Mozhgan Habibi; Mahmoud Elyasi; Mohammad Reza Pahlavan Nezhad
Volume 11, Issue 1 , May 2019, , Pages 39-59
Abstract
Extended Abstract
Introduction
As a remarkable topic in sociolinguistics, code-switching is a natural phenomenon among many bilingual communities throughout the world. Van Dulm (2007) describes this phenomenon as the use of two or more languages while making an utterance or a sentence. Azeri Turkish-Persian ...
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Extended Abstract
Introduction
As a remarkable topic in sociolinguistics, code-switching is a natural phenomenon among many bilingual communities throughout the world. Van Dulm (2007) describes this phenomenon as the use of two or more languages while making an utterance or a sentence. Azeri Turkish-Persian speaking bilinguals are one of these big communities which code-switching is a very common practice among them. The present study investigates code-switching and the goals of its occurrence among some of Azeri Turkish-Persian-speaking bilingual teachers in Urmia city. The study takes into consideration such social variables affecting code-switching as age, gender, education level, teaching experience, topic, and setting.
Review of Literature
One of the first studies in the United States of America in this regard is Barker (1947) that examined code-switching process among the Mexico-Americans in Tucson, Arizona. In addition to the analysis of the economic relations, social and geographical networks of the citizens of Tucson, the author saught an answer to the question that why bilingual people use different languages in different places or situations.
One of the most important investigations on code-switching from social perspective was carried out by Bloom and Gumperz (1972). They believed that social events introduced under the title of participants, setting and topic would limit linguistic variables choice. They added in any given social situation, some forms of language are more appropriate than others.
In a study in Ardabil province, northwest Iran, Heidari, Samaei, Latifi and Ruhi (2013), examined some primary school English teachers' views on code-switching process and factors which affect this phenomenon. Results showed that nearly all bilingual teachers agree with using code-switching in the classroom and asserted that repetition and translation have been the most effective factors involved in this process (Heidari et al., 2013). Sadat Giyasian and Rezaie (2014) examined different types of code-witching among Persian-Armenian bilinguals in Tehran. Inter-sentential code-switching was looked through Bloom and Gumperz’ (1972) and intra-sentential code-switching was surveyed through Myers-Scotton model (1993 and 2002). The results showed that, in their daily communications, both situational and metaphorical types of code-switching took place and the intra-sentential code-switching was turned to have a very high amount of frequency.
Concerning different types of code-switch, Bloom and Gumperz (1972) believe that in metaphorical switching, speakers use two languages at the same time which occurs through topic switch and the speakers change their codes to achieve specific effects.
And finally, examining different purposes of code-switching, Baker and García (1993) mentioned 13 basic types of purposes in making use of code-switching. Záňová (2011) enumerated some purposes of code-switching, i.e. putting emphasis on a particular point, reinforcement of request, clarification of a point-repetition, social distance-solidarity, quotinɡ, communicatinɡ common identity, excludinɡ people from a conversation, includinɡ people in a conversation, chanɡing attitude, arousinɡ attention, addressinɡ oneself, hedɡinɡ, expressinɡ opposition, topic chanɡe, showinɡ respect, no equivalence, introduction of certain topics, and substitution a word in one language.
The present study is based on Bloom and Gumperz’ (1972), Gumperz’ (1982) and Baker's (2001) theoretical frameworks.
Method
Studies carried out on code-switching have been mostly conducted among the students' communications and interactions at school or university classes but not among the university or high school teachers. On the other hand, most of the classifications are done to clarify inter-sentential or intra-sentential nature of an existing code-switching phenomenon, but this study is to search the case among the teachers and the use of different type of classification.
To carry out the study, relevant data on code-switching, produced by the teachers were collected through direct observation of their linguistic behaviour. The data were recorded and were later transcribed and analysed. To determine the function of social factors on code-switching, a researcher-made questionnaire was completed by 336 male and female Azeri Turkish-Persian-speaking bilingual teachers. Depending on the type of variables, tests as ne sample t-test, Independent t-test, Anova, Kalmogorov –Smiranov, Levene, and Structural equation modelling were used.
Results and Discussion
Descriptive results showed that 15 factors were involved in teachers’ code-switching occurrence and that the participants used situational, metaphorical, conversational, situational - metaphorical, situational - conversational and metaphorical-conver sational code - switching at school offices, teachers’ council meetings, and in service course sessions, while talking about educational and non-educational topics. The results of quantitative research also showed that there was no significant difference among code-switching according to the social factors mentioned above except for the in-service course sessions setting. In addition, the teachers preferred to switch from Persian to Azeri Turkish language in these settings and not vice versa.
