راضیه ربانی یکتا

A narrative monologue skill is required in learning English. Delivering a monologue is a challenging skill for most of the EFL students since it is difficult for them to utilize their lexical and grammatical knowledge. This study investigates the effects of narrative sequential images on the Iranian intermediate EFL students’ monologue skill. To this end, the study was conducted in two intact classes (one as the experimental group and the other as the control group) of 32 students within 2 months in a high school in Isfahan. To select homogenous participants, Oxford Placement Test and Oral Proficiency Interview were administered. A monologue pre-test was used at the beginning of the study. And the specific treatment was administered to the experimental group. Then, a parallel post-test was conducted. Based on the results, there was a significant difference in the scores of the experimental group in all aspects of fluency, coherence, lexical resources, grammar and accuracy, and pronunciation in using narrative sequential images before and after treatment. In other words, experimental group performed better on the four subscales of monologue skill than did the control group. Results, also, suggested that teachers use sequential images as a part of their instruction to help students develop their monologue skill.

Considering globalization, advertisement translation has turned into an important issue in the field of translation studies, yet it is a rather difficult and challenging job for translators to overcome cultural, social, and ideological differences present in advertisements. With regards to this fact, the present study is designed with the aim of investigating advertisement translation from the perspective of Relevance Theory, an uprising pragmatic theory that provides a unified account of translation. For this purpose, a sample of 10 English advertising slogans, along with their Persian translations were selected from among the slogans available on the Internet. The collected sample was analyzed critically on the grounds of Relevance Theory’s concepts and principles, proposed by Sperber and Wilson (1995). In the process of analyzing the data, Gutt’s (2000) theory of translation, which is based on the application of Relevance Theory to translation, was also brought into focus. Hence, the translators’ choices were justified based on the main tenets of Relevance Theory, and it was observed that in most of the examples, the translations adhered to the principles of Relevance Theory; in Gutt’s terms, the translated slogans interpretively resembled the originals. So, most of the translations were successful advertisements in appealing to the target audience. The findings of the present study gave evidence for the fact that Relevance Theory can be an appropriate approach for evaluating translations, especially in the realm of advertisement translation.

Researchers stated that learning and applying certain set of lexical bundles of native lecturers by non-native lecturers would help students improve their proficiency through incidental vocabulary input. The present study shed light on the lexical bundles in hard science lectures used by Native and Non-native lecturers in international universities with the main purpose of analyzing the structural and functional similarities and differences in their usage. The secondary purpose was to finalize and present a list of explored lexical bundles employed by Native lecturers in these lectures which could be helpful for students and also Non-Native lecturers. The corpus of this study consists of five and a half hours of three different native university lecturers’ lectures and about five and a half hours of three different non-native university lecturers’ lectures who were teaching hard science (nuclear physics and electronic engineering). The data were analyzed using n-gram tool in lextutor.ca website which is a free online software to analyze the lexical bundles of more than two corpora and compare them. Functional and structural analysis gave the following results. Findings showed that lexical richness of both Native and Non-Native lecturers was not good enough to expose students to rich environments to help them improve their English proficiency. In light of structural classification, the results revealed that dependent clause fragments in addition to verb structure phrases were the most widespread and Noun phrase + of-phrase fragments were the least employed structures of the identified lexical bundles in the lectures of Non-Native and Native lecturers. In terms of structural analysis, it was concluded that stance bundles were the most frequent function bundles used by both groups. Therefore, there were both similarities and differences in the structural and functional classifications of lexical bundles in the lectures of native and non-native lecturers.

This study examines the effect of video recording in Google Drive as the self-assessing E-portfolio on high school EFL learners’ speaking fluency. To that end, a quasi-experimental comparison group research was implemented in which thirty Iranian high school EFL students were assigned either to e-portfolio or comparison groups. While the e-portfolio group assessed their own performance by keeping electronic portfolios in Google Drive, their counterparts in the comparison group presented their performance in the class. The students’ speaking fluency was assessed through both pre- and post-tests. A speaking rubric was used to get the students’ scores. The results of the independent sample t test showed that taking advantage of self-assessment through video-based e-portfolios improved the learners’ speaking fluency. The study had relevant implications for both material designers and language teachers not only to promote student speaking skills, but also to enhance students’ lifelong learning.

Teaching grammar to EFL students has always been a challenge for EFL teachers. Many studies have acknowledged the role of using mobile apps to remove this problem. Therefore, the present study was conducted to see if the use of English Grammar Ultimate Software app can enhance the use of verb tenses by Iranian intermediate students. To this end, thirty-two students participated in this study based on their performance in a Quick Oxford Placement Test. They were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Each group consisted of 16 learners. Then a test of grammar was administered to two groups as the pre-test to assess their knowledge of simple present, simple past, present continuous, past continuous, and simple future tenses and ensure their homogeneity. Learners in the control group were taught these tenses through traditional language classrooms and received no extra treatment at all. However, learners in the experimental group were taught those tenses through English Grammar Ultimate Software app. Finally, in order to measure the effect of the treatment, a posttest was given to both groups. The results of the comparison between and within groups showed that the participants who had benefited from mobile-assisted learning had a significantly better performance on the post-test than the participants in the control group. The findings of the present study can have implications for material developers and EFL language teachers teaching grammar.