Al-Kindi Center for Research and Development (KCRD) (E-Journals)
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Metadiscourse Markers in English and Persian Scientific Texts
No full textMetadiscourse markers are aspects of a text which exclusively guide readers toward the meanings intended by the author. The present study aimed to investigate the organization of metadiscourse markers across scientific genre in Persian and English. It also attempted to explore the frequency of the two types of metadiscourse markers in English and Persian. The data for this study were supplied through different text types of scientific genre, such as biology, geology, chemistry, physics and mathematics. Out of the existing scientific textbooks in English and Persian, 20 books were randomly selected. The materials were originally written in English or Persian. In order to have ample instances of texts, 2 paragraphs of about 150 words were selected from each book. By analyzing the collected data, it was found that there is a relation between English and Persian in using metadiscourse markers. Both languages used high degree of metadiscourse markers, which contributed to their homogeneity in terms of metadiscourse usage. The findings also revealed that the average frequencies of the two types of metadiscourse are relatively different in Persian and English languages.  
Literary/Critical Theory and Orwell’s Idea of “A Good Bad Poem”: Thoughts on a Beginner’s Annotated Poetry Textbook for the Arabian Gulf Students
No full textThis article is about what the author argues to be the ideal contents of an annotated poetry textbook for the native Arab students in the Arabian Gulf considering their not so well developed command/proficiency in English, their limited exposure to English, and their conservative society compared with the rest of the world. It suggests that only short, simple, and charming lyrics, containing moral and didactic lessons, about the love of God, country, humanity, pastoral simplicities of nature, religion (any religion), elegiac lament, local culture, and country house traditions would be the ideal contents of a textbook for the young college students in the Arabian Gulf. Poems about revolutionary politics, physical love, and queer sexual orientations being out of line/place with the culture of the region, the article considers the existing textbooks not suitable. The proposed textbook should also consist of what are called “good bad” poems by Orwell. At the same time, the textbook in question to be used during the delivery of a course on introduction to poetry should include some well-known definitions of poetry as well as some simplified basics of modern literary and critical theory
Latent Semantic Analysis and Machine Translation
No full textComputer-based translation systems are not rivals to human translators, but they are aids to enable them to increase productivity in technical translation. Machine translation aims to undertake the whole translation process, but whose input must invariably be revised. Latent Semantic Analysis and Probabilistic Latent Semantic Analysis are two newly developed computational models which their application in machine translation will solve some of the problems facing machines in accounting for the way human knowledge is comprehended
Practice of Teaching Reading Comprehension in Secondary Schools: A Case of Debre Markos Administrative Town
No full textThis study aimed to assess practices of teachers in teaching reading comprehension in secondary schools of Debre Markos administrative town. Descriptive survey research design and mixed method research approach was employed, data were collected from 254 students and 33 teachers through questionnaire, interview, classroom observation and document analysis. The data were analyzed with mean, one sample t–test, and thematic narration for qualitative. The one sample t-test value for pre -reading phase obtained from teachers (M=3.01), which is almost equal to expected mean t-value. So, the implementation of pre-reading activity was below the expected level (t-3). And from students (M=2.21) is significantly lower than expected mean value. The while reading phase mean scores obtained from teachers (M=2.73), and students (M= 2.27) are lower than the expected mean value (t=103.27, df=253, p<0.05) this shows that the while-reading activities was below t-3. Similarly, for post reading phase, the mean score obtained from teachers (M=2.82), and from students (M= 2.16), implies that the implementation of post-reading activities was below the expected level of practice. The one-sample test score for the application of teaching strategies obtained from teachers (M=3.67) is significantly greater than the expected mean t-value and But the mean value (M=2.50) obtained from students is significantly lower than expected mean t-value. This indicates that teachers accept they were practice properly but and students were responded that the teachers were not practice properly. And student, teachers, subject content and context related factors were found affecting teachers teaching practice significantly with some differences in between teachers and students. The qualitative data also showed that the three phases of reading comprehension were not practiced to properly. In addition teachers, students, the context were causal factors that hamper the practice dominantly. 