Conclusion
Contrary to Bloom and Gumper'z framework, which had a clear boundary between different types of code-switching, the study showed that the difference between metaphorical and situational code-switching is in fact unclear and is not simple. There may also be more than one purpose for code-switching in a single conversation and overlapping among the goals. On the other hand, it seems that there is a direct relationship between code-switching and the goals. Also, in Urmia, the social factors mentioned above do not have a significant difference in the code-switching of teachers. Perhaps the reason for this is that Urmia is a Turkish-speaking city, and the teachers only need to speak Persian just in the classroom in teaching hours. On the other hand, they tend to keep their mother tongue.
The results of this study can be regarded as a guideline for other research projects in bilingual or multilingual regions of the country. The following recommendations can be useful for those interested in conducting research in this field:
Other bilingual and multilingual educational regions should be explored in amount of using their code-switching as well;
Other descriptive features such as culture, identity, language, accent, etc., and their impact on the amount of the occurrence of code-switching should be investigated as well to determine the kinds of relationship with this generally happen phenomenon.
Sara Yazdani; Shahla Sharifi; Mahmoud Elyasi
Volume 8, Issue 15 , January 2017, , Pages 27-51
Abstract
1. Introduction
Hyland (2005) defines metadiscourse as a “cover term for the self-reflective expression used to negotiate interactional meanings in a text, assisting the writer (or speaker) to express a viewpoint and engage with reader as members of a particular community” (p. 37). Hyland has admitted ...
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1. Introduction
Hyland (2005) defines metadiscourse as a “cover term for the self-reflective expression used to negotiate interactional meanings in a text, assisting the writer (or speaker) to express a viewpoint and engage with reader as members of a particular community” (p. 37). Hyland has admitted that these rhetorical features convey the relation between the writer, text and reader which is more than a pure exchange of information. In this vein, newspapers are important means of information exchange. Readers of any social level in communities have access to it and on the other hand, unlike TV and radio, it would not oblige its users to confine themselves to a specific time or place. Therefore, the role of newspapers in reflecting the news is really significant. In spite of the importance of newspaper discourse, it has not been successful in absorbing researchers’ attention to study on language devices like metadiscourse markers in this type of texts.
2. Theoretical Framework
In analyzing the data of this study, Hyland’s (2005, p. 49) framework was utilized since it is a more elaborated and convincing model for metadiscourse categorization and it has been used in most of the recent studies. Hyland (2005) divided the metadiscourse markers into two broad categories: interactive and interactional, each of which is divided into five sub-categories. The interactive metadiscourse group contains: (1) Transition: expresses relations between main clauses, e.g. in addition, thus, and, (2) Frame marker: refers to discourse acts, sequences or stages, e.g. finally, my purpose is, (3) Endophoric markers: refers to information in the parts of the text, e.g. noted above, see figure, (4) Evidential: refers to information from other text, e.g. according to X, Z states, (5) Code gloss: elaborates propositional meanings, e.g. e.g. such as. The second group of metadiscourse markers includes: (1) Hedge: expresses writer’s uncertainty, e.g. might, perhaps, (2) Booster: expresses writer’s certainty, e.g. in fact, definitely, (3) Attitude marker: expresses writer’s attitude, e.g. unfortunately, surprisingly, (4) Self-mention: Explicit reference to author(s), e.g. I, we, (5) Engagement marker: explicitly build relation with a reader, e.g. consider, note.
3. Methodology
The data of the present study were collected from the leading and most widely read newspapers in the U.S. and Iran by means of random sampling. Random sampling is a contributing factor to overcome the diversity of writers’ styles. The English news articles were retrieved from an online newspaper archive, while the Persian ones were collected from Astan-e-Qods- Razavi library archive. The data sampling was based on easy accessibility, popularity and mass circulation of news articles. To normalize the present study to a common basis to compare the frequency of occurrence, this research employed 100 words approach. In fact, all of these articles were published on 12 September in 2001. All news articles were examined to determine and classify metadiscourse markers manually. Furthermore, to analyze the data statistically, SPSS 18 software was applied. To find out whether there is any difference between the metadiscourse distribution in both English and Persian news and to explore the meaning beyond this difference, the chi-square test was employed.
