images and contents of the textbooks based on frequency and the related categories. Findings spelled out a kind of “otherness” represented a kind of “otherising” discourse in the textbooks. The elders were represented in three aspects of “absentism” “a negative issue” or “token construct”.  Indeed, when present, they were also misrepresented as sick or disabled ones or persons with token /socially passive role. They did not enjoy a dominant discourse and the youth were the subject of the discourses. Curriculum developers are thus needed to revisit their readings on ageism construct to provide a positive definition on it, framing educational justice demanded in Fundamental Reform Document and its Islamic-Iranian ethos.  

The affordances of technological devices for L2 teaching and computer-mediated communication (CMC) effect for all corrective feedback types in itself has drawn attention in the literature. However, there is a paucity of research to address the interplay between pronunciation, word stress, rhythm and intonation generated corrective feedback and educational synchronic software involved in ESP courses. In order to bridge the gap in this investigation, framed in a quasi-experimental design, the researchers selected 60 participants registered in guidance and counseling course in Islamic Azad University in a northern branch through convenience sampling design. They were randomly assigned into experimental/intervention & control group (n=30) in each group. In the control group, however, the lecturer corrected the students’ mistakes in respect to segmental and suprasegmental pronunciation traits. In the experimental group, the software (App) detected the students’ segmental and suprasegmental mistake and it gave them a chance to correct themselves. The software was designed in such way that the participants had to pronounce the given content and they pronounced a word or a sentence several times in order to pronounce it accurately.  The MANCOVA was utilized to analyze the data. Findings showed that providing online generated feedback by online educational synchronic Application in the experimental group could develop the ESP learners’ suprasegmental instructional targets (especially 'Word stress' (p = .01), 'Intonation' (p = .000), and segmental instructional target i.e., ‘pronunciation ' (p = .004), but not ‘Rhythm' (p = .14, p > .05) significantly. The present study has some ramification for ESP instructors to find innovative ways i.e.  the use of online educational synchronic to develop students’ pronunciation skill, especially suprasegmental.

The present study is a Critical Discourse Analysis on twenty four episodes of a BBC Persian T.V programme entitled “Pargar”. The main purpose of this study is to represent how the dominant hegemonic discourse in this special program i.e. secularism discourse wittingly manipulates audience minds so that they acknowledge religion’s survival and existence only in the forms of neo-emerging theosophies (Erfans) or individual spiritualties. Indeed, religion is imagined as a missing one in public domain. Articulating discourse of religion in dichotomies such as modern expert/Marja sonati, Erfan/ Fiqh, Religion Essence /Religion rituals, individualism /Marjaism tends to deessentialize all essences presupposed among the traditional believers. Indeed, religious reformation and dereligionism are two strategic approaches which secularism applies to deessentialize religion. As a result of this deessentialism, religion has been transformed into something so-called shallow and neutral so that it cannot be easily recognized as a concrete phenomenon in social life.

The English language textbooks for learners with special educational needs play a crucial role in classifying knowledge in the learners’ minds and framing their axiological-epistemological systems. As a result, developing English language textbooks based on discourses of needs analysis can not only empower language skill abilities among these learners but also contribute to them to become active citizens. However, if the materials developed are silent on the learners’ needs in developing their practices may marginalize the learners as at risk educational groups. Very few studies have critically analyzed prevocational English language textbooks written for learners with special needs to see to what extent the content, conversations and image of these English language textbooks could meet daily affair realizations for learners with special needs.  Embedded in Laclau and Moffe’s Critical Discourse Analysis approach, the current study thus focuses secondary school prevocational English language textbook by ministry of education in grades seven, eight and nine. Findings showed that in the dominant discourse of these textbooks, there exists no symbol of body and life style representation of these learners. They have been selected either in ideal or token manners. Contents and images of these textbooks could not go beyond dichotomizing hegemonic discourses of society (normal-abnormal) and have reproduced power relations belonging to ordinary people. Normal affair is a social construct. Discourse representation and power relations dominant on curriculum patterns frame real worlds and life styles for learners with special needs. Thus, dearth of images and challenges of people with special needs are perceived as their absence in public domains and consequently neglecting multiple life styles of these groups. Hence, this study is of significance as it has some theoretical and practical ramifications for the materials developers and raises their awareness to redesign English language textbooks for these learners based on their needs.

