Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Translation Studies
Volume:8 Issue: 4, Autumn 2023

Framed within Grounded Theory, this study explores the informal labeling of EFL students in Iranian majority and minority groups’ online classes from the perspectives of teachers. It aims to understand the impacts of both positive and negative labels on students’ interactional abilities and relationships within these contexts. Through semi-structured interviews conducted with 23 EFL teachers from both Tehran and Sanandaj, representing diverse ethnic backgrounds, findings reveal contrasting approaches between teachers in the two regions. Tehran teachers are observed to cultivate a nurturing environment through the application of positive labeling, which subsequently enhances students’ interactional competence. Conversely, teachers from Sanandaj tend to employ more direct and critical forms of negative labeling. The study underscores the importance of teachers’ awareness of labeling theory in shaping students’ reality. Pedagogical implications highlight the necessity for teachers to refrain from negative labeling, instead offering support and encouragement, thereby fostering students’ positive mindset, resilience, and confidence. By enhancing teachers’ understanding of labeling theory, significant improvements can be achieved in students’ learning experiences, creating a more conducive environment for language acquisition and growth. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of the role of labeling and emphasizes the vital perspective of teachers in shaping classroom dynamics and student experiences.

Assessing the quality of translated works is an essential step in their afterlife process. It enables the translators and publishers to identify flaws and ensures that readers can make informed decisions when selecting a ‘good’ translation. In this study, the focus was on assessing the quality of idiomatic expressions in Saleh Hosseini’s Persian translation of the novel Heart of Darkness written by Joseph Conrad. This particular translation had not been previously evaluated in this regard. To identify idiomatic expressions, Adelnia and Vahid Dastjerdi’s categorization of idiomatic expressions was employed. For quality assessment, Nababan et al.’s Translation Quality Assessment scale was employed, which includes three factors: accuracy, acceptability, and readability. To conduct the research, a sample of idiomatic expressions and their corresponding Persian translations was selected, categorized, and assessed for quality. The results of the study indicated that Saleh Hosseini’s Persian translations of idiomatic expressions enjoyed a high quality as judged by native speakers of Persian because they were evaluated as highly accurate (77%) (faithful to the source text), hence highly acceptable (83%) and highly readable (80%) (loyal to the norms of the target culture). This was based on the assumption that accuracy has a great impact on acceptability and readability.

This study evaluates the ideological, cultural, and social implications associated with the epitext parts of El-Sa'dawi's Woman at Point Zero's English cover pages through a thorough investigation of these elements. Six cover pages from different editions issued by Zed Books in various years were taken from Google in order to fulfill the objectives of this study. The context of situation and Pierce's model of sign process are utilized as methodological tools for the investigation of epitext elements in order to demonstrate the social, cultural, and pragmatic significance of these cover pages. The study shows that these epitext elements have significance and are related to the novel's plot, characters, theme, and setting. It also demonstrates how the publisher's deliberate manipulation and design choices of the paratextual elements of their cover pages over a 32-year period reveal deep social, ideological, and cultural implications, influencing reader perception and interpretation of the novel's core messages, themes, and its broader cultural context.

The researchers in the current study aimed to explore the impact of metalinguistic corrective feedback and recasts on learners’ process writing ability through virtual learning environment. To this aim, a total of 63 Iranian EFL learners were selected and arranged in four groups (metalinguistic feedback, metalinguistic + error logs, recasts, and recasts + error logs). To conduct the study, an expository writing task selected from IELTS task 1 was administered to all participants as the pretest. The treatment lasted for eight weeks, and then the process writing posttest was administered. The main focus of the writing task was process writing and passive voice was selected as the target structure. The topics for pretest and posttest were selected with a lot of care, so that they could lend themselves to process writing, and would evoke the use of passive structure. The data were analyzed via paired sample t-test, Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test and one-way ANOVA. Based on the findings, though all groups significantly improved from pre- to posttest, no significant difference was found among the four groups as a result of being exposed to four types of corrective feedback. The findings offer implications for university EFL learners, professors, and material developers.

The attitude-behavior relationship has long been a bone of contention among scholars. This study attempted to examine the correlation of attitude toward the teacher and the course with writing self-regulation and task achievements among EFL university learners in the Iranian context, using Pearson product-moment correlation and multiple-regression techniques. A total of one hundred and sixteen undergraduate sophomores undergoing mandatory essay writing courses participated in the study. Based on the findings, attitudes toward the teacher and the course were not significantly correlated with the cognitive, meta-cognitive, and behavioral strategies, and the task achievement. At the same time, it significantly correlated with the self-efficacy, goal, and motivation. However, the attitude toward the teacher was found to be the stronger predictor of task achievement. Further regression analyses disclosed that the attitude toward teacher was the only predictor of the motivational strategies. Pedagogical applications, implications, and insights for the furtherance of the foreign language program in domain-specific tasks of EFL writing are eventually discussed.

This study aims to investigate the relative effectiveness of self-revision, peer revision, and teacher revision on the writing performance of English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. A total of 60 intermediate level EFL learners were randomly assigned to three groups: self-revision, peer revision, and teacher revision groups. Throughout the treatment, which consisted of 13 sessions lasting 70 minutes each, the participants received instruction on various aspects of writing and then engaged in writing texts. Depending on the assignments designated to their groups, they received feedback from the teacher, feedback from peers, or undertook self-revision of their work. Subsequently, the students revised their original work based on the feedback received, with a specific emphasis on the areas highlighted during the initial assessment. The analysis of pretest and post-test scores using t-tests and an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) indicated that the peer revision group exhibited the highest performance, while the other two groups demonstrated similar performance. These findings emphasize the educational value of different revision approaches and the superiority of peer revision in enhancing second language (L2) writing abilities.