Alireza Rasti - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Alireza Rasti
Journal of Teaching Language Skills, 2018
By the end of the 2020s, a change involving the substitution of the Communicative Approach to Eng... more By the end of the 2020s, a change involving the substitution of the Communicative Approach to English teaching for the Structural one has been fully operative in the Iranian secondary education system. This study set out to explore the views of Iranian teachers vis-a-vis the changes introduced into the education policy of the nation since teachers as end-point policy workers play a pivotal role in the ultimate success or failure of any curricular activity. Using data from semi-structured interviews and follow-up procedures, the investigation sought to delve into how eighteen EFL teachers at the upper secondary education level made sense of changes effected at the intersection of policy and practice. Common patterns and themes were identified and presented at the level of data analysis. Despite embracing the changes, the results showed that the teachers sensed that they had been left to their own devices in translating policy into practice and that the proposed reforms were not all-i...
Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning, 2017
This investigation set out to look into the issue of teachers’ exercise of agency in the Iranian ... more This investigation set out to look into the issue of teachers’ exercise of agency in the Iranian EFL context. More specifically, as part of a larger study, it reports on the ways two Iranian Ministry of Education teachers make sense of and operate in the country’s educational setting under the demands of a centralist system of education. Priestley, Biesta, & Robinson’s (2013) framework of teacher agency formed the conceptual backbone of the present study as well as guiding the data collection/analysis of the study. Qualitative data, from semi-structured interviews as well as follow-up data collection procedures, were gleaned from the participants over the course of an academic year and were subjected to analytical interpretation in the light of the said framework. The researchers came up with findings which, in the main, gave more weight to the well-roundedness of Priestly, Biesta, & Robinson’s model of teacher agency. The results also pointed to the highly situated nature of teache...
Cogent Arts & Humanities, 2020
The current study investigated the ways in which two major U.S. political arena social actors, Ba... more The current study investigated the ways in which two major U.S. political arena social actors, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, presented themselves to capture the audience's attention in the 2012 election campaign speeches. The data consisted of 30 speeches delivered by Obama as the representative of the Democratic Party and Romney as the Republican Party representative from 2011 to 2012. Through the resources of Critical Discourse Analysis (henceforth CDA), common strategies in the speeches, most notably positive self-representation, others' negative representation, legitimization, delegitimization, and persuasion which are commonly used in political discourse to win voters' attention, were identified.The findings revealed that Obama frequently focused on evoking the myth of the "American dream", whereas Romney mostly used the others' negative representation strategy. In conclusion, it seems that Obama was successful in implementing and conveying his message through rhetorical devices. However, Romney's excessive use of others' negative representation seemed to be unsuccessful in attaining his goals.
Higher Education Policy, 2019
The aim of this investigation was twofold: to explore how policy texts are discursively involved ... more The aim of this investigation was twofold: to explore how policy texts are discursively involved in the formation of subject positions and to help lay bare the part dominant hegemonic discourses play in this process. To this end, a policy document on the Iranian higher education quality supervision, assessment, and assurance system was analyzed using the theoretical lens of poststructuralism and the analytical resources of critical discourse analysis to see how language is implicated in the asymmetrical representation of actors/ actions in that domain of social life, and might channel our views of reality in specific ways. The findings revealed that whereas the assessees, i.e., Iranian university teachers, are depicted as faceless entities who are at the receiving end of the quality assurance process, the assessors are foregrounded and come to life through the workings of the policy text. In addition, being a mix of especially legal and technocratic genres, the document discursively legitimizes the closely intertwined processes of higher education quality supervision, assessment, and assurance in ways that seem to leave little room, if any, for the potential assessees to challenge them. Implications for policy and research are finally given.
