درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Emotional Intelligence is a challenging topic in the area of language research. Among other factors that might manipulate translators’ mind, their Emotional Intelligence level might be an influential element, too. The present research focused on examining the relationship between emotional intelligence and the students’ translation ability. It was carried out among 59 translation students in the Payam-Noor University in Iran, Mazandaran. After homogenizing the sample, the sample size was reduced to 32. The participants were required to translate some paragraphs of the short story 'A rose for Emily' and answer the Bar-On EQ-I questionnaire (1997). The results indicated that there was no relationship between EQ and the learners’ translation ability but some of the main subscales of emotional intelligence (i.e., problem solving, happiness, and flexibility) had statistically weak relationship with the learners’ translation ability. The results also showed that the combination of EQ and gender were positively correlated.

بر طبق مدل اصلاح شده ی سلسله مراتبی که توسط کرال و استیوارت پیشنهاد شده است، در مراحل ابتدایی فراگیری زبان، رابط ها ی واژگانی بسیار قوی در نتیجه ی اتکا فراگیران به زبان اول برای دریافت معانی کلمات زبان خارجی ایجاد می شود؛ این رابط ها در مراحل بالاتر نیز باقی می مانند اگرچه ضعیف ترمی شوند. برای آزمایش این فرضیه، حافظه ی رویدادی دو گروه از فراگیران فارسی زبان انگلیسی سطح پایین و پیشرفته بر روی جفت های ترجمه ای غیرهم ریشه مورد آزمایش قرار گرفت. الگوی بدست آمده برای فراگیران سطح پایین با فرضیه ی مدل سازگار بود چرا که وجود رابط های واژگانی در سطوح پایین زبان آموزی ثابت شد. لیکن، نتایج بدست آمده برای فراگیران سطح پیشرفته نشان داد این رابط ها در سطوح بالا دیگر وجود ندارند و ازبین می روند.

This study explored the effectiveness of the two computer-assisted modes: cooperative and individual on improving Iranian high school students’ reading comprehension. It was also concerned with investigating the effectiveness of the two computer-assisted modes on the participants’ foreign language learning anxiety (FLLA). The sample of the study consisted of two intact groups, each containing 24 students, which were randomly assigned into a control and an experimental group. The control group completed the study according to the individual computer-assisted learning while the experimental group was taught via computer-assisted cooperative language learning. The participants in the experimental and the control groups, which consisted of 48 female students, took reading comprehension pretest and posttest. They were also given foreign language classroom anxiety scale (FLCAS) questionnaire both at the beginning and at the end of the treatment. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 16.0. The results of the independent and paired samples t tests indicated that the experimental group, in which cooperative learning was integrated into computer-assisted language learning, outperformed the control group in terms of reading comprehension. In addition, the level of foreign language anxiety improved after the treatment in the experimental group. The findings of this study provide some insights for teachers to consider the integrating of cooperative learning into computer-assisted language learning setting.

This study aimed to explore the function and frequency of textual metadiscourse markers (MDMs) in scientific English and Persian texts. Based on the qualitative and quantitative analysis of textual markers characterizing the selected genre, four different textbooks, two written in English and two in Persian were analyzed to identify the textual metadiscourse categories (including logical markers, code glosses, and sequencers) used in these texts and to determine the sociopragmatic differences existing in these languages, chi-square test was run and the findings suggested that textual MDMs were present in both English and Persian texts, but they differed in their frequency of occurrence. The contrastive comparison between the English and Persian texts revealed that the frequency of the textual MDMs was greater in the Persian texts. Therefore, it was concluded that such discrepancy could be attributed to the differing rate of explicitness in these two languages. The Persian writers were more interested in explicating their ideas for readers through the text via the use of textual markers (TMs) to a greater extent. It was further found that different factors may influence the use of MDMs, namely the culture, the writer's preferences, the text, and its genre. The implications could include the precaution that Iranian EFL writers ought to be advised to approximate their writing style, in terms of using MDMs, to that of native speakers of English while writing in English.  

The present study is an attempt to investigate the relationship between cohesive readability of expository texts and reading comprehension in EFL students with different proficiency levels. One hundred students formed the participant of this study. They were undergraduate students majoring in English at University of Isfahan. To collect the relevant data, participants were divided into three groups of low proficient, intermediate and high proficient based on their scores on an OPT proficiency test. A series of expository reading comprehension tests were prepared and their cohesive readability was measured through related programs. They were divided into two groups of authentic and manipulated texts, with the cohesive readability of manipulated texts reduced. The participants answered the related tests in one session. As a result of data analysis, the findings indicated that manipulation, i.e. cohesive readability reduction has a direct impact on the students' performance in reading expository texts. It was further revealed that text manipulation, i.e. reduction of cohesive readability, was more influential on the intermediate group, i.e. positive relationship between the students’ proficiency level and their reading comprehension of expository texts with different cohesive readability levels.