فهرست مطالب سحر طباطبایی فارانی

The significance of the five senses and the sense-induced emotions are clear to everyone. Therefore, the newly-developed concept of emotioncy which includes emotion as one of its basic components has been introduced to the field of foreign language learning. The present study attempts to investigate the effects of the emotioncy-based vocabulary instruction on the learners’ success. To this end, nine avolved vocabulary items were selected and instructed to the participants through different emotioncy kinds. Then, the participants performed a sentence comprehension task, and, based on the instruction, decided whether the sentences were correct or not. The analysis of the behavioral data revealed that employing different emotioncy levels to teach the words could lead into a significant difference among them both in terms of the response accuracy and the response time. The findings of this study can emphasize the significance of the sense-induced emotions in, among others, teaching and testing new linguistic items.

This study aims to explore English language proficiency tests of Iran’s Ministry of Higher Education and universities by analyzing the needs of the participants (PhD candidates and graduates) and then propose a standard and uniform test. To this end, after thematizing the qualitative answers obtained through semi-structured interviews with 30 faculty members (19 females and 11 males) and 35 PhD candidates and graduates (13 females and 22 males) from different cities and majors in universities throughout Iran, a researcher-made questionnaire was developed. To validate the designed questionnaire, first 200 PhD graduates and candidates (117 males and 83 females), studying various majors in universities across Iran, answered the questionnaire (convenience sampling). Then 442 participants (223 males and 219 females) including PhD graduates (N= 57), PhD candidates (N= 320), and faculty members (N= 65) answered the validated questionnaire. Totally, 642 participants expressed their views on the problems of English language proficiency tests in terms of four criteria: validity, reliability, impact, and fairness of the test. The findings show that the participants are not satisfied with these tests and believe that these tests are designed based on the old versions of TOEFL and IELTS international tests and cultural and local considerations are overlooked. Finally, some suggestions are made to improve the quality of English language proficiency tests in Iran.

There is no doubt that reading comprehension is one of the main skills of English language that plays a significant role in learning. Foreign language reading anxiety is one of the issues that can affect the quality of reading comprehension. Researchers have identified several factors such as different writing systems, and cultural issues that may be anxiety provoking while the language learners are reading foreign language texts. Given the significant role of positive and negative emotions in the process of language learning, the language learner’s level of emotioncy regarding the content of the reading comprehension text can be considered as another factor that can cause foreign language reading anxiety. Emotioncy that consists of sense, emotion, and frequency deals with different emotions about linguistic items that language learners form due to different sensory experiences they have already had about those items. The present study tries to introduce engaging the five senses of language learners, and improving their emotioncy level for the content of reading comprehension text as possible solutions to control foreign language reading anxiety. Further studies are required to determine different types of emotioncy, and the appropriate order and combination of the five senses to control foreign language reading anxiety.

Considering the new concept of emotioncy (emotion纷ꪹ), the present study intends to examine the lingua-cultural concept of [nāz] in Persian language using Hymes’(1967) SPEAKING model. The outcomes of this study revealed that the concept of [nāz] has been mostly prevalent inthe collective culture of Iran, and the expressions related to [nāz] are even more widely used in comparison to the past. The high frequency and variety of this lingua-cultural concept is due to fact that Iranians have mostly positive and mixed emotions toward this concept, and as a result, their level of emotioncy toward [nāz] is higher (Inner-emo and Arch-emo).Overall, the results suggest that this lingua-cultural element is more commonly used in informal situations with participants of equal or unequal power relationships. It was also concluded that the main aim behind the use of this lingua-cultural item is to use it as a politeness strategy. Considering the oral mode of language, the tones that are accompanied with [nāz] are usually begging, admiring, offensive, and sardonic.

This research aims to study the future of the academic field of Persian Language Teaching to Non-Persian Speakers on the basis of causal layered analysis model. In this study, 43 participants were selected by the purposeful sampling method. The population of study consists of proficient expert professors of several fields, including linguistics, Persian language and literature, and English language teaching, as well as the graduates of Persian Language Teaching to Non-Persian Speakers. Semi-structured interviews – including six classified questions and informal talks with the participants – were used as tools for gathering research data. The results showed that there are some problems in the current body of this field, i.e. Persian Language Teaching to Non-Persian Speakers, and the relevant curriculum should be reviewed seriously. After scrutinizing the current problems that were introduced by the practicing specialists and educators of this field, the relevant instructional requirements were extracted to form the basis of course planning for such a field. It is hoped that the MA students of this field, after passing the relevant courses will gain the necessary qualifications to respond to the expectations of the beneficiaries; moreover, the practitioners of this field are expected to use the suggestions made to improve the quality of this field.