Ethnicity and Ethnic Discrimination in Schools: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Educational classes address profound social, political, cultural and economic issues of ethnicity. The social teaching Program in schools includes some thematic units that introduce some important ethnic groups. These units include educational values and critical thinking; reading literature; culture, perception and communication; issues of ethnicity. In this article, we discuss the thematic unit “issues of ethnicity” in order to identify some of the challenges facing classes in which ethnicity is a major topic. We distinguish explicit (“old”) and implicit (“new”) forms of ethnic discrimination, arguing that implicit forms of ethnic discrimination require a discourse analytical approach to analyzing ethnicity. We believe that this approach offers provocative opportunities for class discussion of ethnicity and ethnic discrimination. Keywords: ethnicity, ethnic discrimination, educational classes, critical discourse analysi

Fortition in Persian Phonological System

This study deals with fortition processes according to the theoretical framework of generative phonology to answer the cited questions: How phonological processes are applied in Persian phonological system as fortition? In other words, how do the data support the application of fortition processes in Persian? In which contexts do fortition processes apply in Persian? Synthetic process typology of phonological processes is investigated according to the phonological pattern of Persian; finally the most frequent fortition processes are selected. To see how these processes are applied in Persian as fortition, Standard Persian and four dialects out of twenty five dialects which show these processes are selected. The data are gathered in field study. Then, each of the fortition processes is probed on the Persian varieties to find the alternatives and underlying forms which are important to decide how the fortition processes are applied; and to find the positions in which fortition processes take place. The collected data support the fortition processes in Persian. The data show that the fortition processes tend to occur in inter-consonantal, pre-consonantal positions and morpheme, word and syllable initial positions. The data also show that word initial position has the highest frequency for fortition processes to occur. This support Kenstowichz’s idea that mentions word initial is the typical position for fortition. Keywords: fortition processes, generative phonology, synthetic process typology, Persian phonological syste

The Role of Gender and Personality Traits in Using Lexical Cohesion Devices in Oral Interactions

In this paper, we studied lexical cohesion devices to define the role of gender and personality traits on using them in the speeches of the second grade students in elementary school. We have used survey method in questionnaire part and descriptive analysis in analyzing the obtained data. The number of students in our statical sample was 100, which was divided into 4 groups (each group was 25 students) according to gender and personality variables. The sample was chosen by cluster random sampling method. The students were divided into introverted and extroverted groups by the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ). In order to collect data, the researches took part in classrooms during the school year, and recorded the students’ voices.  Then their voices were transcribed to extract the used lexical cohesion. In data analysis, we used Wilcoxon math-pairs and Man Whitney U test according to the type of samples. The main purpose of this paper was to come to this conclusion that a general and bipolar judgment about the role of gender and personality traits in the studies of speech, especially in the study of using cohesion devices in discourses, is not true. So, this study, hesitated the general outcomes of some researches such as Hall who believed introverted students have more progress than extroverted in school, and Premuzic& Furham who believed extroverted students are more successful than introverted in class activities. Keywords: gender, introversion, extroversion, cohesion devices, interactio

The Realization of English Dative Case in Iranian EFL Learners

A cross sectional research was undertaken with sixty university students to know whether levels of proficiency interact with the realization of English dative case in Iranian EFL learners’ performance and whether Iranian EFL learners aware of discourse constraint in English dative case. The research shows that Iranian learners learn dative non-alternation first, because dative non-alternation structures are somehow compatible with Persian structures. But, in the case of dative alternation Iranian learners encounter with some problems. So the usage of this English structure depends on the proficiency levels of the learners; the higher of the proficiency level, the more usage of dative alternation. The subjects were aware of discourse constraint in one sentence, but they were not aware of this constraint in the other sentence. It seems that they are not aware of the existence of this constraint; they just intend to use [NP PP] complement. Keywords: dative alternation, dative non-alternation, discourse constraint, proficiency level Iranian learners’ performanc

Lenition in Persian Phonological System

This study deals with lenition processes according to the theoretical framework of generative phonology to answer the cited questions: How phonological processes are applied in Persian phonological system as lenition? In other words, how do the data support the application of lenition processes in Persian? In which contexts do lenition processes apply in Persian? Synthetic process typology of phonological processes is investigated according to the phonological pattern of Persian; finally the most frequent lenition processes are selected. To see how these processes are applied in Persian as lenition, Standard Persian and six dialects out of twenty five dialects which show these processes are selected. The data are gathered in field study. Then, each of the lenition processes is probed on the Persian varieties to find the alternatives and underlying forms which are important to decide how the lenition processes are applied; and to find the positions in which lenition processes take place. The collected data support the lenition processes in Persian. The data show that the lenition processes tend to occur in postvocalic, intervocalic and final positions; and the final position has the highest frequency for lenition processes to occur. This support Kenstowichz’s idea that mentions word final is the typical position for lenition. Keywords: lenition processes, generative phonology, synthetic process typology, Persian phonological system