Jordanian Wedding Invitation as a Genre: An Analysis of Rhetorical Structure and Linguistic Features
No full textThe present study is an attempt to conduct a genre analysis of Jordanian wedding invitations. Drawing on the model of genre analysis proposed by Bhatia (1993), a sample of 200 Jordanian wedding invitation cards has been collected and examined to provide an overview of the main linguistic devices used in the texts and analyze to what extent such devices have a social purpose. The corpus analysis revealed that Wedding invitation cards go beyond announcing the wedding of two people to mirroring and deconstructing the social practices, values and beliefs of the Jordanian society that shape the construction of this genre. I hope that the results of this study will be of help in further raising cultural awareness
Ethnic Variations in Malaysian SMS Condolences
No full textThis paper aims to examine the ethnic variations of condolence messages written by Malaysians. Data comprise 36 authentic SMS condolence messages written in English by predominantly 47% Chinese, 33% Malays and 20% Indians. Data were retrieved from the recipient and then projected as a word document. They are then coded according to ethnicity, age and gender and the number of words were counted. The speech act theory is applied to determine the expressive functions and this is then followed by a linguistic analysis. Analysis suggests that the SMS condolences can be classified into 13 expressive functions. The condolences written by Chinese writers expressed more hope and sympathy; those written by Malay writers were more indirect and polite and they expressed more apologies while those written by Indian writers expressed more God-related statements. Since the findings are derived from a small set of data the outcome of this paper cannot be generalised. Nonetheless, they are authentic data which are difficult to access hence, these findings will serve as a window for other cultures to understand the ethnic differences of multicultural Malaysia. Indeed, the outcome of this paper can contribute to a better understanding of intercultural communication
Kennedy’s The Owl Answers (1965): Toward Black Existential Feminism
No full textThis article analyzes Adrienne Kennedy’s play The Owl Answers (1965) from a Black Existential-feminist perspective. It dissects the black female protagonist’s identity as a trapped identity. In addition, the article unravels the detrimental impacts of oppression and racism on the African-American female protagonist in the play in her attempt to construct a clear concept of her identity. Consequently, one of the significant issues that this article responds to is how Kennedy’s protagonists question the concept of Blackness established by radical black male thinkers. I argue that The Owl Answers presents an existential crisis of achieving one’s authentic identity and a true self. Clara, the female protagonist, strives to achieve an identity of her choice. As a female character and as a black individual, we see her entangled in racist situations from which she finds no exit
Re-reading Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart: A Postcolonial Perspective
No full textBeing a postcolonial narrative, Things Fall Apart experiences a wide critical acclaim. From the pen of Chinua Achebe, the Igbo cultural complexity has come into being a theme that opens up a historical account of the clash of two cultures. Okonkwo, a very well-known public figure in his community falls under the threat of a new culture brought by the white missionaries preaching the gospels of the Christianity. After the arrival of the Christian culture, the first collision that takes place is the division at the individual, and then at the societal levels. When a number of the Igbo people, including Okonkwo’s son, change their religion, it creates chaos and confusions throughout the community. Although the Igbo people have a well-established way of life, the Europeans do not understand. That is why they show no respect to the cultural practices of the Igbo people. What Achebe delivers in the novel is that Africans are not savages and their societies are not mindless. The things fall apart because Okonkwo fails at the end to take his people back to the culture they all shared once. The sentiments the whites show to the blacks regarding the Christianity clearly recap the slave treatment the blacks were used to receive from the whites in the past. Achebe shows that the picture of the Africans portrayed in literature and histories are not real, but the picture was seen through the eyes of the Europeans. Consequently, Okonkwo hangs himself when he finds his established rules and orders are completely exiled by his own people and when he sees Igbo looses its honor by falling apart