Previous studies on cohesion within Halliday and Hassan's (1976) Functional Grammar framework have mostly explored the use of one or two cohesive devices in various educational texts. The limited scope of these studies has impeded the development of an applicable model for all cohesive devices. Through an in-depth contrastive analysis, this study explored the relationship between the number of cohesive devices in written and spoken texts of “Let’s Learn Persian” textbook (Zolfaghari et al., 2008) and the simplicity/complexity of those texts. Through systematic random sampling, in each of the three levels nine lessons were selected. Since each lesson contained a written and a spoken text, in the end there were 27 written and 27 spoken texts for analysis. The texts were coded and categorized. Qualitative and quantitative analyses showed that there were significant relationships between the frequency of four types of cohesive devices (lexical cohesion, reference, ellipsis, and conjunction) and the complexity of the written texts. However, in spoken texts, only in the case of lexical cohesion and conjunction, significant relationships were observed between the frequency of cohesive devices and the texts’ complexity level. Overall, in the analyzed texts, lexical cohesion was the most frequent cohesive device while ellipsis and substitution were the least frequent cohesive devices. In both written and spoken texts, with regard to the frequency of the devices, a nearly identical rank order was observed which was as follows: lexical cohesion, in-text reference, conjunction, ellipsis, and substitution. This pattern of occurrence could inform the development and evaluation of level specific texts.
Expanded AbstractResearch literature has so far focused on representing cohesive devices in various language instruction texts based on Halliday and Hassan's (1976) Systemic Functional Grammar. However, these studies restricted themselves to identifying only one or two cohesive devices in these texts. Hence, studies need to adopt a practical comprehensive framework which would cover all cohesive devices especially in Persian language instruction texts. Through an in-depth contrastive analysis, this study aimed to address the relationship between the frequency of cohesive devices in written and spoken texts of “Let’s learn Persian” textbook and the difficulty level of its texts. The textbook series authored by Zolfaghari, Ghaffari, and Mahmoodi Bakhtiari (2008) includes three main levels: elementary, intermediate, and advanced. They were selected since they had both written and spoken texts. Nine written and spoken texts in each level (in total 27 written and 27 spoken texts) were selected through systematic random sampling. Having categorized and codified the selected texts, researchers analyzed the data quantitatively and qualitatively.  The quantitative and qualitative analyses of the data indicated that both written and spoken texts of “Let’s Learn Persian” textbook had various cohesive devices. As higher level texts were presupposed as more difficult ones, frequency of lexical cohesion, reference, ellipsis and conjunction increased in the higher level written texts.  It can be argued that there existed a significant relationship between the frequency of the mentioned cohesive devices and difficulty level of written texts. There was no significant relationship between substitution frequency and difficulty level of the texts. The frequency analysis of cohesive devices in spoken texts of all levels showed that there existed significant relations between conjunction, lexical cohesion, and text difficulty. The overall data analysis indicated that patterns of use of cohesive devices were highly similar in spoken and written texts. Indeed, both text types followed similar patterns of cohesive devices application, namely lexical cohesion, reference, conjunction, ellipsis and substitution. The only difference was related to the place of reference in the identified pattern. This difference can be due to endophric and exophoric reference manifestation in both text types. Regarding spoken texts, it can be argued that as the difficulty level increased, the frequency of endophoric reference also increased. However, the exophoric reference has not been observed as frequently in spoken texts. This can be explained in terms of the textbook developers’ assumption that non-Persian language learners may not enjoy enough background knowledge about the texts. Furthermore, the identified patterns can be indicative of the fact that lexical cohesions are the first and most significant cohesive devices in spoken and written texts. Of all types of lexical cohesions, repetition can be regarded as an effective cohesive device for non-Persian language learners which could aid them to transfer meaning more effectively. It can influence the tone of speech when the speaker wants to put more emphasis on meaning. Substitution and ellipsis were the least frequently observed cohesive devices in written and spoken texts as well. This showed that the texts were developed based on circumlocution. Indeed, the textbook developers selected the written and spoken texts which were appropriate for each instructional level. The low frequency of substitution and ellipsis showed that the textbook developers presupposed that the non-Persian learners and native Persian speakers had little or no shared background knowledge about the text contents. The normal distribution of cohesive devices in written and spoken texts of “Let’s learn Persian” textbook showed that the textbook developers could apply a systematic cohesive devices pattern. In other words, this sequential pattern of cohesive devices can be taken into account by textbook developers in designing or evaluating standard TPSOL textbooks. It is suggested that further studies explore how cohesive devices are used in other textbooks developed for Persian language learners. Comparison of the findings of these studies could help us to identify a more comprehensive pattern of cohesive devices which could aid in the development of standard Persian language teaching textbooks.

Plant tissue culture technology is used for large-scale multiplication of the plants. In vitro propagation methods of MM111 apple rootstock, often produce plants with accelerated growth. This research was performed with the aim of optimizing in vitro propagation conditions for MM111 rootstocks and survey effect of basal media and different plant growth regulators on proliferation and rooting in three separate experiments. In first experiment; the effect of five different basal media culture including, MS, 1.5MS, 2MS, WPM and B5, on proliferated shoot number and length, in second experiment; the effects of plant growth regulators BAP and TDZ in various concentrations (0, 2.2, 4.4 and 8.8 µM) on shoot number, shoot length, node number, internode number and internode length, in third experiment; the effect of two basal media types (MS and ½MS) supplemented with two auxin types in different concentrations (0, 7.35, 14.7 and 22.05 µM) of IBA and in different concentrations of NAA (0, 8.05, 16.11 and 24.16 µM ) during darkness for three and four days, on root number and root length were studied. Hardening of the rootstocks in coarse perlite, fine perlite, perlite and peat moss (1:1) and peat moss separately was surveyed. According to the results, highest proliferation rate (13.66 shoots per explant) was observed in 2MS medium. In the second experiment, BAP was more effective than TDZ on proliferation rate and number of nodes, and reduced internode length. The highest proliferation rate (8.66 shoots per explant) was observed in BAP (4.4 µM). According to the results obtained from third experiment, The highest root number (2.65 root per explant) was observed in MS medium supplemented with 8.05 µM NAA.

Somatic embryogenesis is an alternative method for genetic improvement of commercially important cultivars and is an effective technique for plant propagation.In this research, effects of different factors were studied on embryogenic callus formation from different explants (petal, filament, receptacle, leaf and stem) in M.26 apple dwarf rootstock. MS basal medium supplemented with different concentrations of NAA and 2,4-D (0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 mg/l) was used for embryogenic callus induction. Auxin treatments showed significant effects on callus induction and percentage of induced explants in mediums containing NAA was higher than that of mediums containing 2,4-D. Petal explantson medium with 4 mg/l NAA had higher percentage of embryogenic callus. Higher percent of globular embryosinduction was observed in B3 treatment (MS+1 mg/l TDZ+1 mg/l ABA+0.5 mg/l GA7).