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The present study aimed to evaluate pragmatic skill of adult right and left hemispheres damaged Persian speaking patients using the Persian version of the Montreal Protocol for the Evaluation of Communication (M.E.C.). The statistical populations of the study were 10 adults, right and left hemispheres damaged Persian speaking patients due to cerebrovascular accident (CVA). Two sets of tests were used in the present study. The first ones were screening tests included Lateral Preference Inventory (Corn test), Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Persian Diagnostic Aphasia Battery (EQ1). The Performance of patients in protocol subtests were evaluated and compared with each other individually, intragroup and intergroup. Data were analyzed using inferential statistical methods and no meaningful relations were found between them. These findings indicated that damage to the right and left hemispheres of the brain leads to pragmatic impairments. However, damages to the right hemisphere increases the severity of pragmatic impairments more than damages to the left hemisphere.
 

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Well-being includes phenomena such as mental health, life satisfaction, positive attitude and feeling happiness. The present study deals with the relationship between language and well-being and claims that well-being factors are expressed in the words of the language. For example, the happiness factor in a language is reflected by certain words such as happy, happiness and satisfied. The theoretical framework of the present study is ecolinguistics. The method is corpus based. The data is extracted from the research of Secretariat of Emotional Intelligence of Tehran Education in 2017. In this study, the well-being status of 1095 high school students, the first and second period, girls and boys, public and private of District One of Tehran have been evaluated. The students' responses to the question about well-being criteria are the base of the present study. The corpus consists of 1161 words with a frequency of 35,455. The content words associated with the five Well-being factors of engagement (occupation and entertainment), perseverance, optimism, connectedness and happiness were extracted in the framework of the semantic map of Jiaqi Wu et al. (2017), by using top-down method. They were analyzed using Excel and SPSS soft-wares. Some examples of the words that represent the well-being factor of happiness are: “relaxation, facilities, happy, healthy, fun, health, happiness, excellent, pleasant, relaxed, happy, satisfied, faith, satisfaction, enjoyed, happiness, joy, and fun”. The research findings show 6845 words of the corpus (about35.7%) are related to well-being, and there is a significant relationship between well-being factors and produced words

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Language teacher professional identity refers to each individual’s understanding of their identity, helping them prepare for their professional lives and is affected by different factors. This study thus explored the reasons why language teachers chose this profession, their perceptions of the notion of language teacher professional identity (LTPI), the influential factors in the formation or change of professional identity, and the contribution of communities of practice. A 37-item questionnaire along with five open-ended questions was developed and administered to 109 English language teachers studying Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) at Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST). The outcome of the study revealed that language teachers perceived their professional identity mostly related to students, self-knowledge and awareness, and practice into knowledge. They stated that students, context, and disciplinary knowledge could greatly cause constant change in the progression and formation of professional identity. The research could shed more light into the improvement of language teachers’ professional development and teacher education programs.

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Sound substitution is a process whereby a phoneme in a loanword is replaced by its closest phone in the borrowing language. Many English loanwords with consonants /T/, /w/, /k/ and /g/ have been adapted by Persian. None of these consonants exist as a phoneme in Persian. The pronunciation or substitution of these consonants by their closest phone in Persian depends on the phonological environment; the dental /T/ is replaced by [t] and [s] respectively in the onset and coda. The bilabial /w/ is replaced by [v] in the onset. However, since [w] is only used as an intervocalic consonant in Persian, it acts like an intervocalic consonant upon the declusterization of word initial /sw/. Therefore, it is not usually replaced by any consonant in this environment. Finally, the velar consonants /k/ and /g/ either change to palatal [c] and [Š] respectively or do not change at all, due to the phonological environment. This research aimed at explaining each of these sound substitution processes within the framework of optimality theory (Prince and Smolensky, 1993/2004). It presents arguments in favor of constraint rankings which cause the occurances of these processes.

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In semiotics, the denotative relationship is established between the three aspects of the sign, the object, and the interpretation of the same sign, and symbolic processes find endless meanings and this relationship classifies the symbolic, indexical and iconic species. Proverbs are taken from the context of a linguistic community that form multiple meanings and show gender construction. with semiotic studies, the significations of the opposition between man and woman in proverbs can be investigated. In this article, the concept of gender in proverbs of Tati language is investigated with Peirce's semiotic model in order to evaluate and analyze the reflection of their linguistic elements in all kinds of signs. Based on the result, Tati proverbs are mostly in the form of symbolic signs. The highest frequency is objectification and then otherness. The symbolic contrast between male and female gender and the discourse order and hierarchical position of this concept in the form of ideas of superiority/inferiority, value/worthless, human/animal, authoritarianism/weakening, center/periphery, self/other, norm/abnormal, friend/ Enemy and Dominant/Dominant have been classified and conceptualized. This opposition represents the idea of the otherness of the female gender and the superiority of the male gender over it as a dominant discourse. Based on this, the gender structure of this concept can be shaped in relation to the language type of Tat tribes of Northern Khorasan.

