مطالب

This study was an attempt to see whether the instruction of pragmatic markers in virtual vs. face-to-face classroom settings had any effect on Iraqi EFL learners’ speaking ability. It also attempted to examine the intervening effects of some factors including age (teenagers in the language institute vs. adults in the university), gender, social class, and the learners’ English language proficiency levels.  To achieve these purposes, a group of 224 Iraqi EFL learners at a university and a private language institute in Kufa, Iraq passing conversation courses were selected and randomly divided into four groups. The two experimental groups (both in university and language institute settings) received instruction on pragmatic markers in online vs. face-to-face conversation classrooms while the two control groups (in university and language institute settings) did not receive instruction on pragmatic markers in online vs. face-to-face conversation classrooms. An English language speaking test was given to the learners to assess their oral performance before and after the treatment. The test was randomly selected from IELTS speaking tests. For the teenagers in the language institute, a simplified speaking task was designed based on IELTS criteria for assessing speaking performance. The results indicated that generally those who received pragmatic instruction outperformed those who did not receive such kind of instruction and the participants in face-to-face classrooms outperformed their virtual counterparts in terms of speaking ability. The study also examined the intervening effects of some social and personal factors including age, gender, social class and level of language proficiency. Based on the findings of this study, the male participants and the students from higher proficiency levels outperformed females and their lower proficiency counterparts in terms of speaking ability. However, they did not show any differences with regard to age and social class. This study offers important implications for EFL teachers, learners and material designers, with regard to the promising effect of face-to-face instruction of different pragmatic features of language through speech acts on learners’ speaking skill. 

Maintaining the health and order of society, in order to move along the correct path of progress, is among the priorities of every school of thought. One of the ways to achieve this goal is to maintain individual and family health and order, strengthen family relationships, and establish social order. The two religions of Judaism and Islam recommend that their followers observe chastity and hijab in order to achieve this goal, so that moral health prevails in society. Maintaining chastity and hijab in these two divine religions is recommended for both men and women, and each has specific duties in this path; duties that, apart from preserving their own chastity, also help to preserve the chastity of their spouses and the society in which they live. By studying the details of these recommendations, many similarities can be found between these two divine religions. This research addresses the issue of chastity and hijab in the two religions of Judaism and Islam, and its emphasis is on the content of the jurisprudential books of the Talmud and Man Lā Yaḥḍuruhū al-Faqīh, whose contents explain revelation and are of special interest to the jurists of these two schools of thought.