American Journal of Linguistics, 2012
Adopting and adapting Theo van Leeuwen's system networks of the representation of social actors, ... more Adopting and adapting Theo van Leeuwen's system networks of the representation of social actors, this study explores the morpho-syntactic modes through which social actors implicated in Iran's nuclear activities discourse are represented in news reports of 4 Western quality papers all dealing, one way or another, with the issue of imposing or tightening sanctions on Iran, viz. The Economist, Express, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. Using the 5 sets of categories of inclusion/exclusion, activation/passivation, association/dissociation, individualisation/ assimilation, and personalisation/impersonalisation, we try to show the possible asymmetrical patterns in representing a variety of social actors involved, in particular the actors associated with the Western camp and the Iranian government on the issue of the sanctions. The findings have revealed systematic ideological bias in representing the Iranian side, thereby giving a differential treatment of Iran.
This small-scale study set out to identify polite request forms in the speech of Iranian first-gr... more This small-scale study set out to identify polite request forms in the speech of Iranian first-graders (i.e., 7-year-old children) and to identify differences between male and female children. To this end, 29 male first-graders and 30 females were asked to report how they would ask for something. The forms and the structures were analyzed and patterns were identified. A Chi-square test of independence was subsequently run to see if there was any relationship between gender and preference of direct over indirect polite request forms. The results indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the choice of direct or indirect forms and the gender of 7-year-old children. Girls were found to favor more indirect forms, whereas boys opted more for direct structures. The study warrants further follow-up investigations and/or replications, given the small sample size.
International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature, 2014
Based on the expert observation that the teacher "supervisor's role is, in part, culturally defin... more Based on the expert observation that the teacher "supervisor's role is, in part, culturally defined" (Bailey, 2006, p.6), and the perceived gap that few supervisors receive formal training, in the current study, the researchers report on the views of Ministry of Education (MOE) teachers and supervisors in the Iranian context as to what constitutes the knowledge base of supervisors. Having conducted qualitative content analysis on the data gleaned from interviews with the teachers and supervisors and open-ended questionnaires, we came up with a framework of supervisory skill/knowledge domains-one encompassing public relations skills, subject matter knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and contextual sensitivity. The results show that teachers by and large, by voicing their discontent with current supervisory routines, opt for humanistic supervisory procedures. The study, hoping to be taken up with more supervisory knowledge base studies, ends with advice on building supervisory preparation courses into existing teacher development programs.
Discourse & Society, 2012
The present research aimed at spotting any possible biased coverage a typical Western newspaper s... more The present research aimed at spotting any possible biased coverage a typical Western newspaper such as The Economist gives to the issue of Iran’s nuclear power program at large and specifically to the way in which the main actors involved in the controversy are portrayed and the actions thereof – most notably, the act of delegitimating Iran’s nuclear program – are represented. To this end, a critical discourse analytic approach centered around Wodak’s ‘discursive strategies’ and Van Leeuwen’s representational resources was applied to 23 argumentative articles of The Economist, all dealing exclusively with Iran’s nuclear contention. The results showed that the differential treatment the Western paper gave to the issue at hand, in terms of scope and complexity, was in line with the advocated policy of the aforementioned paper, that is imposing more sanctions on the country.
International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature, 2014
The present research is a follow-up to another study (Rasti & Sahragard, 2012) with an exclusive ... more The present research is a follow-up to another study (Rasti & Sahragard, 2012) with an exclusive focus on political metaphor in general and specifically its (de)legitimatory role in the British paper The Economist. The Western paper takes an explicit sanctions-supportive stance on Iran's nuclear issue. With an eye to spotting instances of political metaphor in the said paper, the researchers, in the process of analyzing the data, which included 30 argumentative and expository articles taken from the British paper within two time frames-the first spanning 2005-2006 and the second encompassing data from 2012 and the beginning of 2013, came up with a superordinate metaphorical pattern i.e., IRAN AS A HUMAN and its concomitant submetaphors i.e., IRAN AS A RACER/PLAYER, IRAN AS A BUSINESSMAN, IRAN AS A SUFFERER, and IRAN AS A SUSPECT/CULPRIT (for the first phase) and IRAN AS A WRONGDOER, IRAN AS A PATIENT and IRAN AS AN UNWANTED GUEST/A TRESPASSOR (as far as the second phase was concerned). The study concludes with the insight that the Western newspaper, among other things, stylistically and rhetorically employs and manipulates the metaphorical scenarios to justify and highlight the force and effectiveness of the West-backed sanctions against Iran and to render the country's nuclear plans as illicit and unwarranted.
