English Language and Literature
Maryam Mirzaei
Abstract
This study explores the use of nicknames among trilingual youth, investigating the influence of identity, culture, language, and attitudes on their propensity to assign nicknames to others. This research is cross-sectional and uses survey research. Results reveal that nicknames mirror the intricacy ...
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This study explores the use of nicknames among trilingual youth, investigating the influence of identity, culture, language, and attitudes on their propensity to assign nicknames to others. This research is cross-sectional and uses survey research. Results reveal that nicknames mirror the intricacy of social relations in a trilingual society. Young people’s attitudes towards others’ titles are predominantly negative, while their views on their own titles are more positive. Physical attributes form the basis for the most common nicknames. In this trilingual village, nicknames are primarily given to incapacitated individuals, those with differing religious beliefs, and those who do not share commonalities with the dominant language (Georgian, the native language of the dominant group) and ethnicity. The dominant language group is more inclined to assign titles. Most titles are based on descriptive phrases rather than verbal, prepositional, or adverbial phrases.
Mohammad Akhgari
Abstract
The advent of radio and the ability to send audio messages to distant parts of the earth have turned this medium into an opportunity for informing and advertising. That is the reason why global media services began to work rapidly, especially during World War II. Translation is the main pillar of the ...
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The advent of radio and the ability to send audio messages to distant parts of the earth have turned this medium into an opportunity for informing and advertising. That is the reason why global media services began to work rapidly, especially during World War II. Translation is the main pillar of the World Service Channels. Radio Pars Today, affiliated with IRIB World Service channels, has been very active in translating various cultural, political and economic texts into 30 languages, especially after the Islamic Revolution. It has however received lesser scholarly attention because it only sends auditory messages. The current case study presents the researcher’s personal accounts and experiences during his presence in Radio Pars Today and analyzes the role and position of translation in intercultural communication and pinpoints the difficulties of cultural translation. The statical population of the research includes Pars Today’s political and cultural programs and the sample was purposefully selected for the analysis. The results show that translation is the main communicative factor in international media services and translating cultural-specific references is of difficulty due to historical and linguistic differences between the languages. Figurative concepts, metaphors and Islamic terms were the main area of difficulty for translation. Choosing wrong translation equivalents, along with using literal translation can prevent the audience from decoding the foreign message. This is also the case of direct transfer of the original structures and genres, which are sometimes unfamiliar to the audience. Therefore, the unit of translation is not “word” or “sentence” but culture, when it comes to cultural translation.
Ali Malmir
Abstract
Foreign Language (L2) teachers’ intercultural communicative competence (ICC) and their awareness and understanding of the intercultural similarities and differences is the key to their professional success. One of the indispensable components of communicative competence, which is highly influenced ...
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Foreign Language (L2) teachers’ intercultural communicative competence (ICC) and their awareness and understanding of the intercultural similarities and differences is the key to their professional success. One of the indispensable components of communicative competence, which is highly influenced by L2 teachers’ ICC and its impact on the classroom practices is considerable, is pragmatic knowledge of the L2 learners. Accordingly, the current investigation has sought to explore the relationship between L2 teachers’ intercultural competence and their students’ knowledge of common English speech acts. Participants were 85 EFL teachers and 610 upper-intermediate to advanced proficiency-level students. The participants had been studying English at language institutes from 3 to 5 years and they had almost completed American File conversation book series. These participants were selected based on the results of a Michigan Language Proficiency Test. First, the teachers filled out Jaou’s (2011) ICC questionnaire. Then, Tajeddin and Malmir’s (2015) multiple-choice test of frequent English speech acts was administered to the students. Data analysis using multiple regression revealed that all four components of teachers’ ICC were significant predictors of their students’ speech-act knowledge. Intercultural skills were the strongest predictor followed by intercultural knowledge as a mediocre predictor. However, intercultural attitudes and awareness were poor predictors of speech-act knowledge. These findings imply that L2 teachers can enhance their learners’ pragmatic knowledge regarding common speech acts by increasing their own intercultural communicative competence.
Ali Derakhshan
Abstract
The interconnectedness of language and culture has attracted the attention of scholars in philosophy, sociology, anthropology, linguistics, and applied linguistics. In this regard, inspired by the ideas of Halliday (1975, 1994), Vygotsky (1978, 1986), and Sapir and Whorf (1956), which imply the relationship ...
