Portfolio Assessment and EFL Learners' Writing Ability: Does Self-Regulation Have a Role to Play?

Due to the scarcity of quantitative studies as to the impact of portfolio assessment on EFL students’ writing ability and the significant impact of the interaction between portfolio assessment and self-regulation strategy, the present study aimed to explore whether portfolio assessment has any significant effect on improving Bachelor of Arts (BA) English as a foreign language (EFL) students’ paragraph writing ability, and whether this effect differs within high/low self-regulated learners or not. To do so, 60 intermediate female students were chosen out of 145 learners through the administration of a standard version of Oxford Placement Test (OPT). The participants were randomly assigned into one control (30 participants) and one experimental group (30 participants). The experimental group was assigned into two groups of high and low self-regulated learners, (15 participants for each group), based on Magno’s (2009) Academic Self-regulated Learning Scale (A-SRL-S) questionnaire. Participants of the control group were taught and assessed based on traditional teaching and assessment, whereas those in the experimental group were taught and assessed via portfolio-based instruction and assessment techniques. The analysis of the results of the study revealed that portfolio assessment has a significant effect on improving writing ability (p=0.001). The results also showed that high self-regulated learners have taken more advantage of portfolio assessment than the low self-regulated ones (p = 0.000). The results obtained from the present study can have beneficial contributions to teaching, curriculum development, and testing

A deconstructionist reading of William Blake's A Poison Tree

This paper aims to have a deconstructionist reading of William Blake's "A Poison Tree." Highly associated with the well-known poststructuralist Jacques Derrida in the late 1960s, deconstruction's primary concern is "the otherness" and "indeterminacy" or "instability" of the ultimate meaning of the text. A deconstructionist reader tries to bring out elements of marginality, supplementarity, and "undecidability" in the reading of texts. Involved in reading the text very closely and critically, a typical deconstructionist tries to recognize how the text differs from what it (its writer) tends to express. Accordingly, the present study sets out to read and analyse William Blake's "A Poison Tree" to discover if the poem, as deconstructionists assert, might include inconsistencies and contradictory points making the meaning of the text "undecidable" and beyond reach. Methodologically, the present study makes an attempt to show how the text is undermining its own philosophy and logic – that is – to demonstrate how the text subverts and differs from what it appears to communicate. At the end it might be concluded that language can be used as an effective means by its user(s) (speakers/writers) to get power, and suppress or marginalize others. It is also demonstrated how texts seem to include contradictory elements- that is – they differ from what they intend to express. All these argumentations can bring us to "indeterminacy" and "instability" of meaning within the text

Intercultural Complexities: Translation as a Process of Cultural Decoding, Recoding and Encoding

ABSTRACT Linguistic relativity (also known as the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis) proposes that language determines thought and the speakers of a particular language perceive the world based on the framework provided by that language. Therefore, language can be considered to be an expression of culture, individuality and identification of its own speakers. This principle has an influential implication for translation. If language shapes thought and culture, it means that ultimate translation is unattainable. Translation, in actual fact, should be considered as the de-coding, re-coding and encoding of thought and culture from one particular language used by one social group to the appropriate code of thought and culture of another group. In this world of globalization, as cultures are more and more brought into contact with one another, multicultural considerations are being brought into focal attention? We are not just translating words; rather, most importantly, we are dealing with the "cultural" aspects of the text that we are to translate. As a result, this article is to cast light on multicultural considerations in translation with the aim of providing an insight into the complex task of a translator and help him, as far as possible, overcome these complexities

A Comparative Study of Vocabulary Learning Strategies Used by Marine Engineering Students and Iranian EFL Learners

The present study explored the vocabulary learning strategies used by Iranian EFL learners and Marine Engineering (ME) students by using the categorization of vocabulary learning strategies proposed by Schmitt (1997). A vocabulary learning strategies questionnaire was administered to 30 EFL learners and 43 ME students. Then, the strategies used by each group were determined and the two groups were compared with each other. It was found that both groups used determination strategies more frequently than social strategies for discovering a new word’s meaning. The most frequently used discovery strategy by both groups was found to be “bilingual dictionary”. The second and third most frequently used strategy for discovery by EFL learners and ME students was found to be “monolingual dictionary” and “guess from textual context”, respectively. It was also revealed that EFL learners used memory strategies more frequently than other strategies for consolidating the meaning of new words and ME students used cognitive strategies the most frequently. Both groups were found to use “verbal repetition” more frequently than all other consolidation strategies. The second most frequently used strategy by EFL learners was “use Englishlanguage media” whilst for ME students they were “written repetition” and “word lists”. The comparison of the strategy use by the participants in the two groups showed no significant difference