Investigating the Representation of Multiple Intelligences Theory in TPSOL Textbooks

Vol. 6  Issue 2
Year:2016
Issue:Apr-Jun
Title:Investigating the Representation of Multiple Intelligences Theory in TPSOL Textbooks
Author Name:Saman Ebadi and Maryam Beigzadeh
Synopsis:
As the main applicable language resources in classrooms, textbooks provide the primary source of information, and they serve the foundation of instruction and transfer the curriculum objectives. Therefore, teachers should be conscious in choosing the right textbooks and activities for their students. The purpose of this study is to investigate one series of commonly used TPSOL textbooks in light of Multiple Intelligences Theory. Three Textbooks of Farsi Biyamuzim series were analyzed using a MI checklist developed by the present researchers based on the review of the related literature and frameworks of the theory. Careful analysis of the activities revealed that textbooks mostly catered for verbal/linguistic, visual/spatial, logical/mathematical, and interpersonal intelligences. The least dominant intelligence were intrapersonal, musical, and naturalist intelligence types and no example of the bodily/kinesthetic intelligence was observed in the analyzed textbooks' activities. In addition, the results of the study did not show any significant effect of proficiency level on application of intelligence types in textbooks. The findings of the study suggest the administrators and material developers to consider the necessity of applying various intelligence types in designing TPSOL textbooks.

Insight Of Teachers On Problems Of Students In Acquiring Communicative Skill In English

Vol. 6  Issue 2
Year:2016
Issue:Apr-Jun
Title:Insight Of Teachers On Problems Of Students In Acquiring Communicative Skill In English
Author Name:G. Singaravelu and M. Paramasivam
Synopsis:
The study examined the insight of English Teacher towards students of standard XI in acquiring communicative skill in English. The main objective of the paper was to identify the problems of the students in acquiring communicative skill in English. The Normative survey method was adopted in the study. One hundred teachers were considered as a sample for the study. Problem inventory for the teacher was selected as a tool for the study. After establishing Reliability and validity of the tool, it was considered for the final study. Findings of the study is a significant association between the Male and Female teachers on the opinion of problems of the learners in Listening skill with respect to stress pattern, cohesive device, Distinctive sound, Intonation, Contextual meaning and Homophones. Communicative skill can be practiced in the classroom transaction by using role play, pandemonium, discussion, interaction, translated version of Tamil cinema, etc. Written communicative skill can be developed by conducting essay competition, preparing advertisement, preparing projects, etc.

English language publishing in Chemical Engineering Journals from an Indian academic’s point of view - a broad scientific perspective

Vol. 6  Issue 2
Year:2016
Issue:Apr-Jun
Title:English language publishing in Chemical Engineering Journals from an Indian academic’s point of view - a broad scientific perspective
Author Name:Sukanchan Palit 
Synopsis:
Scientific vision and scientific understanding in today's world are in the path of new glory. Chemical Engineering science is witnessing drastic and rapid changes. The metamorphosis of human civilization in this century is faced with vicious challenges. Progress of Chemical Engineering science, the vision of technology and the broad chemical engineering applications together will go a long way in the true emancipation of scientific publishing and scientific editing. The author as a Chemical Engineer deeply delves into the world of chemical engineering science and unfolds the vast and visionary domain of publishing and editing. The author with deep and cogent insight uncovers the various branches of chemical engineering subject, its vast and varied applications and the futuristic vision of publishing in Chemical Engineering Journals. Scientific writing in today's world is in the path of newer regeneration. Plagiarism issues are changing the face of global scientific writing. It is a burning as well as a vexing issue. The human scientific endeavour is in the state of a difficult crisis. The sole aim and objective of this treatise is to address the need of lucid and plagiarism-free scientific writing in India. The message of plagiarism free writing in India needs to be strong and far-reaching. In today's scientific perspective, the need for scientific writing, whether it is of Engineering or Medicine, is immense and also needs to be targeted to the common mass. Chemical engineering is also in the path of new regeneration and newer reenvisioning. The domain of chemical engineering is now diversifying into different areas of Bio-engineering, Biotechnology and Medicine. In a separate section, the author delineates the visionary scientific endeavours in scientific writing especially medical science writing. There is an immense need for Chemical Engineering writing as India moves into a new eon of scientific cognizance and greater scientific vision. Mankind's vision and scientific prowess will be emboldened as India moves into a new scientific era. The basic upshot of scientific writing with targets towards sustainable development needs to be re-envisioned. The author touches upon the wide world of interdisciplinary areas of chemical engineering particularly, biotechnology, bioengineering and rural development in India. These aim and objectives will open up newer future thoughts and newer future vision in the years to come.