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The interconnectedness of language and culture has attracted the attention of scholars in philosophy, sociology, anthropology, linguistics, and applied linguistics. In this regard, inspired by the ideas of Halliday (1975, 1994), Vygotsky (1978, 1986), and Sapir and Whorf (1956), which imply the relationship among culture, thought, and language, Pishghadam (2013) introduced the concept of “Cultuling”. He postulated that investigating and identifying the cultulings of each society not only can pave the way for the faster detection of right and wrong cultural behaviors but also can facilitate the cultural reforms which lead to linguistic excellence and “Euculturing”. Due to the prime importance of identifying and investigating cultulings, several studies have analyzed them; nonetheless, no systematic research has been conducted to synthesize the cultuling studies. Therefore, in the present study, the theoretical frameworks, the corpora, and the findings of all cultuling studies were scrutinized. The results suggest that the majority of cultuling studies have embarked on the data by reviewing the linguistic structures and expressions that occur in natural situations and have used the Hymes’s (1967) SPEAKING model to analyze these expressions. The findings also indicate that few studies have analyzed textual cultulings. Moreover, no empirical study has been conducted to evaluate textbooks based on cultulings. Finally, based on the results and findings of this review, some avenues for future studies are provided.
Masoumeh Mehrbi; Behrooz Mahmoodi Bakhtiari
Abstract
Given the significance of cultural considerations and cultural categories in determining appropriate translation equivalents, this paper discusses the cultuling of ‘insult’ based on Iraj Pezeshkzad’s My Uncle Napoleon translated by Dick Davis into English and the original Persian version ...
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Given the significance of cultural considerations and cultural categories in determining appropriate translation equivalents, this paper discusses the cultuling of ‘insult’ based on Iraj Pezeshkzad’s My Uncle Napoleon translated by Dick Davis into English and the original Persian version of the novel where there can be found so many linguistic segments containing or conveying insulting connotations. Cultuling refers to those pieces of language which are the manifestation of cultural concepts since language is the representation of culture, and it is also bounded by culture. The investigation of insults just like cursing and swearing are common issues in language and culture, especially when considered in two languages. That is the real motive for conducting the present inquiry, and more importantly, perfect translation needs cultural knowledge. As for the research methodology, Del Hymes’s (1967) SPEAKING model as a discourse/ qualitative method as well as frequency effects as the quantitative method were employed. Applying this methodology, the speakers’ motivation for the use of insults is found in this culture. Moreover, the cultural differences leading to and manifested in linguistic differences are discussed. Meanwhile, strategies for appropriate equivalents were laid out. The results are of use and value for the entrenchment of the cognitive-cultural views of translation studies as well as socio-cultural studies of linguistic issues. The data analysis shows that these insults form around the pivotal centers of animals, body part, human characteristics, personality traits, human behavior, dignity, honor, reputation, originality and dependence to family. The results show that sexual(nāmūsi) insults are more frequent for which the cultural explanations were offered.
Hassan Soodmand Afshar; Alireza Sohrabi
Abstract
This study critically evaluated the newly published Iranian twelfth-grade English textbook, Vision 3, with a focus on ‘rights analysis’ and ‘culture’ adopting a mixed-methods design. To this end, 200 Iranian school English teachers and 200 twelfth-grade students were selected ...
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This study critically evaluated the newly published Iranian twelfth-grade English textbook, Vision 3, with a focus on ‘rights analysis’ and ‘culture’ adopting a mixed-methods design. To this end, 200 Iranian school English teachers and 200 twelfth-grade students were selected nation-wide from various Iranian high schools based on convenience sampling. The participants (both male and female) completed a validated 56-item researcher-made questionnaire both online and in the paper format. Moreover, 15 teachers and 15 students, whose informed consent was obtained, attended a semi-structured interview voluntarily. The participants’ rights and needs as well as the cultural aspects of the book were also analyzed subjectively by the researchers. The results of the descriptive statistics of the questionnaire and the content analysis of the interviews showed that despite the authors’ claim that the book enjoyed a mainly communicative approach in its design and preparation, the Vision 3 package has serious shortcomings, including failure to take into account the students’ needs, the negligence of the rights of the teachers and students in the process of designing and compiling the book, following a producer-consumer attitude in developing the materials, ignoring the equal distribution of power, and pursuing an extreme localization and Iranianization of the target language culture. Therefore, it is recommended that policymakers consider both teachers and students’ viewpoints to overcome these drawbacks in future editions of the book.
Saba Hasanzadeh; Elaheh Sotoudehnama; Seyyedeh Fahimeh Parsaiyan
Abstract
The aim of the current study is to investigate if teaching English as a foreign language makes learners lose or decrease their home cultural values, or it helps them enrich their cultural values. This mixed-methods study was conducted in two different contexts, University and Language Institute ...