Ethnicity and Ethnic Discrimination in Schools: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract Educational classes address profound social, political, cultural and economic issues of ethnicity. The social teaching Program in schools includes some thematic units that introduce some important ethnic groups. These units include educational values and critical thinking; reading literature; culture, perception and communication; issues of ethnicity. In this article, we discuss the thematic unit "issues of ethnicity" in order to identify some of the challenges facing classes in which ethnicity is a major topic. We distinguish explicit ("old") and implicit ("new") forms of ethnic discrimination, arguing that implicit forms of ethnic discrimination require a discourse analytical approach to analyzing ethnicity. We believe that this approach offers provocative opportunities for class discussion of ethnicity and ethnic discrimination

Translating the Translated: An Intertextual Approach in Subtitling Ernest Hemingway’s Adaptation of To Have and Have Not to Nakhoda Khorshid

Literary texts have been regularly adapted into the motion picture since the invention of talkies. Accordingly, the relationship between the original literature, the adapted movie and its translation for international audiences, mainly in the form of subtitling, have become an attractive and growing source of study. This intertextuality is argued to influence the perception and evaluation of the vulnerable subtitle by the viewers. Therefore, adopting an intertextual approach to the subtitling of dialogue in the Iranian film Captain Khorshid, the present study aims at discussing the extent to which the subtitle corresponds to the audiences’ expectations. For this purpose, Ernest Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not and the adapted film Captain Khorshid, directed by Naser Taghva’i, are analysed. Farahzad’s (2009) model of intertextuality and Sanatifar and Kenevisi’s (2017) reformulated model of Grice are employed as the models for analysing, establishing and assessing the relationship between the texts. After discussing the relationship between the literary text and the adapted movie within the theory of intertextuality, the English subtitle of the Persian soundtrack is discussed by comparing it with the original English quote. This intertextual relationship is maintained to be mainly the source of comparison between the literature, i.e. protext, and the adaptation film, i.e. metatext, by the audience of the film as well. In other words, when the film is subtitled back into the language of the original literary work, the protext and the metatext meet, and a reunion occurs. Therefore, it is concluded that the more the subtitle corresponds to the original literary text, the more it is evaluated by the audience to be accurate

Latent Semantic Analysis and Machine Translation

Computer-based translation systems are not rivals to human translators, but they are aids to enable them to increase productivity in technical translation. Machine translation aims to undertake the whole translation process, but whose input must invariably be revised. Latent Semantic Analysis and Probabilistic Latent Semantic Analysis are two newly developed computational models which their application in machine translation will solve some of the problems facing machines in accounting for the way human knowledge is comprehended

The Effects of Sociolinguistics Factors on Learning English: A Case Study

There are some factors like educational, psychological, administrative, sociolinguistics and etc. which affect on the learning of a second language. We probed age, gender and parents’ jobs as three sociolinguistics factors in relation to learn English as second language by Iranian students. The authors tried to know whether the three mentioned factors have influence on learning English or not. To answer this question, a statistical population of all secondary school students in Shiraz, one of the cities in Iran, was selected for this field research. First, five secondary school were selected by cluster sampling method from all the existed secondary schools in Shiraz. And then, Ninety girls and ninety boys were chosen to participate in this investigation. A questionnaire of fifteen-items was designed to collect data. The researchers applied Split- half reliability and obtained a reliability coefficient of 0.9. One way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), t-test and Pearson Product Moment correlation statistics applied for the data analysis. The result showed that in spite of previous researches, gender and age have no meaningful significant effect on the use of English by Iranian students. On the other hand, this field study came to conclusion that fathers or mothers’ occupations have an important role in the students’ use of learning English at school. So, we can infer from the conclusion that families with lower social and occupational status should compensate this shortage with different and exciting motivations for their children to learn English better at school

Gender and Demand Strategies: A Sociolinguistic Stud

The investigation on the impact of gender as a sociolinguistics factor on the use of different strategies for demands or requests by men and women is the aim of this research. Six strategies reviewed in this study: Direct Request, Conventional Indirect Request, Hints, Alerters, Supportive Moves, and Internal Modifiers. To discover the role of gender on the use of these strategies in demands, 80 students of Jahrom University, Iran participated in this study. They divided into two 40 groups according to their gender. A questionnaire of six-items was designed to collect data. Each of the items in the questionnaire explained different situations. T-test and Chi-squared test applied for the data analysis. The result revealed that men use the strategies of direct request, conventional indirect Request, hints and alerters in their requests more than women. On the other hand, women use the strategies of supportive moves and internal modifiers in their demands more than men. The result also showed that female students paid more attention to the way of their demands than male students especially in formal social contexts and act more conservative. This can be related to this fact that women try to observe in social face in their speech acts