Journal of Applied Linguistics and Applied Literature: Dynamics and Advances
Volume:9 Issue: 1, Winter-Spring 2021

Massoud Rahimpour is Professor Emeritus of Tabriz University. Professor Rahimpour has done his B.A. in English Language and Literature at Tabriz University in 1975, M.A. in TESOL at Oklahoma City University, U.S.A. in 1978, and Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics: Second Language Acquisition/Teaching at The University of Queensland, Australia in 1997. While he was at the University of Tabriz, he was also Head of English Department, Director of the International Academic Collaborations of Tabriz University, Deputy Dean of Faculty and Director of Centre for Teaching Foreign Languages. Professor Rahimpour has also been Honorary Associate Professor at the School of Languages and Cultures at The University of Queensland and language instructor at TAFE Queensland. He has also acted as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning, Tabriz University and the Member of Editorial Board of several Journals of Language Teaching Research. Professor Rahimpour has published papers in international and national journals, published books and has presented papers in conferences. He has also supervised tens of M.A and Ph.D. theses. His research interests are Task-Based Language Teaching, Syllabus Design, Second Language Acquisition, Research Methods in Applied Linguistics and Adult Language Learning. Dr. Davoud Amini, assistant professor of ELT at Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University and a former Ph.D. student of professor Rahimpour has arranged this interview with him.

This study used a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental designto find out the effect of teacher-directed and collaborative reading on Iranian EFL learners' receptive skills.To start, 40 EFL intermediate female students within the age range of 15-17 were selected out of an initial 53 students, based on their performance in an OPT. Then, they were assigned into two groups of teacher-directed and collaborative reading.Both groups took a pretest at the beginning of the studyto measure their receptive skills' ability and a post-testin the endto check the amount of the effectiveness of the treatments applied.Collaborative group benefitted fromCollaborative Strategy Reading (CSR) consisting of preview, click and clunk,get the gist,and wrap up was introduced.In teacher-directed, on the other hand, direct explanation, modeling, and guided practice were used to teach the students how to use the strategies independently.Analysis of the data and the findings revealed that both teacher-directed and collaborative reading affected the learners' performance significantly. Moreover, collaborative reading was proved to be asignificantly better technique. Teachers, EFL learners, materials developers, and syllabus designers can be the beneficiaries of this inquiry's outcomes.

The present research is a netnographicinquiry conducted in the context of a social networking platform to explore how the rules and norms of digital citizenship are being understood and implemented among Iranian EFL learners and teachers, and how this can be improved. For this purpose, eight academic learner and teacher groups, consisting of 7235 members in total, were meticulously observed in one year. To address triangulation, the researchers used observations accompanied by field notes, memos, and semi-structured interviews. This resulted in 9000 pages of the content, including text chats and subsequent interview data, which were extensively analyzed through directed qualitative content analysis based onRibble’s(2011) digital citizenship model. Findings of the present research revealed that despite the significance of digital citizenship in the highly digitalized world of the day, and very frequent use of social networking for educational purposes, Iranian EFL learners and teachers lack the needed skills for appropriate and effective presence in technology-enhanced settings. This research has several implications for English teachers, learners, policy makers and curriculum designers, especially to include digital citizenship courses in CALL courses, teachers’ TTCs, and students’ curricula, at different levels of instruction and learning.

Most foreign language (L2) learners suffer from dire deficiencies in their pragmatic comprehension partly due to the less explicit instruction they receive and the complexities and multi-layeredness inherent in L2 pragmatic comprehension. Accordingly, this study sought to scrutinize the effect of two dynamic assessment (DA) models on L2 pragmatic comprehension accuracy and speed. A convenience sample of 52 upper-intermediate female EFL learners that were randomly assigned into a dynamic assessment experimental group (GDA), a computerised dynamic assessment (C-DA), and a Non-DA control group took part in the study. A 26-item researcher-made pragmatic listening comprehension test including requests, apologies, greetings, and refusals was used as pre- and posttests, and the treatments using the aforementioned DA and non-DA conventional models were completed in 14 sessions. Data analysis using ANCOVA showed that C-DA and G-DA could significantly increase pragmatic comprehension accuracy than the conventional non-DA instruction with C-DA being significantly better than G-DA.  However, only C-DA could significantly decrease learners’ pragmatic comprehension speed than G-DA and Non-DA instruction. The findings of this study suggest that implementing C-DA by teachers can promote pragmatic comprehension accuracy and speed among L2 learners.