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Critical Thinking (CT) which has been defined as the employment of cognitive skills or strategies for obtaining sound conclusions (Halpern, 2013) has been the subject of different Second Language (L2) studies at national and international levels. The aim of the present study was to provide a meta-analysis on the (quasi) experimental studies of critical thinking in second language education in Iran. To this end, from a total of 168 studies published between 2011 and 2020, 24 studies were selected based on the inclusion-exclusion criteria. The included studies were coded to calculate the mean effect size of the studies. The results show that 1) L2 teaching was positively effective for the CT development in Iran; 2) the most beneficial aspects of L2 teaching on CT promotion were related to teaching L2 speaking and L2 rhetorical strategies; 3) concerning L2 proficiency level, L2 instruction was most advantageous for advanced students’ CT developments; 4) regarding the age groups, L2 teaching contributed the most growth in CT levels for learners in the age group of 10-14 years, and 5) L2 teaching was most effective for the undergraduate students compared to other educational levels. The findings can be beneficial for pursuing the next moves in L2 research, education, and planning educational policies in Iran.

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Rhetorical questions are those that, according to time and local condition, have a function, beyond rhe gaining awareness and information. In addition to having an interrogative structure, these sentences imply another meaning as the secondary meaning. But in some cases, according to a special textual context, the existence of one or more weak implicit meaning or meanings between the semantic superstructure in rhetorical questions and main implicit meaning, can be proved and caught. These weak implicit meanings can neither be ignored nor be considered as the main secondary meaning. Based upon that, the problem which is stated in this research is that, with regarding to the possibility of catching such implicit meaning(s) from rhetorical questions , what is the nature and statuse of these additional implicit questions? And assuming acceptance of their existence, whether the production of meaning in rhetorical questions is still instantly? or according to the proposed theory in this research, the production meaning approach in rhetorical questions includes some processes and levels?
The approach of this research is analytic-applied approach and case study in some poems of prominant persian poets that there is a positinal stop in the structure of these poems. The results of this research reveals that , based on the author's prediction, the production of meaning in rhetorical questions has a process approach with three levels, in which, a second meaning layer is produced between superstructure and main implicit meaning (third semantic layer), that can be named as mediator semantic layer.

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Writing assessment literacy(WAL) for second or foreign language (L2) teachers, which refers to teachers’ knowledge, conceptions, and practice of writing assessment in L2 contexts, has lately received attention from scholars. Although there has been significant debate about the impact of contextual and conceptual factors on teachers’ assessment literacy, studies focusing on how such factors influence teachers’ WAL are lacking. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the way Iranian English writing teachers' conception of assessment, and macro, meso, and micro contextual variables impact their writing assessment practice. It also looked at how writing teachers make assessment decisions in order to negotiate and find a compromise when their assessment views and beliefs diverge from the assessment policies in their local contexts. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with ten in-service l2 writing teachers in Iran. The findings show that participants had positive conceptions about formative writing assessments but they stated that they mostly used summative assessment in writing classes. Macro level contextual factors turned out to mostly impacted teachers’ writing assessment practices and conceptions. The results underscored the role of school and work experience in shaping and changing writing assessment conceptions. The findings of this study contribute to our current understanding of WAL development and provision of more efficient assessment training for language teachers in teacher education programs.

 

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Teaching and learning the Arabic language is of particular importance from a religious and legal point of view in Iran. Therefore, it is necessary to always maintain the position of this language both in the domestic and international arenas. The purpose of this article is to present a model for reforming the teaching and learning system of Arabic as a second language, relying on the identification of visible and hidden factors affecting it, as well as identifying the obstacles facing this issue. The basis of data collection was based on qualitative methods and specially conducting structured interviews with 10 professors of sociology of language. The analysis of the collected data has been done using the process of qualitative content analysis. AHP model and Expert Choise software have also been used to weight the research components.
 The results of this article show that the tendency to teach and learn Arabic as a second language is strongly influenced by basic factors such as social, psychological and economic factors. The value of AHP coefficient was obtained for social indicators (0.403), psychological indicators (0.364) and economic indicators (0.234). The results also show that the barriers and bottlenecks in the second language teaching and learning process in Iran were identified and classified in order of importance in six areas: legal barriers, political barriers, structural barriers, social barriers, cultural barriers and economic barriers.

