Modality Metaphors in TOEFL Language Education with emphasis on Listening Skill: A Functional Linguistic Approach

The present research describes and analyzes the Grammatical Metaphors of modality in the listening module of the TOEFL official books. The present descriptive study used a qualitative content analysis approach, and data were collected via documentary method. In this regard, three official TOEFL iBT books, printed and endorsed by ETS, including a total of fourteen tests were selected: The official guide to the TOEFL test (2017), and Official TOEFL iBT (Vol.1, and Vol.2). In the listening module of each test, there are six texts in the form of conversation and lecture. First, each clause of the texts was separately examined. Then, modality metaphors were compared and analyzed in terms of type and frequency. In total, 31 conversation texts and 53 lecture texts were analyzed. Finally, a total number of 264 modality grammatical metaphors were identified. The results indicated that: 1- Modality metaphors entail a higher frequency in lecture texts than the texts of conversations, 2- The frequency of explicit subjective metaphors has a higher frequency than explicit objective metaphors. Therefore, all types of modality grammatical metaphor were found in the TOEFL texts. Considering this concept and teaching it to language learners can help them have a better comprehension and production of scientific texts.

Evaluation of the Efficiency of Tabriz Hospitals; Using the Pabon Lasso Model in a 5-Year Period

Background: Hospitals are the largest and most costly operating units of health systems, and their share of current government expenditures in the healthcare sector is between 50 and 80 percent. The hospital efficiency is more indicative of the proper function of the resources devoted to it. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of hospitals in Tabriz by using the Pabon Lasso model. Methods: This is a descriptive study that investigated the efficiency of Tabriz hospitals during 2009-2013. All hospitals of Tabriz were entered by census. Data (bed occupancy rate, bed turnover and patient length of stay) were collected in summer 2014 and charts were plotted using SPSS19 software. Results: The mean of Pabon Lasso's three indices of efficiency in 5 years (excluding psychiatric beds) was 67.6% for bed occupancy rate, 104.3 times bed turnover, and 2.48 days average patient length of stay. The coefficient of bed occupancy increased by 3% over 5 years, the bed turnover index increased by 8 times and the average length of stay decreased by 0.17 day. On average, 25.2% of hospitals were in Region 1, 23.5% in Region 2, 26.1% in Region 3 and 25.2% in Region 4 of Pabon Lasso Diagram. Conclusion: The presence of 26% of hospitals in the region of Pabon Lasso Diagram shows the effective efficiency of hospitals which is not an acceptable statistics for hospitals and requires the intervention of health practitioners and policymakers