Metadiscourse In Book Prefaces Of Filipino And English Authors: A Contrastive Rhetoric Study

Vol. 6  Issue 1
Year:2016
Issue:Jan-Mar
Title:Metadiscourse In Book Prefaces Of Filipino And English Authors: A Contrastive Rhetoric Study
Author Name:Leonardo O. Munalim and Rachelle B. Lintao 
Synopsis:
Grounded on the tradition of Contrastive Rhetoric (CR), this paper aimed at contrasting the presence of metadiscourse resources in a book preface of Filipino and English authors. It especially sought to see the similarities and differences of interactive and interactional markers between two cultures. A total of thirty book prefaces on language areas, fifteen in each culture were culled. They were identified, classified, and interpreted based upon the taxonomies by Hyland and Tse (2004) with the interlarding frameworks by Crismore, Markkanen, and Steffensen (1993); Hyland (2007); Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech and Svartvik (1985); and Yagiz and Demir (2015). Results show that a book preface is calibrated by authors from both cultures with a profuse use of interactional MD resources, that is, a book preface has to be more interactional than interactive. The results also put forth that differences in metadiscourse resources reside in the text due to the differing cultures of individualism and self-accolade among the English, and humility and text-economy among Filipino authors. In a nutshell, practical and pedagogical implications are offered in this present study.

Rhetorical analysis of the doctoral abstracts on English language teaching in Turkey

Vol. 6  Issue 1
Year:2016
Issue:Jan-Mar
Title:Rhetorical analysis of the doctoral abstracts on English language teaching in Turkey
Author Name:Kemal Sinan Ozmen
Synopsis:
Doctoral dissertation has an important role to embark on an academic career confidently. The case is much more challenging for the early career doctorate who strives to contribute to the wider academic community. Using Swale's IMRD model, this study analyzed the rhetorical organization of English abstracts of 147 doctoral dissertations written between 2010 and 2015 in national graduate programs on English Language Teaching in Turkey. The results revealed 38 DAs with IMRD model and at least 22 rhetorically deficient DAs, lacking critical moves and linguistic realizations. Most DAs seem to exclude the conceptual framework, gap and important submoves. Omission of the Discussion move was also found to be a problem among the DAs. In addition, DAs from the half of the programs do not comply with the word limits offered by the official guidelines. Based on the results, a guideline was prepared to offer a remedy for the responsible bodies.

Professional Development and IELTS Training Course: a case of EFL Teachers in Iran

Vol. 6  Issue 1
Year:2016
Issue:Jan-Mar
Title:Professional Development and IELTS Training Course: a case of EFL Teachers in Iran
Author Name:Hamid Ashraf and Zeinab Kafi 
Synopsis:
The current study aimed at investigating the status of Professional Development (PD) through examining teachers' perspectives over how effective they consider exam specific teacher training courses (IELTS in this case) which aim at increasing their PD. To this end, a group of EFL teachers, from different language schools in Mashhad, Iran took part in this study. There existed 30 teachers, most of whom were professional in teaching and had a good English proficiency. This training course consisted of all the skills and sub-skills of IELTS as well as the best possible ways to teach different skills of English. Teachers attended this program three times a week which started in February 2015 and ended in May 2015. As the main data collection mean in this study was a qualitative one, two open-ended questions were employed in the data collection process which aimed at finding what the participants' ideas about the T.T.C course they took were and also what the main motivating reasons for the teachers were for taking part in the T.T.C program. The accumulated answers were then analyzed and categorized into different groups and the percentages for each extracted category were calculated through SPSS. Besides, as for the quantitative data collection phase and also in order to check the probable relation of the program and teachers' Professional Development (PD), a researcher made questionnaire was designed and expert validity was employed to carry out the instrument's validation process. Therefore, two experts' opinions in the field were accumulated and further comments and modifications were done accordingly. The questionnaire, using Cronbach Alpha, revealed to possess a high degree of .902 reliability. Afterwards, the PD questionnaire, which mainly focused on teachers' self-declaration with regard to this case specific teacher training program and how effective they believed the program to be on their PD, was administered. Finally, the results were correlated through Cross tabulation and Chi square test. The results exhibited that, there exists a significant relation between the two variables i. e. majority of teachers believed the T.T.C program has been “influential” in their professional development.

Theoretical Triads in Chinese Thinking over Translation

Vol. 6  Issue 1
Year:2016
Issue:Jan-Mar
Title:Theoretical Triads in Chinese Thinking over Translation
Author Name:Jiasheng Shi
Synopsis:
Theoretical triads are commonly employed thought patterns and have played an important part in the history of translation. This paper presents a brief introduction to some of the most prominent triads in Chinese thinking over translation and clarifies the misinterpretations of them, with some of their Western counterparts given for comparative purpose. The triads covered include “faithfulness, expressiveness, elegance” proposed by Yan Fu, “sublimation, deviation, and mediation” by Qian Zhongshu, and “semantic beauty, phonological beauty, structural beauty” by Xu Yuanchong.