Linguistic Capital in Iran: Using Official Language or Mother Tongue

AbstractLinguistic capital has been the subject of interest and study to many linguists and sociolinguists in the past decade, a central point in this relation can be found in Bourdieu's (1992) claim that language is not simply an object of study; and that it is an instrument of action and power and also has the power to produce existence. This capitalism can be considered as a threatening factor for the national unity in bi or multilingual countries. Iran as a multilingual country is not an exception to this threat; however, few studies have addressed the issue in the society. In response to this shortcoming, the present study investigated linguistic capital in different situations to see how power is distributed among the languages of the country. Accordingly, Persian as the official language of the country and Turkish, Kurdish and Luri, major indigenous languages of the country, were brought under investigation. In so doing, a researcher-made questionnaire was administrated to 220 subjects who were all bilingual male and female within the age range of 18 to 80 having fourteen different professions. The results of the paired sample t-test analysis indicate meaningful difference in participants’ choice of mother tongue and Persian as the official language in non-official conditions which stands for the power of the latter. Moreover, the regression analysis demonstrated that age, gender, job, degree of education, field of study, and residency were significant for the prediction of the dependent variables. Yet, gender predicted the best. Therefore, EFL teachers should be aware of the power of each language the learners speak and distinguish the difference between the knowledge they possess and the language they use to express

Conceptualization of Man's Behavioral and Physical Characteristics as Animal Metaphors in the Spoken Discourse of Khezel People

Cognitive theory of metaphor has changed our understanding of metaphor as a figurative device to a matter of thought. It holds that metaphors are cognitively as well as culturally motivated. Despite having similar images in some languages, the culture-specific aspect of animal metaphors inspired the researchers to explore this area of metaphoric system in a local Kurdish variety to investigate how animal metaphors are reflected in spoken discourse. To achieve this objective, the authors collected and analyzed animal expressions adopted for praise and degradation of physical and behavioral characteristics in Khezeli dialect in Ilam, Iran. To create a representative corpus, the authors scrutinized spoken language and oral poetry of the dialect. The collected data indicate that more wild than domestic and more degrading than praising animal expressions are used for man's physical and behavioral characteristics. It is also confirmed that aspects of appearance, size, physical characteristics as well as body parts of animals are transferred to humans. Further, users' attitudes toward animals reflected themselves in their metaphors. Users were also found to have three categories of positive, positive/negative, and negative connotations for animal names. Despite the existence of similarities in the underlying patterns of metaphoric use in different languages, the research came to the conclusion that the types of animals used, their connotations and interpretations may be worlds apart and taking the meaning of one for another may lead to misunderstanding

ON THE ASSOCIATION OF IRANIAN EFL TEACHER’S IDENTITY STYLE, RELIGIOUS IDENTITY, AND IDENTITY COMMITMENT

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship among EFL teacher’s identity style, religious identity, and identity commitment. The data was collected from 88 EFL teachers teaching at different English language learning institutes in Ilam province- Iran. Two questionnaires were used, including Dollinger’s (2001) Brief Religiosity Scale (BRS-6) and Berzonsky’s (1992) Identity Style Inventory, the revised version (ISI3). Results suggested that EFL teacher’s identity style and their commitment were positively correlated (r = 0.350). There was also a significant positive correlation between EFL teacher’s religious identity and their commitment (r = 0.312). A significant positive correlation was also found between EFL teacher’s identity style and religious identity (r = 0.367).  The results of one-way ANOVA indicated that there was a statistically significant difference in identity style scores, identity commitment scores, and religiosity scores for four groups. The results of independent t-test analysis indicated that there was no significant difference in identity style, identity commitment, and the religiosity scores of the two groups of participants. Finally, the implications and limitations of the study were also discussed

A Corpus Analysis of Color-Term Conceptual Metaphors in Persian Proverbs

AbstractThis study investigated the distribution of color terms in Persian proverbs in three Iranian proverbs books and their metaphoric reflection in the users’ beliefs, ideas, or values. Through investigating as many as 4710 proverbs in the pertinent books, a corpus of 56 Persian proverbs with color terms in content was selected and analyzed. The results suggested that colors are not distributed equally in Persian proverbs and that they stood for both positive and negative connotations. Since metaphoric expressions are inseparable feature of scientific and non-scientific writings, language users are suggested to attain adequate awareness of these expressions in different domains

On the Evaluation of Master of Arts Program in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) at Ilam University