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The aim of the current study is to investigate if teaching English as a foreign language makes learners lose or decrease their home cultural values, or it helps them enrich their cultural values. This mixed-methods study was conducted in two different contexts, University and Language Institute in Gorgan, Iran. For this purpose, a questionnaire of Home Culture Attachment Scale was given to 50 English language university students and 50 language learners of the institute. Moreover, a semi-structured interview was conducted with 10 participants from each group. Data collected from the quantitative and qualitative stages were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance and thematic analysis, respectively. The findings of the quantitative stage show significant differences between university students and learners of the institute in terms of religious, Western and Iranian attachment. In addition, six themes were identified in the qualitative section, including identity, definition of culture, Iranian attachment, religious attachment, Western attachment and artistic attachment. This study shows that those who deal with English is at risk of losing or decreasing their home cultural values, and teachers in particular need to be more aware of this crucial matter.
Naser Nouri; Abbas Ali Zarei; Rajab Esfandiari
Abstract
This study examines the level of familiarity with instances of plagiarism among postgraduate students of English language programs at Iranian universities and its relationship with religiosity. The paucity of research on the relationship between culture and religiosity, and plagiarism in Iran justifies ...
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This study examines the level of familiarity with instances of plagiarism among postgraduate students of English language programs at Iranian universities and its relationship with religiosity. The paucity of research on the relationship between culture and religiosity, and plagiarism in Iran justifies this study. Participants included 173 MA and PhD students in English language teaching, English literature, and English translation selected through convenience sampling. The participants voluntarily agreed to respond to the researcher-made questionnaire. The findings showed that the rate of familiarity with various instances of plagiarism among students is high. The two-way analysis of variance showed that religiosity does not make a significant difference in the degree of familiarity and perception of the seriousness of the various instances of plagiarism between male and female students. In addition, the effect of religion on familiarity with plagiarism was not significantly different between MA and PhD students. These findings can have theoretical and practical implications for postgraduate English language learners, academicians, and researchers.
Elnaz Pakar; Masood Khoshsaligheh; Zahra Khozaei Ravari
Abstract
The present article investigated the themes and topics, which were deemed unsuitable to the Iranian society, in an American film series The Godfather, which has been broadcast on Iranian mainstream Television several times. This series contains many controversial issues such as love, violence, religion, ...
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The present article investigated the themes and topics, which were deemed unsuitable to the Iranian society, in an American film series The Godfather, which has been broadcast on Iranian mainstream Television several times. This series contains many controversial issues such as love, violence, religion, and politics that have undergone heavy censorship in order to adhere to the target ideological and cultural norms. The film is however the greatest films of all time. A comparative study of the original and dubbed versions revealed that discrepancies between the two were at visual, content, and auditory levels, and at each level, numerous instances of religious, political, and moral appropriations were detected and classified. For example, scenes or dialogues that promote Christianity and American values, or contain illegitimate relationships, sexuality, violence, dancing, singing, women’s smoking, women’s inappropriate clothes, and alcoholic beverages were eradicated or concealed through substitution strategies. Then, five interviews were conducted with outstanding dubbing artists and dubbing directors to see if they confirm the findings as recurrent censorship themes in Persian official dubbing and to ask why this series was broadcast with such heavy censorship.
Binazir Khajepoor; Ali Khazaee Farid; Masood Khoshsaligheh
Abstract
1. IntroductionThis study investigates the relationship between culture and translation. The concept of Culture Repertoire advocated by Even-Zohar was used as the framework of the study, and the English translation of the Persian novel My Uncle Napoleon was selected as the case study. This novel as the ...
