مطالب

The goal of this study was to compare the use of conceptual metaphors in English novels written by native and nonnative writers of English. Therefore, two novels were selected: To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee, a native English writer, and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, a nonnative English writer. To find the instances of conceptual metaphors in each book, approximately 10% of the pages of each novel was randomly selected and examined line by line based on the framework introduced by Lakoff and Johnson (1980). In the next step, to find the number and type of metaphors used in each book, the identified metaphors were categorized under their underlying concepts and counted. Then, the frequencies of different types of metaphors in each book were tallied and tabulated, and with the use of a chi-square test, the possible differences among the 2 writers’ use of different types of metaphors were found. Results indicated that, in both novels, there were significant differences among the 5 types of metaphors that were identified, namely structural metaphors, ontological metaphors, orientational metaphors, metonymy, and personification. Findings revealed that, in both books, ontological metaphors were the most frequently used type and personification was the least frequently used one. Also, no statistically significant difference was seen between the two writers’ use of the different types of metaphors. Findings are claimed to bear some implications for L2 pedagogy, benefiting teachers, syllabus designers, writers, and L2 learners.

Lesson Study is considered as a way of improving teachers’ professional development in foreign language teacher education courses. Integration of collaboration with focused observation within Lesson Study facilitates teacher professionalization and pedagogical practice. Therefore, this study aimed to explore Iranian EFL teachers’ perceptions of the practical implementation of Lesson Study, and examine novice and experienced EFL teachers’ comments about merging their theoretical knowledge with practice throughout the application of Lesson Study. To this end, four novice and three experienced language teachers, both female and male were selected as the participants of this study. Data collection was done through triangulation of teachers’ reflective notes, an unstructured interview, observation, and field notes. The findings indicated that EFL teachers have positive views toward Lesson Study as a means of professional development. Additionally, the novice and experienced EFL teachers have different attitudes regarding lesson planning, reflective teaching, and collaborating with other colleagues. The findings of this study can have implications for EFL teachers and teacher educators to promote ongoing learning in their profession through reflective teaching and collaboration.

Language transfer refers to the application of previous language knowledge to the target language learning. Using questionnaires, this paper investigates the lexical transferring behaviors of 230 Dongxiang-Chinese bilingual and monolingual students who are in the early stage of learning English vocabulary. The results display that Chinese predominates the transference, while bilinguals’ Dongxiang Language is described as a barrier during the process of English learning. To show the individual-level differences, several learner-based factors: age, linguistic background, social background, cognitive level, emotion, and learning attitude are also confirmed, which appear to promote or inhibit this transferring behavior. The experiment data suggest that there are two different types of the factors mentioned above, which depend on whether they are affected by context-based factors---learner-based factors and learner-context-based factors. The paper also concludes with suggestions to teachers and policymakers in Dongxiang area for the modification of current teaching methods based on the quantitative analysis of surveys.

INTRODUCTION: Iran has long been recognized as one of the most accident-prone areas in the world due to its special geographical location. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to devote special attention to crisis management in organizations and the identification of related strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. METHODS: The present study aimed to identify the strategic positioning of crisis management after natural disasters at the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad as the center of excellence in the east of the country. To this end, the internal and external factors which militate against university crisis management were identified. Thereafter, the strategic positioning of this university was determined among four positions, namely offensive, defensive, adaptive, and contingency, using a combination of SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis, analytic hierarchy process (AHP), and Monte Carlo simulation, and strategies were presented. The statistical population were university facility experts and managers among whom 10 cases were selected by purposive sampling. FINDINGS: Based on the obtained results, the highest weights in different sub-criteria were as follows: compliance with the required technical and safety standards in new constructions of the university campus (strength), the absence of any specific plan for dealing with various types of crises in different buildings (weakness), the proximity of the fire station to the university campus (opportunity), and indecisiveness of organizations supervising building retrofitting, including provincial government and Roads and Urban Development Office (threat). CONCLUSION: The results of the present study demonstrated that strategic positioning can be identified by analyzing internal and external factors. Moreover, among the four strategic positions, it was found that the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad adopted an offensive crisis management strategy in 45.4% of the cases.

INTRODUCTION: Investigation of natural disasters (e.g., earthquakes and floods) has a long history due to the lack of knowledge of humans about the severity and strength of these accidents or the time and place of their occurrence. In this regard, it is necessary to develop national plans for the reduction of the vulnerability of people who are exposed to such disasters. Execution of maneuvers can effectively raise the awareness of relief workers and even the society which would result in the reduction of disaster damage. Therefore, the execution of maneuvers is an appropriate response to these needs and a solution to this problem. METHODS: This applied survey study was performed on the staff of the Red Crescent Society of West Azerbaijan Province. The required data were collected using the library and field methods. Finally, the collected data were analyzed in SPSS software (version16). FINDINGS: Based on the findings, relief maneuvers had a direct effect on various aspects of staff preparedness. Therefore, it can be said that all research hypotheses were confirmed. CONCLUSION: It can be said that the design and execution of relief maneuvers can help to identify opportunities, eliminate threats, and increase the preparedness and capability of the staff. This increases the individual and organizational preparedness of the employees. Moreover, effective relationships between managers and employees can create strong morale in the employees and increase their preparedness for accidents and disasters.

