Mahmood Maniati; Alireza Jalilifar; Amir Mashhadi; Mahmood Validy
Abstract
Publishing in English has brought about great difficulties for scholars whose first language is not English. After submitting their manuscripts to English-language journals, they usually receive comments from the reviewers on the quality of their English. One of these challenges is how links and transitions ...
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Publishing in English has brought about great difficulties for scholars whose first language is not English. After submitting their manuscripts to English-language journals, they usually receive comments from the reviewers on the quality of their English. One of these challenges is how links and transitions are managed in the flow of discourse. The present study aimed to investigate how the successfully revised text differs from its originally submitted counterpart within the framework of systemic functional linguistics. Based on our examination of the revisions made to our corpus, the increased use of marked theme is believed to contribute significantly to textual cohesion and coherence, and thereby to the achievement of the writer’s argument. This would contribute to transforming a relatively immature and unpublishable piece of writing into a well-crafted and mature version. However, this is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for the texts to be published.
Alireza Jalilifar; Mohammad Parviz; Alexanne Don
Volume 11, Issue 24 , December 2019, , Pages 115-153
Abstract
The present study aimed at exploring phrasal complexity features in data commentaries produced by graduate students and in research articles written by expert writers. To this end, 25 empirical RAs in the field of Applied Linguistics and 158 data commentaries generated by graduate students of English ...
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The present study aimed at exploring phrasal complexity features in data commentaries produced by graduate students and in research articles written by expert writers. To this end, 25 empirical RAs in the field of Applied Linguistics and 158 data commentaries generated by graduate students of English Language Teaching were comparatively examined. The results revealed that students approximated expert writers in terms of producing two linguistic features (i.e., N+N structures and nominalizations). However, they differed significantly from expert writers in generating four linguistic elements (i.e., attributive adjectives, appositive structures, of-genitives, and PPs as noun post-modifiers). The results also revealed that expert writers’ texts comprise varied presence of exceedingly complex patterns of pre-modification, triple/quadruple/quintuple (pre)modification, a hybrid of novel appositive structures, and multiword hyphenated adjectives. Conversely, graduate students’ language could be characterized by less variety, single/dual (pre)modification, a far less extensive range of noun-participle compounds functioning as nominal pre-modifiers, linguistically limited complex modifications, and minimally multifarious patterns of use associated with N+N formulations. Overall, the findings can give fresh insights into the needs of the L2 student writers in developing an academic text.
Hassan Soleimani; Alireza Jalilifar; Afsar Rouhi; Mahboubeh Rahmanian
Volume 11, Issue 23 , June 2019, , Pages 327-356
Abstract
The marriage between technology and teaching in educational milieus in recent years has been a major concern among educational researchers in general and applied linguists in particular as far as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are concerned. Augmented reality after virtual reality received ...
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The marriage between technology and teaching in educational milieus in recent years has been a major concern among educational researchers in general and applied linguists in particular as far as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are concerned. Augmented reality after virtual reality received much attention over the last decades in mobile assisted language learning context. AR mixes virtual world onto real environment, VR delve the participants in to the virtual world. To examine the effect of AR and VR on abstract writing of EFL students, 12 intermediate proficiency pairs (high and low proficiency) participated based on their scores on TOEFL and a hypothetical abstract writing task. The participants were required to write an abstract according to the sub-moves of Hyland's (2000) move analysis provided through three mobile applications including AR-, VR HeadSet virtual reality-, and paper-based scaffoldings for four weeks in a collaborative context. In evaluating the groups' abstract writing scores before and after the treatment, no significant differences were found among the three groups. However, the AR group revealed better mean average results (M = 33) compared to the other VR (M = 24) and paper-based groups (M = 29). Besides, the low intermediate proficiency subjects in the AR group received higher scores (M = 40) compared to heir higher counterpart (M = 37). Results imply that the integration of real and unreal worlds might be a good asset in teaching the genre of abstracts to EFL learners in general and low intermediate proficiency learners in particular.
Saeed Khazaie; Gholam Reza Zarei; Ali Reza Jalilifar
Volume 5, Issue 12 , December 2013, , Pages 63-92
Abstract
This study aimed at providing learners with an opportunity not only to bring together their core and disciplinary knowledge to acquire major skills of learning English as a foreign language (EFL), and the intellectual challenge of these issues at the interface of media, language and religion, but also ...
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This study aimed at providing learners with an opportunity not only to bring together their core and disciplinary knowledge to acquire major skills of learning English as a foreign language (EFL), and the intellectual challenge of these issues at the interface of media, language and religion, but also help the materials generators to produce suitable types of content to be delivered through the medium of mobile technology. Therefore, it sought to examine the new way of teaching EFL in the form of correspondence with respect to Iranian learners' native culture and language. For the purposes of this study, English was the target language for 680 Iranian students with pre-intermediate level of language proficiency whose native languages were Persian, Arabic, Georgian, and Turkish. This study took as its point of departure the existence of important differences between the two learning materials (off the shelf vs. Islamic culture) types; thus, applying the Qur'ānic criteria of intelligence, knowledge and virtue parallel with the digital representation of common textbook materials, materials delivery was adapted to the cellphone screen to be accessed by learners' in 18 virtual sessions. Learners took part in two summative and 18 formative components included in the assessment design of this study. Also, they all answered a questionnaire which yielded information concerning their attitude towards the target language, and learning through the wireless technology. Learners' short texting correspondence as well as their performance in battery and their answers to items of questionnaires formed the reference for analyzing the results. The gains from English Islamic materials were outweighed by the effects of obtaining materials which involved more categorized cases.