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Some muslim scholars and theologians believe in monotheistic creation, but others believe that Allah The Almighty has inspired monotheism to man after his creation. Aiming to investigate the collection of Mulla Sadra's works on monotheism (tawhid) and its correspondent beliefs, the Topic-based Discourse Analysis Model (See Mazinani, Alizadeh, and Azad, 1397) was applied. The results were categorised in three sections: claims, warrants/topos, and certainty in assertion. Sadra claims that the belief in the monotheism is Man's very nature and a necessity for his existence. He has made most of his claims by refering to Quranic verses and hadiths by their explicit quotation, implication and interpretation. In the maze of this important matter, this philosopher occasionally takes an implicit rational position by denoting the topos such as "benefit", "harm", "fundamental need", "necessity", "fulfillment of treaties", "trustworthiness" "Pressure", and "attribution", which these can also be infered from the quoted verses and hadiths. Of course, such kind of argumentation by Mulla Sadra makes it difficult for non-Muslims and rationalists to accept his claims and theory. In all the data considered, however, an influential decisive declarative tone prevails in the claims so that no words or signs of doubt or any item suggesting Mitigation Strategy were observed. In the same vein, the Intensification Sterategy application was nearly observed in 20% of the data, and the processes of negation and passivization with their specific function were seen in 10% of the data.

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The need to address reading skills in language teaching is important because it is related to the other three skills (listening, speaking and writing) and ultimately affects the main goal of language teaching, which is the ability to create effective communication. Now, given the presence of all mobile phones and laptops, questions arise, to what extent are electronic opportunities included in the educational content of the Russian language in Iran? Аanswering this question, as well as analyzing questionnaires with eleven main questions regarding the inclusion of new technologies, cultural topics, playing with proverbs and other issues raised in the teaching content of the reading lesson, as well as questions about whether such materials are included in the reading textbook or not, we came to the conclusion that there is an acute lack of new technologies and other things in the educational content of reading. Therefore, the authors of this study propose new ideas in the educational content of reading to solve existing problems and improve the educational process of teaching reading in Russian at the undergraduate level.
 

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Pashto language is one of the Iranian languages about which little linguistic research has been conducted. Causation in Pashtu language needs more explanation because this issue is very important, but in Pashto grammar books and linguistics, no attention has been paid to this issue. Therefore, the investigation and research of causation in this language is of particular importance. The purpose of this research is to describe the causative category of Pashto language. the data required for this research is based on the works and speakers of this language based on the research of Dabir Moghaddam (1399). In addition to the description of causation, the research method of this article is based on Pashto language examples that have been transliterated and interpreted. Examples of this text have been selected from hundreds of sentences and analyzed. The important issue is the representation of causative construction in Pashto language, and how it is done. Pashto language is one of subject-object -verb languages and causation exists in this language in the form of morphology and syntax. This research has analyzed the data based on the taxonomy theory. Language causation in Pashto is more complicated than in Persian; because it does not follow a specific principle. In causative conjugation, in addition to (aw) affix, prefixes (pӘ,pӘr) and (war bânde,pre) are used. The rate of generation of auxiliary causatives is higher in Pashto language because it comes with most verbs and makes the verb transitive.
 

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Translated literature almost always involves a degree of manipulation of the source text for a certain purpose. Such manipulations are imposed by the ‘patrons’ who try to regulate the relationship between the literary system and the other systems a society is composed of. Working on this fundamental  broadly-acknowledged assumption about translation, the present study aimed at identifying the concepts which are often manipulated in translated literature published in contemporary Iran. It also attempted to spot the manipulative strategies imposed on translations and the counter-manipulative strategies adopted by translators to sidestep those manipulations. Drawing on the findings of the the so-called ‘Manipulation School’ and Dukāte’s typology of manipulation strategies, it did a comparative analysis of the source texts and translated versions of four American novels recently published in Iran. The codification of the data revealed the frowned upon taboo concepts to be descriptions of, or references to, sexual activity, physical contact between the sexes, human body, extramarital relationships, swear words, prostitution, nudity, homoeroticism, alcoholic drinks and dancing. The most frequent manipulation strategies were 1) deletion of the taboo concepts, 2) substitution of the concepts with totally different concepts, and 3) attenuation of the forbidden words, that is to say, expressing them in a more polite, softer language. Although the manipulation mechanism is most effectively in place, the translators seemed to have occasionally applied creative strategies to evade the imposed manipulations. Such counter-manipulative strategies were classified as legitimization, archaism, use of less familiar words, degenderalization, denunciation and borrowing in this study.  