INTRODUCTION: Despite the fact that natural disasters are on the rise in Iran, no study has yet explained the performance indicators in the relief supply chain in crisis situations. Creative leadership in the relief supply chain can be of great help to the enhancement of internal strengths, provision of creative solutions to potential threats, and maintenance and promotion of public health. The present study aimed to provide a Structural equation model of creative hospital leadership. METHODS: The present exploratory research was conducted on 215 cases that were selected as the sample size using Cochran's formula. The data collection tool was a standard questionnaire which was completed by managers, supervisors, and experts of hospitals in Isfahan province. The reliability coefficient of the questionnaire was assessed using SPSS software based on Cronbach's alpha test, which indicated the high reliability of the research tool. FINDINGS: A hierarchical structure was established using DEMATEL software, which is a variety of decision-making methods based on pairwise comparisons, and benefiting from expert opinion in extracting the factors of a system and their systematical structuring based on the principles of graph theory. CONCLUSION: Finally, the effectiveness and affectability of the components were expressed as the output of DEMATEL software in a way that their interaction effect was denoted as numerical values. Thereafter, the data were analyzed in linear structural relations (LISREL) software using structural equation modeling, and the creative leadership model was designed.

INTRODUCTION: The enhancement of nurses’ risk perception plays a significant role in their preparedness during disasters and emergencies. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of educational workshops on disaster risk perception in nurses METHODS: This randomized controlled field trial study included 62 nurses working at Razi Hospital, Birjand, Iran. The participants were divided into intervention and control groups. The intervention group was then requested to participate in a one-day intensive educational workshop based on the current national standards. The workshop content included a combination of lecturing methods, round-table exercises, and film display. The data were collected using the demographic characteristic form and researcher-made questionnaires measuring the nurses’ risk perception during disasters and emergencies. Subsequently, the data were analyzed using independent t-test, repeated measures analysis, and Bonferroni post hoc tests.

INTRODUCTION: Fars is a disaster-prone province which is affected by a myriad of disasters, such as floods, earthquakes, fires, and traffic accidents. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the disaster risk of hospitals in Fars province in 2017. METHODS: This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed in 2017. Out of 90 hospitals in Fars province, 51 centers cooperated in the presented study. Six prevalent disasters and crises in Fars province were identified using the recorded incidents in the last 20 years in the Emergency Operation Center (EOC) of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. A book entitled "National tools for the assessment of risks and indicators of specialized competencies of the health sector in response to hazards and disasters (risk map), which was written for the Ministry of Health of Iran in 2014, was used to assess and obtain the risk score. The maximum and minimum risk scores were obtained at 95 and 19, respectively, and the data were analyzed in Excel 2016. FINDINGS: The mean and standard deviation of the obtained scores for different hazards were reported as 56.039±175.785 (earthquake), 45.962 ± 322.17 (seasonal flood), 575.786.195±19.57 (drought), 909.18±686.36 (chemical threats), 47.764±18.066 (human-caused fires), and 50.235±15.709 (power outage). In most hospitals, the risk of earthquakes and the negative impact of drought were higher than other hazards, while the chemical threats obtained the lowest score. CONCLUSION: Since Fars province is a disaster-prone area, the risk assessment should be periodically performed at short intervals to identify hazards with higher risk scores and implement corrective measures in this regard.

INTRODUCTION: Mental health which is recognized as one of the leading health indicators and a key component of a healthy life can be influenced by multiple factors. METHODS: The current study aimed to develop a mobile self-regulatory concepts training program and determine its effectiveness on the mental health of Red Crescent Society relief workers in Yazd. This quasi-experimental applied research was conducted based on a control group pretest-posttest design. The statistical population of the study included all 500 Red Crescent aid workers in Yazd in 2019, out of whom 30 cases were selected by convenience sampling method and were randomly assigned to two groups of experimental and control (n=15). The General Health Questionnaire developed by Goldberg (1972) was used for data collection. The experimental group received 11 60-minute sessions of mobile self-regulatory training. FINDINGS: Based on the results, mobile self-regulatory concepts training was effective in the mental health of Red Crescent Society aid workers in Yazd. CONCLUSION: As evidenced by the obtained results, mobile self-regulatory training improves physical symptoms, anxiety and insomnia, social dysfunction, and depression