This small-scale study set out to identify polite request forms in the speech of Iranian first-gr... more This small-scale study set out to identify polite request forms in the speech of Iranian first-graders (i.e., 7-year-old children) and to identify differences between male and female children. To this end, 29 male first-graders and 30 females were asked to report how they would ask for something. The forms and the
structures were analyzed and patterns were identified. A chi-square test of independence was subsequently run to see if there was any relationship between gender and preference of direct over indirect polite request forms. The results
indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the choice of direct or indirect forms and the gender of 7-year-old children. Girls were found to favor more indirect forms, whereas boys opted more for direct structures. The study warrants further follow-up investigations and/or
replications, given the small sample size.
Based on the expert observation that the teacher "supervisor's role is, in part, culturally defin... more Based on the expert observation that the teacher "supervisor's role is, in part, culturally defined" (Bailey, 2006, p.6), and the perceived gap that few supervisors receive formal training, in the current study, the researchers report on the views of Ministry of Education (MOE) teachers and supervisors in the Iranian context as to what constitutes the knowledge base of supervisors. Having conducted qualitative content analysis on the data gleaned from interviews with the teachers and supervisors and open-ended questionnaires, we came up with a framework of supervisory skill/knowledge domains -one encompassing public relations skills, subject matter knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and contextual sensitivity. The results show that teachers by and large, by voicing their discontent with current supervisory routines, opt for humanistic supervisory procedures. The study, hoping to be taken up with more supervisory knowledge base studies, ends with advice on building supervisory preparation courses into existing teacher development programs.
In many of the Iranian universities, currently there seems to exist a huge lacuna in the way prac... more In many of the Iranian universities, currently there seems to exist a huge lacuna in the way practitioners of the two fields of English Literature and Teaching English as a foreign language (both enjoying the same departmental or collegiate residency) are involved, if any, in a give and take of their ideas and practices. The present study sets out to show how some analytic tools at the literary critic's disposal can be put into practice in language classes at large. One such notable tool, instantiated practically by the investigation, in vogue internationally , Hirvela, 1996, but apparently still not in the limelight in the Iranian context, relates to the use of Reader Response Theory in reinterpreting the role of the reader and the mode through which they make sense of L2 reading texts. This study aims at sketching the theoretical and practical implications of employing the said literary tool in L2 classrooms.
The present research is a follow-up to another study with an exclusive focus on political metapho... more The present research is a follow-up to another study with an exclusive focus on political metaphor in general and specifically its (de)legitimatory role in the British paper The Economist. The Western paper takes an explicit sanctions-supportive stance on Iran's nuclear issue. With an eye to spotting instances of political metaphor in the said paper, the researchers, in the process of analyzing the data, which included 30 argumentative and expository articles taken from the British paper within two time frames -the first spanning 2005-2006 and the second encompassing data from 2012 and the beginning of 2013, came up with a superordinate metaphorical pattern i.e.,
Adopting and adapting Theo van Leeuwen's system networks of the representation of social actors, ... more Adopting and adapting Theo van Leeuwen's system networks of the representation of social actors, this study explores the morpho-syntactic modes through which social actors implicated in Iran's nuclear activities discourse are represented in news reports of 4 Western quality papers all dealing, one way or another, with the issue of imposing or tightening sanctions on Iran, viz. The Economist, Express, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. Using the 5 sets of categories of inclusion/exclusion, activation/passivation, association/dissociation, individualisation/ assimilation, and personalisation/impersonalisation, we try to show the possible asymmetrical patterns in representing a variety of social actors involved, in particular the actors associated with the Western camp and the Iranian government on the issue of the sanctions. The findings have revealed systematic ideological bias in representing the Iranian side, thereby giving a differential treatment of Iran.