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This study sheds light on Ben Lovatt's idiosyncratic characterization, cognitive impairment, and peculiar perception of the world through the lens of cognitive and stylistic features such as schema and cognitive theories. It explores Ben's inability to make meaningful sense of the outside world, his failure to activate adequate schemata when necessary, and his foregrounded conceptual metaphor. Exploring Ben's foregrounded linguistic and cognitive patterns reveal that Ben, in many aspects, proves the particular belief in the story that he seems to be on the threshold between humanity and animality or a throwback who belongs to centuries ago. However, despite Ben's human-animal hybridity, the most striking point about the analysis of Ben's mind style is that Ben seems to be beyond the descriptions of other characters and has a particular way of seeing the world, which makes him seem different from others. This difference, eventually, causes his exclusion from the world and his suicide.
 

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This paper deals with the object agreement phenomenon in the transcriptions written in Middle Persian language. This study is a descriptive study and is classified as a library research. The collected data from transcriptions in Middle Persian language namely as Ardā-Virāf-nāmeh, Bundahishn, Dānāk u Mainyo-ī Khard, Dēnkard Book 5, Rivāyat ī Ādurfarrōbay i Farrōkhzādān, and Vizidagiha-ye Zadesparam have been analyzed based on the theoretical background of  Dalrymple and Nikolaeva (2011). The analysis of the collected data showed that in the Middle Persian Language in some cases the verb instead of the subject, agrees with the object of the sentence in number and person features. This phenomenon happens only when the sentence has the transitive verb in the past tense and there is no object agreement for transitive verbs inflected for other tenses. Moreover, the object agreement in the Middle Persian has no relation with the animacy and definiteness characteristics of the object. A comparison between the results of this research and the findings of the Dalrymple and Nikolaeva (2011) shows that object agreement is the Middle Persian is a syntactic phenomenon based on the tenses of the sentence that just occurred when the transitive verb was in the past tense. This phenomenon can show the diachronic changes of the Persian Language for the emergence of the ergative system in the Persian Language.
 

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Grammarly software is one of the most popular software for automatic recognition of grammatical errors in texts translated from Persian to English. The study aims to evaluate the efficiency of Grammarly and propose some suggestions for upgrading the software. To achieve this, a corpus including the English translation of the booklets introducing the works of Resistance-literature was studied. After the grammatical errors were extracted by the researchers (human evaluator), the electronic file of the booklets was provided to the software to detect the errors by Grammarly. Grammatical errors were then categorized and the extracted data were matched by researchers and software. After the qualitative and quantitative analysis of errors and the presentation of the findings, suggestions were made to improve the efficiency of Grammarly. According to the findings, out of 98 cases being specified by Grammarly as errors, 16 of them were not actually errors. In 4 cases (4.9%) Grammarly failed to accurately identify the "type" of error. The weakest grammatical performance of the software occurred in the misdiagnosis of ‘word spelling’ and ‘misuse of masculine and feminine pronouns’. Regarding the efficiency of Grammarly, it was found that the software has an excellent performance with a diagnosis of 82.8% of errors.
 

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Recitation of the Holy Qur’an has its own phonological rules. This paper addresses total nasal place and manner assimilation, known as “idgham”, that lead to “gemination with nasalization” and “gemination without nasalization”. The former which is accompanied by lengthening occurs in the environment where the /n/ in the coda position precedes one of the four sonorants /j/, /m/, /w/, and /n/ in the onset position of the following syllable. However, the latter which is not accompanied by lengthening occurs in the environment where /n/ in the coda position precedes either of the sonorant liquids /r/ or /l/ in the onset position of the following syllable. The present research aimed at identifying the constraints whose interactions cause either of these processes in the recitation of the Holy Qur’an within the framework of optimality theory (Prince and Smolensky, 1993/2004). The results of this paper are as follows: The [+long] geminated [n:.n] is the result of gemination of /n/ in the coda position with /n/ in the onset position. The [+long] geminated [m:.m] is the result of total nasal place assimilation of /n/ in the coda position with /m/ in the onset position. The [-long] geminated [r.r] and [l.l] are the result of total manner assimilation of /n/ in the coda position, respectively with /r/ and /l/ in the onset position. The [+long] geminated [j:.j] and [w:.w] are the result of both total nasal place and manner assimilations of /n/ in the coda position, respectively with /j/ and /w/ in the onset position.