مطالب

This research is to analyze the effects of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) on reading comprehension of Iranian EFL learners. After providing a useful synopsis, this research is to contextualize CDA in two ranges of learning situations and classifies how CDA can shed new perceptions on learning. Detailed systematic measures are included to clarify the procedure of conducting CDA. The participants were 61 male and female M.A. English students of Boroujerd Islamic Azad University, selected on a non- random basis by applying a TOEFL test among over 91 EFL M.A. students considered to be at the same level. Those whose scores on the test were from 224 to 316 with the mean of 273.736 were considered as the participants of this study. They had received instructions on English language for 16 sessions at Boroujerd Islamic Azad University. The participants were native speakers of Farsi. Any word, phrase, or structure can have different possible meanings, which is known as the meaning range. Focusing on the implied meaning of the text, the learners of the second language reach a better understanding of the text and consequently of the second language. The present research shows how seven elements offered by Fairclough's model in critical discourse analysis can affect reading ability of Iranian EFL learners. Also,besides scrutinizing the effect of CDA in EFL learners, the researcher introduces the seven elements of Fairclough's model as well.

Locating fort settlements in Sistan region, Iran, during different historical periods have always been associated with changes in the direction of Hirmand River which have occurred due to various natural and human factors. This study aims to identify the relation between the Iranian province of Sistan hydrographic networks of fort settlement in the Qajar era. The research method is descriptive - analytical, historical – comparative, documentary, library and field study in Iran's Sistan area. Our focus is mostly on the issue of changes in hydrographic network of Hirmand River. The main question is to what extent have the changes in the direction of hydrographic network of Hirmand played a role in locating fort settlements of Qajar era in Iran's Sistan region. Records, documents, data and historical information related to the Qajar era were collected and comprehensively compared and analyzed regarding the current and the past situations in the Geographic information system (GIS) using ArcGIS software. The results show that the highest number of the locating and the density of fort settlements in the Qajar era are related to the hydrographic basin of Sistan river. The main reason is branching of the Hirmand River Hydrographic Basin through the Sistan canal or Sistan River in the West. Also from 6 to 12 AH in both the northern and southern Delta region of Sistan, Iran, there have been settlement areas. However in Qajar era 100 percent of settlements in the northern Delta area have been site selected.

The concept of anxiety occupies a crucial position in early Heidegger’s writings. Most prominently, it appears in Being and Time (1927) and “What is Metaphysics?” (1929) as a structurally central concept. After 1920s, Heidegger began to use the term much less frequently, leading some scholars to suggest a change in Heidegger’s view of the significance of the concept of anxiety. In this essay, we argue that central to the understanding of the role of anxiety in Heidegger’s thought is the fundamental difference between Heideggerian and psychological anxiety. This distinction is crucial as it is directly connected to the idea of the ontological difference, i.e., the difference between the ontical and the ontological, between beings and the Being of beings. Psychological descriptions of anxiety remain at the level of the ontical and, therefore, fall short of comprehending the ontological meaning of Heideggerian anxiety, which is one of Dasein’s basic possibilities of Being. Equipped with such an ontological understanding, we argue that the concept of anxiety remained central to Heidegger’s thought, early and late alike. We also suggest that Heidegger’s less frequent use of the term anxiety after “What Is Metaphysics?” could possibly be associated with his recognition that its terminological similarity with psychological anxiety may become a source of misunderstandings. Moreover, in the last section of the essay which functions as an addendum, we engage with Freud’s analysis of the uncanny and examine its relation to Heidegger’s Being-not-at-home. We argue that although Freud’s analysis of the uncanny does, in a sense, open up horizons beyond the reach of empirical psychology, his quasi-scientific quest for causal explanation ultimately remains within the framework of an ontical analysis.

Expansion of communicational infrastructures and increase in grassroots’ access to media and cyberspace affect public’s needs, political participation and the citizens’ relationship with international, national and local political space. Nowdays[R1] , citizens in different countries have increased their awareness using communicational infrastructures and have spread out news and information in cyberspace and communicational media. They do not act passively in front of the other media like past , but they compare their life quality and legal freedoms with others by observing and evaluating the situation of their own country. In the late [R2] 2010, some protests were raised in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria that no one could anticipate them. The common point of these protests was their origin rooted in [R3] cyberspace. By dismantling Tunisia, Egypt and Libya’s governments and resignation of Yemen’s president, it can be expected that these movements can be spread in the Middle East, to other totalitarian governments of the region. In the protests process in the region and in particular in Egypt and Tunisia, protesters used cyberspace to coordinate campaigns. The organizers of these protests organizers [R4] in Egypt tried to take attention using devices that their audiences have, and shifted the leadership of protests from political parties and elites to the social networks. The current study tires to answer this question using published documents and reports: In the framework of what process and under the effect of what factors cyberspace contributed to the formation of protests movements in Egypt?

At first glance, myths are considered as the old stories but, the truth is that they are the product of a way of man’s wise thinking which have survived in the form of narration and action. Ad the myths answer to the man’s needs of world-knowing , they continue living, in the modern world and by the help of science, through accordance with the mental frames of man. One of the newest fields that benefiting from its capacities help in myth renovation is internet technology. The spread of this wide web has changed it to a modern environment. The subject of digital body in this new environment and its capacities on achieving the collective goals set the ground for the formation of mythical meanings and concepts which challenge the scientific wisdom. Therefore, this research analyzes the capacities of this media in developing the new mythical concepts based on the contemporary myth theory of Roland Barrett and the mythical analysis of Louie Straus . The method is descriptive-analytic and based on the library resources. The results revel that in this modern environment, reality, idealism and fantasy are interwoven in the form of old archetypes and have changed the validity of many concepts. Thinking about Creation, escape from prohibition, simultaneous presence, excess of time and place, unified world, dominance over loneliness and the wishes that came true through the myths, now form a modern thinking horizon in a vital, interactive and experimental environment which renovates the myths inside this worldwide web.