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1. IntroductionThis study investigates the relationship between culture and translation. The concept of Culture Repertoire advocated by Even-Zohar was used as the framework of the study, and the English translation of the Persian novel My Uncle Napoleon was selected as the case study. This novel as the corpus under investigation contains over 230,000 words in 462 pages. Given the focus and attention the book has received, it is an appropriate case for investigating the Iranian culture as it is obviously rich with symbols representing the local culture. The theoretical framework elaborates on the root and the origin of Culture Repertoire by drawing on the Jacobsen’s linguistic model. In addition, the concept of Culture Repertoire as a part of Even-Zohar’ cultural conception is delineated with examples and clarifying explanations.2. MethodologyThis descriptive study is an attempt to address two questions. First, it explores the categories of Iranian culture repertoremes and secondly the attitude of the Iranian translators towards them. To explore the fixed expressions in Persian language, a number of specialized websites in Persian poetry, the Holy Quran, and a number of major religious-literary texts were reviewed. In addition to these sources, some software programs for literary and religious texts were also benefitted. To obtain the translated English phrases, the Coca Corpus, which is the largest available English corpus was used in addition to Webster’s Big Dictionary. But to collect the data from the original text and the translated one, taking notes was benefited. Due to the qualitative nature of the study, purposive sampling technique was used for forming the sample and later grounded theory procedures were employed to analyze the data. That is, the culture repertoremes in the source text along with their translations were extracted, and then using grounded theory, the Iranian cultural repertoire diagram was plotted. More specifically, each repertoreme, depending on the type, got a label and the given labels were in the same category, and the resulting chart thus was formed from the bottom up. For example, the label ‘religious proper names’ including items like Imam Reza and the label ‘historic proper names’ including items such as Muhammad Ali Shah were placed under the general subsidiary label ‘proper names’.3. DiscussionThe achieved diagram comprises two main branches of material and semiotic repertoremes at the highest level which is consistent with the Even-Zohar’s conceptualization. Material items included repertoremes from which the materials are formed such as certain types of food in different cultures, or conventional clothing items such as the repertoreme Charghad in the Iranian culture. Semiotic repertoremes consist of items which hearing, reading, expressing, or using them strike an idea in the mind of the people of a particular culture whereas the people of other cultures are not reminded of anything. For example, a location-related proper name label such as Ahwaz has special connotations and indications with itself for the Iranian people—the concepts of the south, heat, war, etc. But for someone who was born and raised in London, for example, Ahwaz does not stimulate anything in particular because that person draws on a different cultural repertoire. In the branch of semiotic repertoremes, all fixed expressions, innuendos, proverbs and collocations which are frequently used in Persian colloquial conversations, are accounted as Iranian culture repertoremes. Examples in Persian language could include the collocation spoon and fork, the equivalents of which in English is knife and fork. Such collocations in each of these languages have been created, formed and fixed based on the eating traditions in those cultures. Thus, fixed expressions in languages are considered as culture repertoremes. In the Poly-system theory advocated by Even-Zohar, human social life consists of different systems that overlap. Naturally in the cultural system, some components are found from the religious and literary systems.4. ConclusionAfter the achieved classification, the data were analyzed by reviewing the English translation of these Persian repertoremes. The translator of the novel had used the strategies of addition, transcription, familiarization, exclusion, expansion and neutralization. The descriptive information including frequency and percentage of the repertoremes, groups and their translation strategies are calculated and presented. Moreover, the strategy groups are compared and contrasted. The overall strategy is also illustrated in a diagram for further clarity. The findings reveal that the translator’s most frequently used strategies in terms of the Persian culture repertoremes are neutralization and familiarization strategy, respectively.
Elham Naji Meidani; Reza Pishghadam; Behzad Ghonsooly; Azar Hosseini Fatemi
Abstract
1. IntroductionIn our age of speed and communication, time plays an important role in all dimensions of our lives. Globalization, which has brought about intensity of human relations, has raised the value of time. Time is a complex concept which has developed a specific meaning in every culture and society. ...
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1. IntroductionIn our age of speed and communication, time plays an important role in all dimensions of our lives. Globalization, which has brought about intensity of human relations, has raised the value of time. Time is a complex concept which has developed a specific meaning in every culture and society. People's conceptions about time have such high significance that some perceive them as the type of culture those people live in. Levine (1997) contended that a culture’s basic value system can be reflected in its norms and beliefs about time; thereby time is considered a social construct. English language teachers and learners deal with English culture, in which time is highly valued. Using Bourdieu's (1984) terms, they are in a "field" in which time and punctuality are important, and which being punctual can turn into a "habitus". Therefore, it is assumed that because of their familiarity with English culture, these two groups may have different conceptions towards time and a critical view towards how time is managed in the Iranian society and the educational system.2. MethodologyTo collect the required data, face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted in Persian. The interviews were all conducted in language institutes. The number of participants was not set a priori and with 8 language teachers and 10 language learners saturation point was gained. The language teachers and learners