In rater-mediated assessments, the ratings awarded to language learners’ written, or spoken, performances do not necessarily reflect their language abilities because a number of other construct-irrelevant factors may affect the knowledge they demonstrate. Rater subjectivity and rating scales are among the variables possibly influencing the final results. The purpose of the present study was to examine the extent to which university students’ ratings on their essays mirrored the effect of these two factors. To that end, 150 Iranian EFL teachers rated ten five-paragraph essays BA students had written as their course requirements at Imam Khomeini International University. The raters used two rating scales to rate the essays on a number of assessment criteria. The study rested on a partial rating design, and the Rasch-based computer program, FACETS, was used to analyze the data. Results of Facets analyses showed raters differed considerably in the amounts of severity they exercised when rating the essays. The results also showed rater bias interactions with holistic rating scales. The implications of the findings for proposing procedures for reducing the effects of such extraneous variables are discussed.

There have been some researches on the way teacher identities are (re)constructed; however, the study which investigatesthe improvement of the identity through the shift in language teaching has not been conducted. Thus the present qualitative study set out to investigate Iranian EFL teachers’ professional development who had been teaching either Arabic or Persian languages for more than six years prior to entering the English language teaching profession. Eleven Iranian in-service teachers took part in the study through purposeful sampling. For the purpose of the data collection, in-depth interviews, teachers’ narratives, and focus group interviews were used. The thematic analysis of the data through the Identity Theory (Burke & Stets, 2009) perspective revealedthree main themes: identity shift,identity development, and productive identity. The results indicate that teachers' professional learning requires rebuilding identity perception, and constructing a new identity will lead, in turn, to the professional development of teachers and their constructive learning. The present study contributes to the existing knowledge of teachers’ professional identity in that changes in the languages teachers teach will lead to reconstructing their professional identity in a positive wayand happen as a result of opportunities for professional development. The results have a number of implications for policymakers, teacher educators, and language teachers.

This study aims to consider conceptual metaphors of “separation” in Azerbaijani Turkish poetry in an attempt to uncover the interactions of metaphorical expressions, culture, environment, and embodiment. The corpus of the study contains Azerbaijani Turkish poems of Shahriar (1906-1988) as well as seven other Azerbaijani poets. The results of the paper show that separation is expressed through eleven salient metaphors in Azerbaijani Turkish: 1. SEPARATION IS HUMAN/ANIMATE, 2. SEPARATION IS PAIN, 3. SEPARATION IS NATURAL FORCE, 4. SEPARATION IS FIRE, 5. SEPARATION IS THING/TOOL, 6. SEPARATION IS FALL, 7. SEPARATION IS OPPRESSION, 8. SEPARATION IS DEATH, 9. SEPARATION IS TRAVEL, 10. SEPARATION IS PLACE/CONTAINER, and 11. SEPARATION IS RESURRECTION. Moreover, according to the findings of the paper, Azerbaijani Turkish cultural/environmental schemata of separation lie at the root of most of the studied conceptualizations. That is, the studied metaphors are touched by cultural and environmental influences. Regarding embodiment and metaphor, the study confirms that some conceptual metaphors are based on recurring bodily experiences as it is seen in SEPARATION IS HUMAN/ANIMATE metaphors.

This paper analyses Thomas Pynchon’s V. (1961) in light of two contradictory scientific perspectives and argues that Pynchon uses complex science-based formulations on different semantic levels to give shape to a seemingly shapeless world of uncertainty. V. is considered by many critics a historiographic metafiction which evolves through certain new readings of the early 20th century Europe’s colonialism and is given a sense of uncertainty to historical consciousness via Pynchon’s postmodernist style.  This paper suggests that though Pynchon uses the techniques (on the syntactical level) which define postmodernism and create a pandemonium of complexity and meaninglessness, he leaves hidden blueprints which give shape and order to the syntactical and semantic chaos created in his works. To achieve this goal, the main methodological focus of the paper would be on Claude. E. Shannon’s (1948) “information theory.”

This article examines the dual role of the café in instigation, development, and termination of the public display of transgressive desire in Margaret Duras’s (1958) Moderato Cantabile. To approach Duras’s narrative this way, we draw on Michel Foucault’s (1977) theories concerning Panopticon to bring into light the sociallyimposed codes and the method of their implementation. Duras’s mode of expression, we intend to discuss, brings to the reader’s attention the dominance of the silent social gaze in each transgressive scene between the two characters. Despite its laconism, therefore, Moderato Cantabile reveals the omnipresent and active bourgeois codes that are interwoven to the very fabric of the bourgeoisie. The effective operation of these codes, set through discourses of truth and power, is guaranteed through the Panopticon present in public spaces like the café, whose dual nature enables it to allow for manifestation of desire on the one hand, and effective inspection and containment of the situation (by imposing norms) on the other.