Journal of Teaching Language Skills, 2018
By the end of the 2020s, a change involving the substitution of the Communicative Approach to Eng... more By the end of the 2020s, a change involving the substitution of the Communicative Approach to English teaching for the Structural one has been fully operative in the Iranian secondary education system. This study set out to explore the views of Iranian teachers vis-a-vis the changes introduced into the education policy of the nation since teachers as end-point policy workers play a pivotal role in the ultimate success or failure of any curricular activity. Using data from semi-structured interviews and follow-up procedures, the investigation sought to delve into how eighteen EFL teachers at the upper secondary education level made sense of changes effected at the intersection of policy and practice. Common patterns and themes were identified and presented at the level of data analysis. Despite embracing the changes, the results showed that the teachers sensed that they had been left to their own devices in translating policy into practice and that the proposed reforms were not all-i...
Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning, 2017
This investigation set out to look into the issue of teachers’ exercise of agency in the Iranian ... more This investigation set out to look into the issue of teachers’ exercise of agency in the Iranian EFL context. More specifically, as part of a larger study, it reports on the ways two Iranian Ministry of Education teachers make sense of and operate in the country’s educational setting under the demands of a centralist system of education. Priestley, Biesta, & Robinson’s (2013) framework of teacher agency formed the conceptual backbone of the present study as well as guiding the data collection/analysis of the study. Qualitative data, from semi-structured interviews as well as follow-up data collection procedures, were gleaned from the participants over the course of an academic year and were subjected to analytical interpretation in the light of the said framework. The researchers came up with findings which, in the main, gave more weight to the well-roundedness of Priestly, Biesta, & Robinson’s model of teacher agency. The results also pointed to the highly situated nature of teache...
Cogent Arts & Humanities, 2020
The current study investigated the ways in which two major U.S. political arena social actors, Ba... more The current study investigated the ways in which two major U.S. political arena social actors, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, presented themselves to capture the audience's attention in the 2012 election campaign speeches. The data consisted of 30 speeches delivered by Obama as the representative of the Democratic Party and Romney as the Republican Party representative from 2011 to 2012. Through the resources of Critical Discourse Analysis (henceforth CDA), common strategies in the speeches, most notably positive self-representation, others' negative representation, legitimization, delegitimization, and persuasion which are commonly used in political discourse to win voters' attention, were identified.The findings revealed that Obama frequently focused on evoking the myth of the "American dream", whereas Romney mostly used the others' negative representation strategy. In conclusion, it seems that Obama was successful in implementing and conveying his message through rhetorical devices. However, Romney's excessive use of others' negative representation seemed to be unsuccessful in attaining his goals.
Higher Education Policy, 2019
The aim of this investigation was twofold: to explore how policy texts are discursively involved ... more The aim of this investigation was twofold: to explore how policy texts are discursively involved in the formation of subject positions and to help lay bare the part dominant hegemonic discourses play in this process. To this end, a policy document on the Iranian higher education quality supervision, assessment, and assurance system was analyzed using the theoretical lens of poststructuralism and the analytical resources of critical discourse analysis to see how language is implicated in the asymmetrical representation of actors/ actions in that domain of social life, and might channel our views of reality in specific ways. The findings revealed that whereas the assessees, i.e., Iranian university teachers, are depicted as faceless entities who are at the receiving end of the quality assurance process, the assessors are foregrounded and come to life through the workings of the policy text. In addition, being a mix of especially legal and technocratic genres, the document discursively legitimizes the closely intertwined processes of higher education quality supervision, assessment, and assurance in ways that seem to leave little room, if any, for the potential assessees to challenge them. Implications for policy and research are finally given.
