Journal of Language and Translation
Volume:11 Issue: 2, Summer 2021

In the past time, ethics in translation was more concerned with translators’ commitment to fidelity. Today it is no longer merely concerned with fidelity, but rather with a commitment to the cultural, social, situational norms of a given community. Not being committed to such ethical norms or accepting the responsibility for their act could create irrecoverable problems for the profession; for instance, the clients’ gradual loss of trust in this profession and the emergence of non-professional translators. The present study surveyed the extent of the commitment of the Iranian professional translators to ethics and professional norms. A quantitative analysis was designed based on a researcher-made questionnaire rooted in Chesterman’s models of ethics, followed by a qualitative phase through the design of interviews. The questionnaire was administered to 45 selected Iranian professional translators working in a variety of fields. The results obtained from the questionnaires and interviews indicated that Iranian professional translators, though suffering from a lack of a comprehensive code of ethics compatible with the international standards, are highly committed to ethics in their profession and that those who are more committed to ethics in their translation also feel and express more social responsibility. The findings of this study can ensure the clients of the professional translators’ commitment to their social responsibility, hence the quality and fidelity of their translation.

This study investigated the effect of purposeful assessment scenarios, Assessment for Learning (AFL), Assessment as Learning (AAL), and integrated purposeful assessment scenarios on Iranian EFL learners’ development of listening comprehension. To this end, 100 learners organized in three experimental and one control group participated in this quasi-experimental study. They received listening instructions of the mentioned purposeful assessment forms. Parametric statistical analysis in the form of some one-way ANOVAs revealed that EFL learners exposed to integrated assessment could significantly develop their listening comprehension better than the AFL- and AAL-oriented instruction groups. However, no significant difference between AAL- and AFL-oriented groups’ listening comprehension was obtained. Though the findings are not in favor of any of the individual scenarios, they lend support to their feasibility in classroom performance assessment and assert the usefulness and viability of the synthetic approach to assessment through which measurement and instruction are bifurcated.

This mixed-method study investigated the various competencies English as Foreign Language (EFL) teachers require by examining a model. To fulfill the study objectives, the grounded theory was adopted in the qualitative phase to explore EFL key informants' articulations and concerns about the issue; therefore, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 Iranian EFL teachers recruited by purposeful sampling.  In the quantitative phase, a researcher-made 103 item questionnaire was extracted based on the interview codes. After being piloted, it was administrated to 382 Iranian EFL teachers to validate the results obtained in the qualitative phase and investigate Iranian EFL teachers' professional competency and their preferences about its dimensions. Three dimensions were discovered in the qualitative phase, which was not favourable among EFL teachers in the quantitative phase. Meanwhile, factor analysis about the EFL teachers' dimensions yielded three factors according to priority: a) attitudinal competency, b) management competency, and c) language competency. The researchers concluded that attitudinal competency is regarded as the most highly valued of the three dimensions by Iranian EFL teachers. Language competency is regarded as the least priority, which justifies the fact that despite showing eagerness and enthusiasm to teach, these teachers do not possess enough linguistic competency and do not tend to develop it. Accordingly, the researchers suggested some practices for developing EFL teachers' professional competency, emphasizing that all dimensions are essential and EFL teachers should have a balanced combination of them.

The present research compared two different modes for IELTS academic module administration among Iranian IELTS candidates: the paper mode and the computer mode in writing tasks one & two in terms of overall band score. Additionally, it examined whether computer familiarity had any significant effect on the IELTS overall band score of Iranian EFL candidates. To this end, 88 IELTS candidates from three different language institutes in Iran were randomly selected. Hence, based on the OPT results, 50 IELTS candidates were recruited and then divided into two equal groups, i.e. paper mode group and computer mode group randomly. Moreover, a computer familiarity questionnaire was also administered. The study’s findings revealed that the participants in the computer-based mode had a better overall band score than the participants in the paper-based mode on both writing Tasks. Additionally, the results showed that computer familiarity could result in computer mode outperformance in both tasks of IELTS academic writing tasks. These findings have some pedagogical implications, the most important of which is the influence of computer mode administration of IELTS and computer familiarity on candidates’ scores.