Evaluation of the quality and effectiveness of a working program is usually made to determine its degree of success. Reviewing a large number of evaluation models, Stufflebeam's CIPP model (2002) was adopted as the theoretical framework to examine the current program for Master of Arts in TEFL at Ilam University. The participants of the study included 36 graduates of the given major from 2006 to 2012. The data were collected through a researcher-made questionnaire and were analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS.16). The findings revealed that most of the graduates believed that the current program was not as effective and efficient as it was expected and their actual needs were somehow ignored. They suggested that the administrators employ more proficient teachers, apply more practical courses and revise the educational objectives. Hence, the curriculum developers and faculty members are required to take the findings of the present research into account to make the essential revisions and modifications for future decision-makingin order to meet the students' needs and concerns

On the Evaluation of Master of Arts Program in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) at Ilam University

Evaluation of the quality and effectiveness of a working program is usually made to determine its degree of success. Reviewing a large number of evaluation models, Stufflebeam's CIPP model (2002) was adopted as the theoretical framework to examine the current program for Master of Arts in TEFL at Ilam University. The participants of the study included 36 graduates of the given major from 2006 to 2012. The data were collected through a researcher-made questionnaire and were analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS.16). The findings revealed that most of the graduates believed that the current program was not as effective and efficient as it was expected and their actual needs were somehow ignored. They suggested that the administrators employ more proficient teachers, apply more practical courses and revise the educational objectives. Hence, the curriculum developers and faculty members are required to take the findings of the present research into account to make the essential revisions and modifications for future decision-makingin order to meet the students' needs and concerns

On the Evaluation of Master of Arts Program in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) at Ilam University

Evaluation of the quality and effectiveness of a working program is usually made to determine its degree of success. Reviewing a large number of evaluation models, Stufflebeam's CIPP model (2002) was adopted as the theoretical framework to examine the current program for Master of Arts in TEFL at Ilam University. The participants of the study included 36 graduates of the given major from 2006 to 2012. The data were collected through a researcher-made questionnaire and were analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS.16). The findings revealed that most of the graduates believed that the current program was not as effective and efficient as it was expected and their actual needs were somehow ignored. They suggested that the administrators employ more proficient teachers, apply more practical courses and revise the educational objectives. Hence, the curriculum developers and faculty members are required to take the findings of the present research into account to make the essential revisions and modifications for future decision-makingin order to meet the students' needs and concerns

A Content Analysis of Colour-term Conceptual Metaphors in Modern Persian Poetry

This study sought answers related to the distribution of colour terms in Persian poems and their metaphoric reflection in poets' beliefs, ideas, or values. In so doing, 137 Persian verses from two poetry books with colour terms in content were considered for the analysis. Four raters who studied literature of Persian scrutinized the verses for the evaluation of the colour metaphoric conceptualizations. To validate the raters' suggestions, a focus group of sixteen commented on the recommended connotations. Results indicated that colours are not similarly distributed in Persian poems, are used with different conceptualizations and stood for both positive and negative connotations. Therefore, since colours are part of the authors' and speakers' daily lives to express information, knowledge of metaphoric expressions is suggested to be an inseparable part of language classes

Communication Strategies in the Written Medium: The Effect of Language Proficiency

Although much has been written on 'communication strategies' (CS), in the sense of potentially conscious plans for solving problems encountered in reaching particular communicative goals, there still remain large gaps in our knowledge in this respect. One area worthy of attention, and not totally clarified, is whether these strategies are applied and workable in writing as frequently as they are in speaking tasks. Accordingly, the present study aimed at pitting the use of CS against language proficiency level in argumentative writing of Iranian university students. The results of the Chi-Square tests run for the purpose of investigating the hypotheses showed that language proficiency was highly related with the use of more Reconceptualization Strategies which are thought to be psycho linguistically more demanding compared with Substitution Strategies

Teachers’ awareness of critical pedagogy: A case study of Iranian EFL teachers

The concept of critical pedagogy (CP) has been around for some time in education. However, not much research has been conducted on implementing the basic tenets of CP into the ELT classrooms. Acknowledging the significant role of teachers as the cornerstone of education system in every context, the main reason behind this study was to examine the extent to which Iranian EFL instructors in English institutes in Iran apply approaches and principles of critical pedagogy. This study investigated 200 Iranian EFL instructors’ points of view in English Institutes. The questionnaire developed by Azimi (2007) which examined teacher’s attitude in critical pedagogy with reference to their age, gender, educational level and work experience. Results revealed that there is a significant difference between age, gender, educational level and work experience. Compared to males, females had better mean in responding to critical pedagogy items in this study. Also, responses to critical pedagogy items represent a positive relationship with respondents’ age. Additionally, the higher the educational level, the bigger the mean for the responses toward critical pedagogy items was reported. Finally, the teachers with less experience had a lower level of agreement with the principles of critical pedagogy. The results of this study can also be regarded as an implication for policy makers in the field of TEFL to revise their policies related to the ELT issues