American Journal of Linguistics, 2012
Adopting and adapting Theo van Leeuwen's system networks of the representation of social actors, ... more Adopting and adapting Theo van Leeuwen's system networks of the representation of social actors, this study explores the morpho-syntactic modes through which social actors implicated in Iran's nuclear activities discourse are represented in news reports of 4 Western quality papers all dealing, one way or another, with the issue of imposing or tightening sanctions on Iran, viz. The Economist, Express, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. Using the 5 sets of categories of inclusion/exclusion, activation/passivation, association/dissociation, individualisation/ assimilation, and personalisation/impersonalisation, we try to show the possible asymmetrical patterns in representing a variety of social actors involved, in particular the actors associated with the Western camp and the Iranian government on the issue of the sanctions. The findings have revealed systematic ideological bias in representing the Iranian side, thereby giving a differential treatment of Iran.
This small-scale study set out to identify polite request forms in the speech of Iranian first-gr... more This small-scale study set out to identify polite request forms in the speech of Iranian first-graders (i.e., 7-year-old children) and to identify differences between male and female children. To this end, 29 male first-graders and 30 females were asked to report how they would ask for something. The forms and the structures were analyzed and patterns were identified. A Chi-square test of independence was subsequently run to see if there was any relationship between gender and preference of direct over indirect polite request forms. The results indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the choice of direct or indirect forms and the gender of 7-year-old children. Girls were found to favor more indirect forms, whereas boys opted more for direct structures. The study warrants further follow-up investigations and/or replications, given the small sample size.
International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature, 2014
Based on the expert observation that the teacher "supervisor's role is, in part, culturally defin... more Based on the expert observation that the teacher "supervisor's role is, in part, culturally defined" (Bailey, 2006, p.6), and the perceived gap that few supervisors receive formal training, in the current study, the researchers report on the views of Ministry of Education (MOE) teachers and supervisors in the Iranian context as to what constitutes the knowledge base of supervisors. Having conducted qualitative content analysis on the data gleaned from interviews with the teachers and supervisors and open-ended questionnaires, we came up with a framework of supervisory skill/knowledge domains-one encompassing public relations skills, subject matter knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and contextual sensitivity. The results show that teachers by and large, by voicing their discontent with current supervisory routines, opt for humanistic supervisory procedures. The study, hoping to be taken up with more supervisory knowledge base studies, ends with advice on building supervisory preparation courses into existing teacher development programs.
Discourse & Society, 2012
The present research aimed at spotting any possible biased coverage a typical Western newspaper s... more The present research aimed at spotting any possible biased coverage a typical Western newspaper such as The Economist gives to the issue of Iran’s nuclear power program at large and specifically to the way in which the main actors involved in the controversy are portrayed and the actions thereof – most notably, the act of delegitimating Iran’s nuclear program – are represented. To this end, a critical discourse analytic approach centered around Wodak’s ‘discursive strategies’ and Van Leeuwen’s representational resources was applied to 23 argumentative articles of The Economist, all dealing exclusively with Iran’s nuclear contention. The results showed that the differential treatment the Western paper gave to the issue at hand, in terms of scope and complexity, was in line with the advocated policy of the aforementioned paper, that is imposing more sanctions on the country.
International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature, 2014
The present research is a follow-up to another study (Rasti & Sahragard, 2012) with an exclusive ... more The present research is a follow-up to another study (Rasti & Sahragard, 2012) with an exclusive focus on political metaphor in general and specifically its (de)legitimatory role in the British paper The Economist. The Western paper takes an explicit sanctions-supportive stance on Iran's nuclear issue. With an eye to spotting instances of political metaphor in the said paper, the researchers, in the process of analyzing the data, which included 30 argumentative and expository articles taken from the British paper within two time frames-the first spanning 2005-2006 and the second encompassing data from 2012 and the beginning of 2013, came up with a superordinate metaphorical pattern i.e., IRAN AS A HUMAN and its concomitant submetaphors i.e., IRAN AS A RACER/PLAYER, IRAN AS A BUSINESSMAN, IRAN AS A SUFFERER, and IRAN AS A SUSPECT/CULPRIT (for the first phase) and IRAN AS A WRONGDOER, IRAN AS A PATIENT and IRAN AS AN UNWANTED GUEST/A TRESPASSOR (as far as the second phase was concerned). The study concludes with the insight that the Western newspaper, among other things, stylistically and rhetorically employs and manipulates the metaphorical scenarios to justify and highlight the force and effectiveness of the West-backed sanctions against Iran and to render the country's nuclear plans as illicit and unwarranted.
