Linguistics & Translation

This study investigated ideological and cultural aspects of literary translation by specifically focusing on the analysis of the textual features of a literary source text, namely, Morier’s Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan, a novel originally published in English in 1823, and its corresponding translated target text, namely, Sargozašt-e ??ji B?b?-ye E?fah?ni, rendered into Persian by Mirza ?abib I?fahani in the 1880s. Employing Halliday’s (1985) systemic functional linguistics (SFL) as well as Venuti’s “domesticating/ foreignizing” dichotomy for the analysis and assessment of translated works, the researchers analyzed the TT by accounting for the sets of constraints within which the expression of ideology and cultural elements take place. In order to indicate the translator’s ideological orientations, the study concentrated on the analysis of a number of textual features, namely, “nominalizations”, “voice shifts”, “modality shifts”, “agency shifts”, “expansions”, “contractions”, and “thematic progressions”. Domestication and foreignization strategies in the translated text have also been investigated to see if the translator had to apply any of the two strategies especially in translating cultural elements. The study finally comes up with the conclusion that the TT has been under the influence of ideological and cultural manipulations by the translator in order to conform to the target culture’s textual and social values.

As Simpson (1993) writes, ideology has been defined as the tacit assumptions, beliefs, and value systems which are shared collectively by social groups. These indications show the influence of translator’s mental frameworks through which he / she translates and interprets the texts. This study investigated ideological aspects of literary translation by specifically focusing on the analysis of the textual features of a literary source text, namely, Morier’s Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan, a novel originally published in English in 1823, and its corresponding translated target text, namely, Sargozašt-e ??ji B?b?-ye E?fah?ni, rendered into Persian by Mirza ?abib I?fahani in the 1880s. Employing Halliday’s (1985) systemic functional linguistics (SFL) for the analysis and assessment of translated works, the researchers analyzed the TT by accounting for the sets of constraints within which the expression of ideology take place. In order to indicate the ideological aspects, the study concentrated on the analysis of a number of textual features, namely, “nominalizations”, “voice shifts”, “modality shifts”, “agency shifts”, and “thematic progressions”. The study finally comes up with the conclusion that the TT has been under the influence of ideological manipulation by the translator in order to conform to the target culture’s textual and social values.

Demotivation, as important concept in psychology, is in fact the dark side of motivation. Research into foreign language learners? demotivation for their weaknesses in translation practice has not been touched by the translation scholars. To this end, the researchers distributed an open-ended questionnaire to 112 students majoring in translation studies at Ghuchan Azad University and Mashhad Imam Reza University. Having categorized the responses, they found that the most commonly cited factors included lack of job (0.24), teaching method (0.20), a boring task (0.12), teacher feedback (0.10), insufficient knowledge of vocabulary (0.8), and lack of group work (0.5). No effect on general English, confusion in translation courses, and lack of concentration were the least commonly mentioned factors. The factors show that students need extrinsic motivation or instrumental motivation to pursue their studies or at least to exert enough effort and perseverance in their courses.

The interference of the first language (Indonesian) in the use of English as a foreign language is a phenomenon of one’s failure in acquiring the language. There may be caused by many factors, of which are linguistic differences of the two languages as well as the mastery of English. This paper discusses the phenomena of grammatical interference shown in the English students’ writings of the two universities in Padang (Indonesia). Syntactical, lexical, and morphological elements of the language are the focus of the study. As a whole, the finding shows that there are grammatical interferences found in the students’ writing. Of the three elements observed, syntactical interference is prominent. Word order as one of the three indicators of syntactical interference appeared in the sentences are likely the most problematic. In the datum If we competent in EFL...., for example, no verb was used. Based on the investigation, it is as the result of the Indonesian way of thinking on the concept being expressed in English. Unlike the concept of V as predicate in English, predicate in Indonesian can be noun, adjective or adverb in addition to verb. As a consequence, the sentence is anomalous. Moreover, the case of lexicon on choice of word in sentences also shows more interference. The word emotion in .... share their emotion .... for example, should be positted by problem. Besides, the utterance also deals with collocation problem, in which share is more commonly collocated with problem. This interference is suspected as the lack of vocabulary mastery. In other words, intertwined factors emerged in the writing. Basically, grammatical interference of the English language faced in students’ writing resulted from the effect of lack competence on English rules and cultural internalization.

This paper analyzed the latest development of ESL teaching and gave a new definition about college English teacher from postmethod’s perspective. Through discussion on difficulties faced by college English teachers, this paper also analyzed the characteristics about college English teachers’ professional development, and gave new thoughts and methods for college English teachers to promote their professionalization.

