The Influence of Phonological and Grammatical Awareness on EFL Students' Reading Performance

The purpose of the present research was to assess the influence of phonological and grammatical awareness on reading performance of EFL students at Azad Islamic University of Kerman. Based on such a purpose, a series of linguistic tasks were applied in order to find the relationship between phonological and grammatical awareness and reading performance. 50 EFL students participated in the present study through a qualitative and quantitative survey. Phonological awareness was measured by four tasks while grammatical awareness was measured by two tasks. A semi-structured interview was conducted among EFL students and their in order to obtain their feedback regarding the tests and the role of phonological and grammatical awareness in their reading performance. In addition, in order to measure reading performance, a two stage reading task (reading vocabulary and reading short sentences) was used. The results of the present study revealed that phonological and grammatical awareness had a significant role in reading performance of EFL students of the participants

Living Through the Boarders of the Illusory Real: The Psychological Interpretation of Joyce’s A Painful Case in the Context of Lacan’s Theories

The Lacanian reading of A Painful Case provides a foundation for James Joyce’s characterization. It explains clearly some details within the story which reveal the fact that the reason behind Mr. Duffy’s engagement in an ideal fantasy world is his obsession with “ideal ego”. This easy aims at reading A Painful Case – a short story from Dubliners – through employing terminology from Lacanian psychoanalysis. It will show how the protagonist’s interactions, reactions and in general life style is affected by the intricate tensions between his experience of the imaginary order, the symbolic order and the Real.Key words: James Joyce; A Painful Case; Psychoanalysis; Laca