درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Having its roots in science, “chaos theory” provides a new strategy to examine the disordered world of postmodern novels to find the hidden order underlying the apparent chaos. This study tries to clarify the ambiguous relation between Oedipa Maas, the “Tristero system” and the “Maxwell’s Demon” in Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49. Oedipa Maas, the main character of the novel is regarded as an “everyman” type character who tries desperately to make sense of the signs and mysteries proliferating around her, but she can never fulfill her quest because she is trapped in a chaotic world where there are no stable values, friends or meanings. She feels separated from the world around her and longs to regain the stability she used to have before she started her task as the “executrix” of her former lover’s vast estate. She does not manage to find “order” in the surrounding chaos, but applying the major tenets of chaos theory and examining concepts such as “the butterfly effect”, “bifurcations”, “strange attractors”, “recursive symmetry” and “entropy” , we can come to a better understanding of the order underlying the disordered world of the novel.

Task-based language teaching, which requires learners to transact tasks resembling their real life language needs, demands language learners to perform planning at different stages of their learning. Since various types of tasks can be used in task-based instruction, the present study examined the effect of task types and various participatory structures during pre-task planning on the quality of learners' writing performance, (i.e., accuracy). Towards this end, 120 intermediate EFL students were randomly assigned to 3 experimental groups and one control group. While the experimental groups were subjected to different pre-task planning conditions, (i.e., individual, pair, and group), the control group performed tasks without any planning. During the treatment, they experienced task modeling, presentation and completion. A factorial design was followed in the present study, and the collected data were analyzed through ANOVAs that revealed task type and pre-task planning condition influenced the writing accuracy of the participants in a way that resulted in greater accuracy in the decision-making task in the experimental groups, thereby ensuring the effectiveness of the treatment in mitigating the long-standing problem of EFL learners in achieving higher levels of accuracy when a specific task type is concerned.

For centuries the speculations on man's mental functioning posed a great challenge for the scholars in various disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, sociocultural studies, education, ethnolinguistics, discourse analysis, literary criticism. Researchers have been pondering over the ticklish question: is it the mind making the human society, or is it the society that shapes up the human mind? Researchers not informed in Vygotsky's contribution to the resolution of the issue, may still find the vicious circular question glaring in the face. But thanks to Vygotsky's sociocultural theory (SCT), the hazy horizon has cleared away and today we are convinced of the truth of Vygotsky's claim that man's mental functioning is mediated by sociocultural artifacts (physical and psychological tools) which imbue us with the capacity the shape natural environment, and in so doing change the natural circumstances in which we live, and the capacity to organize and gain voluntary control over our biologically specified mental functioning. The pivotal concept in this outlook is that man, released from biological constraints, emerges as the master of his own destiny. It goes without saying that a conception as such invests the educationists, social reformers, statesmen with a grave responsibility regarding the necessity of providing appropriate conditions for individual's cognitive, ethical and social development. Indeed, Vygotsky's position on the genesis of man's higher mental functioning which is said to be hinging on the social, cultural, and historical variables provides a viable solution to the mind-society enigma. This said, we intend to submit some ethnomethodological evidence in support of Vygotsky's claim regarding the genesis of man's higher mental conditioning.

مقاله حاضر در نظر دارد که تاثیرﺁموزش درون متنی کلمات فرانسه را بر روی دانشجویان سال دوم و سوم لیسانس زبان فرانسه دانشگاه اصفهان بررسی کند. این مقاله سعی در بررسی دلایل برخی از عدم موفقیتها در به خاطر سپاری کلمات در متن و یا در خارج از ﺁن را دارد.هدف اصلی، در اینجا، هدایت دانشجویان به طرف شناخت علائم زبانی و معانی کلمات توسط تمرینات جایگزینی کلمات در متن (قبل و بعد از جلسات ﺁموزش لغات) و به همراه ارزشیابی های اولیه و پایانی است. به این ترتیب ﺁموزش اصطلاحات فرانسه ضروری به نظر می رسد تا از مشکلات فرهنگی مانند تداخل زبان مادری و زبان هدف ٬ ابهامات و مشکلات درک مطلب احترازشود. نتایج حاصله لزوم تربیت آموزگاران توانا و قادر به ایجاد تطبیق با موقعیت آموزش را ﺁشکار می سازد.