This small-scale study set out to identify polite request forms in the speech of Iranian first-gr... more This small-scale study set out to identify polite request forms in the speech of Iranian first-graders (i.e., 7-year-old children) and to identify differences between male and female children. To this end, 29 male first-graders and 30 females were asked to report how they would ask for something. The forms and the
structures were analyzed and patterns were identified. A chi-square test of independence was subsequently run to see if there was any relationship between gender and preference of direct over indirect polite request forms. The results
indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the choice of direct or indirect forms and the gender of 7-year-old children. Girls were found to favor more indirect forms, whereas boys opted more for direct structures. The study warrants further follow-up investigations and/or
replications, given the small sample size.
Based on the expert observation that the teacher "supervisor's role is, in part, culturally defin... more Based on the expert observation that the teacher "supervisor's role is, in part, culturally defined" (Bailey, 2006, p.6), and the perceived gap that few supervisors receive formal training, in the current study, the researchers report on the views of Ministry of Education (MOE) teachers and supervisors in the Iranian context as to what constitutes the knowledge base of supervisors. Having conducted qualitative content analysis on the data gleaned from interviews with the teachers and supervisors and open-ended questionnaires, we came up with a framework of supervisory skill/knowledge domains -one encompassing public relations skills, subject matter knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and contextual sensitivity. The results show that teachers by and large, by voicing their discontent with current supervisory routines, opt for humanistic supervisory procedures. The study, hoping to be taken up with more supervisory knowledge base studies, ends with advice on building supervisory preparation courses into existing teacher development programs.
In many of the Iranian universities, currently there seems to exist a huge lacuna in the way prac... more In many of the Iranian universities, currently there seems to exist a huge lacuna in the way practitioners of the two fields of English Literature and Teaching English as a foreign language (both enjoying the same departmental or collegiate residency) are involved, if any, in a give and take of their ideas and practices. The present study sets out to show how some analytic tools at the literary critic's disposal can be put into practice in language classes at large. One such notable tool, instantiated practically by the investigation, in vogue internationally , Hirvela, 1996, but apparently still not in the limelight in the Iranian context, relates to the use of Reader Response Theory in reinterpreting the role of the reader and the mode through which they make sense of L2 reading texts. This study aims at sketching the theoretical and practical implications of employing the said literary tool in L2 classrooms.
The present research is a follow-up to another study with an exclusive focus on political metapho... more The present research is a follow-up to another study with an exclusive focus on political metaphor in general and specifically its (de)legitimatory role in the British paper The Economist. The Western paper takes an explicit sanctions-supportive stance on Iran's nuclear issue. With an eye to spotting instances of political metaphor in the said paper, the researchers, in the process of analyzing the data, which included 30 argumentative and expository articles taken from the British paper within two time frames -the first spanning 2005-2006 and the second encompassing data from 2012 and the beginning of 2013, came up with a superordinate metaphorical pattern i.e.,
Adopting and adapting Theo van Leeuwen's system networks of the representation of social actors, ... more Adopting and adapting Theo van Leeuwen's system networks of the representation of social actors, this study explores the morpho-syntactic modes through which social actors implicated in Iran's nuclear activities discourse are represented in news reports of 4 Western quality papers all dealing, one way or another, with the issue of imposing or tightening sanctions on Iran, viz. The Economist, Express, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. Using the 5 sets of categories of inclusion/exclusion, activation/passivation, association/dissociation, individualisation/ assimilation, and personalisation/impersonalisation, we try to show the possible asymmetrical patterns in representing a variety of social actors involved, in particular the actors associated with the Western camp and the Iranian government on the issue of the sanctions. The findings have revealed systematic ideological bias in representing the Iranian side, thereby giving a differential treatment of Iran.