were all teaching and learning at English language institutes in Mashhad, respectively. A set of eight questions was designed regarding the participants' sociological conceptions of time. The first five items were broad, general questions, and the researcher added complementary questions in the course of the interview. The last three questions consisted of three hypothesized scenarios based on White, Valk, and Dialmy's (2011) study, in which the interviewees were asked how late each person in the scenario can come late. The social relationships in three situations were designed based on Scollon and Scollon (2001). Therefore, three relationships were taken into account: deference, solidarity, and hierarchy.3. ResultsOverall, the findings revealed that both teachers and learners are dissatisfied with time management in the educational system and everyday culture and they themselves have not been influenced by English culture's punctuality. The themes extracted from the interviews were the following: lack of adequate attention to time in the educational system, high potentiality for waste of time in language classes, a passive attitude towards time in Iranian culture and society, having the right to be late based on social relationships, thinking about the future and not the present, and not being influenced by western culture's punctuality.4. DiscussionDue to their particular characteristics, English language classes have a different environment from other classes. Examples of these characteristics include: discussing various topics, doing group work, and having a friendly and fun environment (see Pishghadam, Zabihi, & Shayesteh, 2015). The aforementioned features increase the level of subjectivity in English language teaching (ELT) classes and learners try to present their ideas and opinions. They certainly do have many advantages for learners and can increase their creativity, emotional intelligence, willingness to communicate, and social skills. However, if management is not properly done, these positive points can lead to a waste of time in the classroom. Some learners' over talking lead to feelings of dissatisfaction in the others and decreases the efficiency of the class. The other issue mentioned in the interviews was error correction. What seems important is that error correction should not take up too much of classtime. A particular aspect of English language classes is the comparison of learners' home culture with the target culture. Unfortunately, past research has revealed that this point often brings about deculturaltion in learners and even teachers (Pishghadam & Navari, 2009; Pishghadam & Saboori, 2011; Rahimi, 2011; Shahasavandi, Ghonsooly, & Kamyabi, 2010). It appears that learners and teachers pay attention to the negative aspects of Western culture and become influenced by it, but they do not show much interest in the positive aspects, such as punctuality and time management. The results revealed that in two types of relationship lateness was considered acceptable, namely, solidarity and hierarchy. In case of solidarity, the close relationship that exists between the two sides allows for the tolerance of unpunctuality. This can be explained by the fact the Iran is a high-context culture (Hofstede, 1986). Similarly, the hierarchical context allows for acceptance of unpunctuality of the superior by the inferiors. A contradiction found in the results is that although the interviewees showed dissatisfaction towards the delay of instructors in appointments, when they were put in the hypothetical scenario and asked about how late a university instructor can come, they mentioned long periods. This point demonstrates that in our society, the cultural aspect can be more favored that the moral or reasonable aspect. As the findings of the interviews revealed, the basis of inadequate attention to time is culture. Time is an important concept in the field of language learning with many applications. Since learning English has become a necessity nowadays, there is a need for speed in learning to reach the required credits as soon as possible. Therefore, more research should be done in line with this study.
Fatemeh Heidary; Ali Alizadeh
Abstract
Since different cultures have different discourses, it is not possible to pour the discourse in another discourse mold (format) without any trouble or any manipulation. This adjustment or manipulation leads to domestication. Toury and Venuti believe that the superior language imposes its features to ...
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Since different cultures have different discourses, it is not possible to pour the discourse in another discourse mold (format) without any trouble or any manipulation. This adjustment or manipulation leads to domestication. Toury and Venuti believe that the superior language imposes its features to the inferior language. In other words, the other languages approximate themselves to the English but this process is reversed in the translation from English to other languages. This paper shows that this matter is not a general rule.After the comparison of “The Scarlet Letter” written by Nathaniel Howthorne with its translation by Simin Daneshvar as "داغ ننگ", it will be revealed that the translator has tried to standardize and to domesticate the text in an artistic manner, in fact she has prevented the cultural and linguistic interference
Reza Pishghadam; Fatemeh Vahidnia; Ailin Firoozian Pooresfahani
Abstract
Considering the reciprocal relationship between culture and language and the fact that culture finds its reflection in the language people employ, we can understand the society’s world-view through culturology of language.Hence, the current research is about to dissect and analyze the speech act ...
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Considering the reciprocal relationship between culture and language and the fact that culture finds its reflection in the language people employ, we can understand the society’s world-view through culturology of language.Hence, the current research is about to dissect and analyze the speech act of cursing in Persian and English languages. To this end, 200 movies (100 English movies and 100 Persian movies) were watched, cursing phrases were transcribed, and then scrutinized. The collected data was analyzed based on Hymes’ (1967) model of SPEAKING. The findings of this study revealed that Iranians utter curses to express anger, whereas English people mouth swear words on the same occasions. Furthermore, based on the obtained results, it was found out that females employ curses more frequently than males do.In the end, people’s intentions of cursing were examined and categorized into ten groups.
