ندا فاتحی راد

This study sought to investigate translation strategies in translation of culture-specific items (CSIs) in Persian translation of ‘The Egyptian’ novel by Mika Waltari. To this end, it benefited from corpus-based comparative content analysis design within a qualitative approach. The corpus of this study consisted of 150 pages of the novel ‘The Egyptian’ by Mika Waltari along with their Persian translations by Zabihollah Mansouri, which were selected through simple random sampling. Data analysis included parallel comparison of the source text and its translation in terms of the occurrence of different types of translation strategies used in the translations. Furthermore, statistical procedures which were conducted consisted of calculation of frequency and percentage of different translation strategies (to identify the most and least frequent strategies) and chi-square test (to see if there is a significant difference between the frequencies of different strategies used by the translator). The results of data analysis showed that the translator has used the following translation strategies: Calque, equivalence, adaptation, literal translation, modulation and omission. Moreover, it was found that the most frequent strategy was calque. Furthermore, the lowest frequency belonged to modulation and omission. In addition, a significant difference was revealed between the frequencies of different translation strategies. The findings have some implications for translation students, translation teachers, and translators.

This paper aimed to critically look at team teaching tactics and the role it plays in achieving teaching and learning effectiveness. Specifically, using psychological counseling procedures, this study examined the benefits this learner-centered attitude brings to the student teachers and students, and also discussed different possible issues that may arise. To this purpose, a mix-methods design which comprised pretest, posttest, questionnaires, and interview was utilized to collect the necessary data. 52 Iranian high school EFL students were selected through purposive sampling and divided into a Control Group (CG) and an Experimental Group (EG). Also, two English language teachers, and a teacher as counselor were purposively selected to participate in team teaching procedure. The control group was taught through traditional methods of language teaching and the experimental group was taught through team teaching procedures. The posttest results showed that there were significant differences in favour of the experimental group between the two groups in terms of their oral proficiency.Also, the results obtained from the questionnaires revealed that that there were significant differences in the participants’ outlook towards using team teaching methods in the language class. It was further found that there was a very strong evidence of partnership between team teaching plus counseling practice and inherent academic motivation as well as between team teaching and counseling procedure. The findings of the study are valuable for English language instructors, materials developers, program planners, and education administrators.

This study aimed at investigating the Persian human and machine (Google) renderings of The Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseini, through comparing and contrasting culture specific items (CSI) as well as the exploited translation strategies. Thus, the relevant problematic forms of the cultural differences were identified and the procedures suggested by Newmark (1988) were examined to see how they fit into the translation of cultural differences in English and Persian. The results of this qualitative study revealed that Literal Translation, Naturalization and Transposition strategies were used most frequently in both human and machine translations. However, machine translation could not present a comprehensible translation due to overuse of these strategies (75%). It was also revealed that the spirit of source text was kept intact in both renderings due to closeness of Iranian and Afghan cultures. It was further discovered that the human translated version carried the real beauty and creativities of the original work. In facty, the terms that were transformed and localized were able to carry over the flavor of the author’s work. Finally, it was shown that the regretful theme of the source text was reserved to a great extent in the human rendering of the novel, while machine translation failed to get it. Generally-speaking, based on the findings of this study, culture-specific terms make it difficult for machines to achieve complete word-for-word equivalence, and at the same time, human translator must have a broad knowledge of the literature and traditions of both the source and target languages to come up with a faithful translation in terms of both form and content.

Determining a qualified teaching method in writing has always been a controversial issue as a multitude of researchers have debated its effectiveness in improving Learners’ accuracy in writing. This study examines the background of this debate and looked at previous major studies on this issue. Due to the limitations and pitfalls of sheltered and reciprocal teaching procedures, this study was to inquire whether the integration of reciprocal and sheltered teaching approaches would influence students’ performance in writing and find out if the approach could impress the learners’ self-efficacy as well. Three groups of pre-intermediate EFL students took part in this research. 68 male and female participants in one experimental and two control groups established the subjects of the study. The experimental group worked on the integration of reciprocal and sheltered approaches in writing and self-efficacy. The results reveal the positive effect of integration of reciprocal and sheltered approaches on the writing performance of the subjects in the EG. Moreover, the selected procedures could lead to learners’ self-efficacy development. Finally, the achievements of this study contributed to an understanding of the type of teaching approach which is most appropriate for pre-intermediate students.

Purpose: In participatory approach to second language teaching and learning, students actively engage in their own learning process and collaborate with others (Cobb, 1994; Greeno, 1998) to achieve their goals. Also, collaborative learning has been shown to encourage the growth of student interdependence (Bruffee, 1999), responsibility (Totten, Sills, Digby, & Russ, 1991), interpersonal skills (Rymes, 1997), and cognitive and critical thinking skills (Johnson & Johnson, 1986). Methodology: Adopting a sociocultural perspective, the present study has attempted to explore the attitude of teachers and learners toward the effectiveness of the method. In so doing, 60 Iranian EFL learners from two intact classes participated in the study, in which the learners from the two classes were randomly assigned to one control group and one experimental group. For fourteen sessions, the researcher in the control group class followed her regular teaching practice through the conventional book-based method of conducting an English class. In the experimental group class, however, the researcher adopted the participatory approach tasks and activities, in which she applied various participatory approach-based techniques, activities, role play, and problem solving activities, group work and collaborative tasks in the classroom instruction. Findings: Results of the comparison of the effects of the experimental participatory group and the control conventional group revealed that although the students in both groups improved their scores on the IELTS posttest, there was no statistically significant difference between the experimental group’s overall performance and that of the control group. Conclusion: Results of the interview with the students and teachers also revealed that both the students and the teachers had positive attitudes towards implementing the participatory approach and they were willing to use at least some of the tasks and activities in their future courses.

The structure of socio-culture encouraged the following study to investigate the ways participation in collaborative learning tasks can have an effect on the overall English proficiency of EFL students’ academic achievement. The learners’ engagement in learning and collaboration with others for achieving their goals often happen in participatory approach to second language teaching and learning (Cobb, 1994; Greeno, 1998). In a same way, collaborative learning plays a good role in increasing learners’ interdependence (Bruffee, 1999), responsibility (Totten, Sills, Digby, & Russ, 1991), interpersonal skills (Rymes, 1997), and cognitive and critical thinking skills (Johnson & Johnson, 1986). Therefore, both the control and study group were randomly selected from 60 Iranian EFL learners of two intact classes. The first group which was the control group was exposed to regular teaching process through the conventional book-based method. While, in experimental group activities such as role play, problem solving, group work and collaborative tasks in the classroom instruction were mostly used. Accordingly, scores on the IELTS posttest in both groups improved but, the statistics of their overall performance showed that there is no significant difference. However, separate skills on the IELTS exam needed some analyses the result of which contended that the scores of experimental group on the speaking skill was significantly higher. Clearly, the scores on the vocabulary and grammar posttest in experimental group were significantly higher. In conclusion, higher mean scores indicate that EFL learners’ vocabulary and grammar learning will be facilitated through both participatory approach and collaborative activities. In fact, the more interactions among learners in classroom activities are used, improvement of speaking skills can be encouraged. As the results of the students’ and teachers’ interview revealed, both students and teachers’ attitudes towards participatory approach were positive and were also highly inclined to receive such tasks and activities in future