4. Results and Discussion
The findings revealed that all types of metadiscourse markers were present in both sets of data, but that there were similarities and differences between the two groups regarding their distribution and frequency. In general, interactive metadiscourse markers were employed the most in news reports, in comparison to interactional metadiscourse markers, according to chi- square test results. As for the subcategories of interactive metadiscourse, transitions and evidentials were meaningfully the most frequent markers in English and Persian news reports. Regarding the subtypes of interactional metadiscourse, hedges, attitude markers and boosters were statistically employed the most in both sets of data in terms of frequency of occurrence. Moreover, attitude markers, hedges, boosters and evidentials were used in both groups of news articles to display the hidden ideology for achieving power, but engagement markers and self-mentions were only present in English news reports to show the totalitarian ideology.
5. Conclusion
This study tried to investigate the role of metadiscourse markers about 9/11 news articles published in 2001 in the U.S. and Iran. This comparative study might provide pedagogical implications. It would be practical to train journalism students about using metadiscourse markers appropriately in order to achieve more success in reporting the world’s events. Hence, journalists by exerting metadiscourse markers not only would be able to deepen their readers’ understanding, but also might ensure to conduct them to grasp the content completely and ideally.
Fatemeh Kazemi Motlagh; Mahmoud Elyasi; Azam Estaji
Volume 7, Issue 12 , July 2015, , Pages 49-78
Abstract
The paper aims at describing verbal tense system in the dialect of Adkan, a village in Khorasan-e Shomali Province in the northeast of Iran. It seems that this dialect is one of the Tati Dialects in the area. Since the main objective was to collect the oldest dialect, the data was gathered by interviewing ...
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The paper aims at describing verbal tense system in the dialect of Adkan, a village in Khorasan-e Shomali Province in the northeast of Iran. It seems that this dialect is one of the Tati Dialects in the area. Since the main objective was to collect the oldest dialect, the data was gathered by interviewing some educated and uneducated old and middle-aged speakers. This study which is the first systematic study on Adkan Dialect shows that it has a verbal tense system different from that of Standard Persian. This dialect lacks some of the tenses used in Standard Persian; besides, there are some verbal endings which are not common in Standard Persian.
Amir Karimipour; Mahmoud Elyasi
Volume 4, Issue 7 , September 2013
Abstract
Bilinguals make up a high proportion of the world population. However, these speakers are facing miscellaneous language learning difficulties throughout the world. The situation would be exacerbated when the communicative role of language is considered. In other words, bilinguals usually feel discouraged ...
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Bilinguals make up a high proportion of the world population. However, these speakers are facing miscellaneous language learning difficulties throughout the world. The situation would be exacerbated when the communicative role of language is considered. In other words, bilinguals usually feel discouraged once they are involved in a conversation in their second language with others. In this study, some communicative aspects of Kurdish-Persian-speaking students will be analyzed through assessing their narrative production by means of narrating a wordless picture book known as The Frog Story. Results show that these students face various difficulties in narrating the events in the story in Persian. It would also be worth mentioning that many of these problems remain unsolved for some years. These shortcomings might be attributed to the bilingual education system employed in the Iranian educational system, known as the "Submersion Method".
Javad Ghanbari Beglar; Mahmoud Elyasi; Ali Izanloo
Volume 5, Issue 8 , April 2013, , Pages 1-19
Abstract
Kurmanji is probably the most well known variety of Kurdish Language. Apart from such countries as Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and some areas in western Iran, it is spoken in Khorasan-e Shomali and Khorasan-e Razavi Provinces in north-east Iran. The residents of Biglar –a village near Quchan in north-west ...
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Kurmanji is probably the most well known variety of Kurdish Language. Apart from such countries as Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and some areas in western Iran, it is spoken in Khorasan-e Shomali and Khorasan-e Razavi Provinces in north-east Iran. The residents of Biglar –a village near Quchan in north-west Khorasan-e Razavi Province- as well as many other people living in the neighboring villages speak this Kurdish dialect. Since there are some prominent differences between the Kurmanji dialect of Biglar and other Kurmanji dialects spoken in the neighboring villages, this paper is to describe these differences and discuss the factors involved in such a variation among the dialects. In this article, having introduced the differences, the major external and internal factors involved have also been discussed. Results show that the Kurmanji Dialect of Biglar represents some phonological, morphological, and syntactic differences with other Kurmanji dialects spoken in the area, and that two other major languages spoken in the region, i.e. local Turkish and Persian are among the most known factors involved in such an event. It was also shown that the dialect was mostly affected by Turkish, and to a lesser degree, by Persian. Among the internal factors involved, lacking distinction between the Present and Past forms of transitive verbs is worth mentioning, a phenomenon which can still be tracked in other Kurmanji dialects spoken in the neighboring villages.