Abstract The present study was an attempt to investigate the effect of homework writing as an academic extra-curricular activity on second language vocabulary development of upper-intermediate Iranian EFL learners. To do so, having reviewed the related literature thoroughly, the researcher designed the present quasi-experimental study. One hundred homogenized upper intermediate learners (both males and females) in an institute in Tehran, Iran, took part in the study in two groups (experimental and control groups) and the experimental group received separate trainings based on the specific extracurricular activities. The participants received a standard TOEFL PBT as the test of language proficiency as well as the validated pretest of second language vocabulary, the treatment, and posttest of second language vocabulary. Findings of the present study firstly revealed a significant difference between the experimental and control groups’ means on the posttest of vocabulary. Thus it was concluded that homework writing as an academic extra-curricular activity significantly affects second language vocabulary development of Iranian Upper-intermediate EFL learners. The findings also showed no statistically significant difference between the male and female learners concerning their second language vocabulary development affected by homework writing as an academic extra-curricular activity. The present study contributes to the fields of SLA and ELT instruction as its findings are in line with the previous research in the ESL context and some studies done in the EFL context. Also, this research not only could improve our understanding of second language vocabulary development in an EFL context, but also would enable us to incorporate effective methods of teaching vocabulary in the EFL classrooms through considering various homework types. The study findings could be employed by a variety of ELT community members in Iranian schools and language institutes: materials developers, foreign language teachers, and educational policy makers. It was stressed that homework writing could pave the way for the learners in an EFL situation to improve their performance in second language vocabulary.

This essay has attempted to investigate the basic concerns and requirements of blind and visually impaired translators. Following such necessities, the major instruments and technologies designed to fulfil them have also been examined. The researcher has interviewed with two individuals poor in vision, one being a translator and the other having studied translation in the university. Each individual was asked six questions. Their responses to the researcher’s questions were examined to draw conclusions in order to answer the research questions. The most important concern of these translators is the Persian dimension of translation process. Their major requirements include such instruments as accessible computers, high-quality scanners, specific software capable of verbalizing such visual elements as tables, diagrams, figures, etc., accessible dictionaries and databases, and such issues as appropriate financial and occupational status.

The world population is composed of a large number of people heterogeneous in several dimensions such as age, gender, social class, educational level, political and economic status, abilities and disabilities, and so forth. The dimension of abilities and disabilities has led to formation of various groups of individuals including the group of blind people. Translation is one of the professions maintained by many blind individuals resulting in formation of such a sub-group as blind translators. Blind translators, like other translators, perform different translation-related tasks, one of which is ‘diagram translation’, the main focus of this paper. This essay investigates different aspects of diagram translation by blind people. Major ‘accommodations and assistive technologies’ used by blind individuals including screen-readers, speech synthesizers, OCR technology, and Braille devices are the primary points discussed. Basic computerized systems designed exclusively for the purpose of diagram translation by such individuals are the next points covered in this paper. A significant categorization of electronic accessibility devices (based on the media of representation through either haptic or audio) with major innovations in each category are other points mentioned here. The researcher indicates various strong and weak points of these applications and technologies and makes comparisons between them in order to suggest blind translators the best options in accordance with their aims and necessities.

Discourse analysis is a rapidly growing and evolving field. Current research in this field now flows from numerous academic disciplines that are very different from one another. Included, of course, are the disciplines in which models for understanding and methods for analyzing discourse first developed, such as linguistics, anthropology, and philosophy. But also included are disciplines that have applied – and thus often extended – such models and methods to problems within their own academic domains, such as communication, cognitive psychology, social psychology, and artificial intelligence. Given this disciplinary diversity, it is no surprise that the terms “discourse” and “discourse analysis” have different meanings to scholars in different fields. For many, particularly linguists, “discourse” has generally been defined as anything “beyond the sentence.” For others (for example Fasold 1990: 65), the study of discourse is the study of language use. These definitions have in common a focus on specific instances or spates of language. But critical theorists and those influenced by them can speak, for example, of “discourse of power” and “discourses of racism,” where the term “discourses” not only becomes a count noun, but further refers to a broad conglomeration of linguistic and nonlinguistic social practices and ideological assumptions that together construct power or racism. The main objective of this paper is first to give a brief historical account of several of the main lines of development of these different perspectives. Then we will look more closely at the presuppositions about the nature of discursive and communicative research which underlie these different approaches. Finally we will discuss some of the problematical areas which remain in the intersection of discourse analysis and intercultural communication.

In European Union citizens are expected to take responsibility and actions to limit the threat of climate change as well as authorities or corporations. However, while only 36 percent of citizens in Lithuanian take personal action, 75 percent of British do. In light of framing as media effects theory media coverage can be considered as an explanation for different levels of personal contribution. Based on the latter assumption the online news content in Lithuania and the United Kingdom was investigated in terms of attribution of responsibility to citizens, authorities and industry/corporations. The findings showed that the use of the same frames varies by country and political preferences of media. However, the findings were not explicit enough to prove the one directional relationship between media content and individual level behavior, where media is perceived as having power upon individuals. Contrary, the results showed that social problems guide thematic choices of editorials and therefore individuals have impact on media. As a result, findings raised concerns that the notion of framing as an interactive process would more relevant than the assumption of framing as linear process.