مطالب

Instagram, a widely popular platform, has become an influential tool for teaching and learning English by delivering daily updates of new language content on various Instagram pages and accounts. This study examines the effect of Instagram on learners' motivation to learn English and evaluates its advantages and disadvantages for educational purposes. A mixed-methods approach was utilized, incorporating quantitative data collected through a questionnaire distributed among 100 Iranian EFL learners and qualitative data gathered via semi-structured interviews with five teachers who actively employ Instagram in English instruction. Findings revealed that Instagram significantly boosts learners' motivation, with participants expressing positive views about the platform. Key advantages include its engaging and diverse content, as well as its potential to enhance skills and subskills like speaking and vocabulary. In spite of these benefits, certain drawbacks were identified, such as the presence of distracting non-educational content, limited interaction opportunities, and restrictions in fostering deep learning and comprehensive teaching. The study concludes that Instagram offers notable benefits for English education, particularly in motivating learners and providing varied content. However, to fully benefit from its educational potential, it is important to implement strategies that address the challenges identified. Balancing its strengths and limitations is essential to make Instagram more useful in English language education.

Le persan et le français appartiennent à la famille linguistique indo-européenne. Ces deux langues relèvent bien entendu de branches différentes, le français est classé dans la branche indo-européenne, comprenant les langues romanes et persanes. Dans toutes les langues, les gens utilisent des proverbes dans leur communication quotidienne. Cela fait partie intégrante de la communication. Généralement, la comparaison des différences et des ressemblances entre les langues occupe un rôle primordial dans la linguistique moderne. Le présent travail étudie les schémas-images dans les proverbes français et persan dans le cadre de l’expression des sentiments et des émotions. Notre problématique peut être résumée sous la forme de la question suivante : Quels schémas-images sont utilisés pour exprimer des sentiments et des émotions dans les proverbes français et persans ? Et lesquels sont les plus courants ? Ce qui est au centre de cette recherche est donc de savoir comment les deux langues expriment des sentiments sous formes des schémas-images. L’analyse des résultats prouve que dans les proverbes des deux langues dans le domaine des émotions et des sentiments, différents types de schémas sont utilisés, et la fréquence la plus élevée est liée aux schémas de force et de mouvement.

The present study aimed to examine kinetic units, implicature, and coherence in Persian audio descriptions. To this end, 10 Persian audio-described movies, totaling 1,004 minutes, were analyzed, and their audio descriptions (ADs) were documented, resulting in 3,485 records. These records were filtered for descriptions related to characters’ movements, yielding 2,095 ADs, which were analyzed in three phases. First, the type of kinetic unit in each AD was identified. Second, the implicature of kinetic units was examined to determine whether it was included in the ADs or ignored. The final phase addressed coherence in ADs. The results revealed that gesture was the most frequent kinetic unit in Persian ADs, followed by manner and posture. Moreover, 96% of kinetic units lacked implicature, and only 2.5% of implicatures related to characters’ movements were ignored in audio descriptions, which does not raise serious concerns about accessibility for blind and visually impaired audiences. Regarding coherence, 97% of Persian ADs were found to be coherent, highlighting the substantial accessibility they provide to their target audience. However, accessibility was not solely contingent upon linguistic and pragmatic factors. Technical challenges, such as background music overshadowing ADs, posed additional barriers to media accessibility.

According to Thomas Hobbes, public should and they normally accept what they find in place just because the alternative is destabilization and chaos. In this paper, I will argue that in Farabi’s theory the government actually would put its pace forward. As Farabi saw it, the state not only is the source of some benefits but also should be and is the source of human beings’ virtue and happiness. For Farabi, the first governor of the state resembles the heart in a body, or a physician in a city. Farabi’s utopia literally meaning ‘the excellent state’, consists of five levels. On the first level stands the philosopher or the prophet. The second level includes poets, music composers, writers and the likes of them. Farabi strongly believes in the power of imagination and that most people are under the influence of their imaginative faculty. This notion has an important outcome which influences his view on religion, prophet, and their relation with the public: images, in his view, are the most powerful means of influencing the public.

This study explores the utilization of lexical bundles (LBs) in the reading sections of international English proficiency tests, specifically IELTS and TOEFL, in comparison with Iranian local assessments such as MSRT, TOLIMO, and EPT. The research aims to analyze both the structural and functional categories of these LBs. To facilitate this investigation, two distinct corpora were compiled, consisting of 513,490 tokens from international assessments and 432,252 tokens from local Iranian tests. Utilizing AntConc software for quantitative analysis, the study identified LBs and conducted a qualitative examination of their structural patterns, functional roles, and contextual applications. The findings reveal significant differences between the international and local assessments: 1,030 instances of LBs were identified in the International Corpus (IC), whereas the Local Corpus (LC) contained only 564. Inferential statistical analysis indicated a higher prevalence of discourse organizers and stance bundles in the IC, contrasted with a predominance of referential bundles in the LC. Furthermore, international assessments featured mainly noun-phrase fragments, unlike the Iranian ones that predominantly used prepositional-phrase fragments. Statistical tests, including the Linear-by-Linear Association test (p=0.028) and the Chi-square test (χ²(2)=28.803, p<0.001), confirmed these structural variations, suggesting divergent academic discourse conventions between the corpora. The results underscore the need for revisions in Iranian assessments to align with international standards, potentially enhancing global academic proficiency and fostering greater learner engagement in higher education contexts.