Literary works have been interpreted differently depending on the interpreter’s mindset and outlook. This study has launched an attempt to interpret the representation of the “Mocking Bird” in To Kill a Mocking Bird. Initially, a total number of 30 English majors studying at Farhangian University of Ilam were selected through convenience sampling. They were, then, provided with the PDF version of the novel, and after a few weeks’ interval of reading time, the participants were exposed to the filmed version of the story.  Thereafter, using Reader Response Theory, they were asked to write their comments, impressions, and views of whom, which, or what the “mocking bird” of the novel may be. The qualitative/quantitative content analysis of their writings revealed some fascinating interpretations regarding the representation of the “Mocking Bird’s” paragons in the novel. The final part of the paper discusses the findings and their implications which revealed fascinating information in this regard.

As one of the outstanding works written in the late twentieth century, Paul Auster’sMoon Palace is the extension of the prominent discussion existing in his works,which concerns the issue of identity formation and the characters’ involvement in the expedition toward self-acknowledgment. Looking through the life of Marco Fogg as the main character of the novel, it has been desired to outline the existential points of view laid in the novel. Unlike the previously conducted studies, this paper is diverting the central focus of its analysis from the psychosocial perspectives introduced by James Marcia to the existential outlook by providing the notions of critical existential philosophers such as Heidegger and Sartre. Accordingly, the famous theory of identity formation that Marcia established has close parallels with the concepts that Heidegger and Sartre have discussed concerning the human beings who are considered beings-in-the-world, or, as it is called, “dasein.” Throughout this procedure, the main protagonist’s various identity formation phases have been investigated through existential concepts like “thrownness,” “nothingness,” and “bad faith.” And in the end, the outcome of such an analysis is tracking down the latent sides of existential concepts existing in the novel, which have not been the center of focus in previous studies.

Many experts believe that there are differences between female and male language (speech) and writing. In this article female and male language (speech) in novels, Shabhaye Tehran (Nights of Tehran) written by GhazalehAlizadeh and AzadaraneBayal (Mourners of Bayal) written by Gholam Hossein Saedi, have been compared according to Sociolinguistic Theories until the level of author's gender affecting on story language and dimension of author's success to create a proportional language to consubstantial and dissimilar characters is evaluated. For this purpose,female and male language (speech)in grammar was studied according to the below varies; words such as curse words, oath words, color words, and sentences, including modifiers and verifiers. Findings determine that the language has been affected by the author's gender and stereotypes of female language have been repeated with more frequency in these works. Furthermore, according to the mentioned modifiers, it was found that authors could create a proportional language with characters in many ways. In some cases,there is not a proportionality between language and gender,especially in a female character, mostly due to author's spirits and his witting that he has wanted to display women paranormal against the domination of patriarchal society.

Many individuals fail to perform the responsibilities devolved to them within the expected time or at least do them near the deadline. The so-called procrastination in accomplishment of academic tasks has often been considered a frustrating phenomenon which commonly results in undesirable outcomes. However, some students believe that near-deadline performance leads to better results. Focusing on EFL learners, the researchers in this study followed the classical Grounded Theory Approach and investigated whether procrastination always has destructive effects on their performance and behavior or it can be applied as a strategy to gain better outcomes. To do so, they interviewed 43 EFL learners at intermediate and advanced levels of proficiency with prior experience of procrastination and, taking a constant comparative method, analyzed the collected data through three stages of coding (i.e., open, selective, and theoretical). The results indicated that although most respondents did not reject the destructive consequences of procrastination on their language learning, several EFL learners pointed to constructive consequences of procrastination in their learning. Moreover, some strategies for adjusting the destructive effects of procrastination and even for transforming them to constructive consequences emerged from the data. In this way, the present study led to the development of the grounded theory of language learning procrastination. This theory covered two themes of Consequences, including Constructive Language Learning Procrastination and Destructive Language Learning Procrastination, and Overcoming Strategies, including Internal and External Strategies. The resultant theory can open a new horizon to deal with EFL learners’ dilatory behaviors.

In recent decades, much has been written about multilingual education (MLE) in educational research communities as well as in social, cultural, and political arenas in many parts of the world. However, browsing the topic singles out Iran as an exception as little attention from both local and international academia has been focused on MLE in this context. Yet, Iran, a country of approximately 80 millions, has people with diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds and has a rich linguistic diversity (around 70 languages), with the living presence of some well-known minority languages (e.g., Azari, Kurdish, and Arabic). These demographics presented, Farsi is overwhelmingly used as the official language in, but not limited to, education, government, and media. Targeting the educational sector, Amir Kalan, the author of Who’s Afraid of Multilingual Education?, underlines the importance of creating mother tongue-based MLE in Iran by adding the views of established international scholars to the mother tongue debate as applicable to Iran’s multiethnic, multilingual and multicultural society.