dear listmembers,
i'm passing this on, on behalf of one of our iranian colleagues involved
in a post doc comparing the evaluative language used by NNS of english in
iran (mostly arabic and persian 1st language speakers), and that of NS of
english - using questions to elicit responses to movie(s) they've watched.
see below.
you may contact him directly, or i do not mind fielding any questions if
necessary.
thanks, and apologies for the long email - not sure if the list permits
attachments.
==========
My name is Muhammed Parviz, and I am currently conducting a post-doctoral
research project based at the Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz in Iran.
My goal is to enhance our understanding of evaluative meaning-making
markers in verbal communication among undergraduate and graduate students.
This research project involves students and native speakers watching
movies and attending an online informal interview. You will need to watch
three to five English movies from the movie list provided, and are then
invited to attend an online informal interview. The interview will take
around 10 minutes and is very informal. We are simply trying to capture
your thoughts and perspectives regarding a movie you watch, and we are
mainly interested in the use of evaluative language. Your responses to the
questions will be kept confidential. Each interview will be assigned a
number code to help ensure that personal identifiers are not revealed
during the analysis and write up of findings. More details regarding the
research agenda - including movie titles and questions to expect are
outlined below.
There is no compensation for participating in this study. However, your
participation will be a valuable addition to our research project and
findings could lead to deeper understanding of systemic functional
linguistics. If you are willing to participate, please suggest a day and
time that suits you and I'll do my best to comply. If you have any
questions, please feel free to ask. Thank you very much!
Best regards,
Muhammed Parviz
Post-doctoral Fellow
Email: mohammad.parviz60@xxxxxxxxx , m-parviz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cellphone: +989100641641
**
Evaluative Meaning-Making Markers in Verbal Communication: Exploring the
Dialogs of Native Speakers of English and Under/ Graduate Students
Overall Research Design
The present study aims to cross-linguistically investigate how non-native
speakers of English (i.e., Iranian EFL students) and native speakers of
English (NS) deploy Appraisal resources when they share their feelings
(affect, appreciation, judgement), and the value they place regarding what
they watch. The data will be derived from what they share in online
interactions in order to identify the similarities and differences in the
evaluative language features they employ. To this end, 30 non-native
speakers of English of both genders will be invited for data collection.
Non-native speakers will be undergraduate and graduate students majoring
in English Language Teaching (ELT).
In order to draw cross-linguistic comparisons, another group of target
participants will be @ 10 native speakers of English. Native speakers can
include both academics and non-academics due to limited availability.
Both groups of participants will take part in a dyadic conversation
(between researcher and subject) and will be interviewed on the movies
they watch to elicit information on Appraisal resources. Participants are
required to watch three to five English movies (see Appendix A) which are
of general interest and they are then invited to attend online informal
interviews. The interview will take around 10 minutes via SKYPE and is
very informal. Participants will be audio recorded to conduct a more
in-depth analysis of the data and to obtain a fine-grained view of how
they express their opinions on what they watch.
The online semi-structured interviews includes a set of pre-prepared
guiding questions.
The first few questions including demographic information (easy personal
or factual questions) are mainly for the NNS to set the tone or create
initial rapport.
1. Whats your name?
2. How old are you?
3. How long have you been studying English?
4. What is the highest level of education you have completed?
5. How do you decide which movie to see? Word of mouth? Ads? Awards?
Reviews?
6. Which types (genres) of movies do you enjoy the most/least? Why?
Content questions: these types of questions deal with 1) experiences &
behaviour, 2) opinions and values, 3) feelings, 4) sensory information
(what s.o. has seen, heard
)
7. Can you give the reasons why you chose this movie?
8. Can you describe the plot of the story?
9. Which character did you admire the most/the least? Why?
10. What was the strongest emotion that you felt while watching the movie?
11. What kind of thoughts did the movie provoke?
12. What message did you get from this movie?
The final closing question(s): can include is there anything else you
would like to add? Or What should I have asked you that I did not think to
ask?
13. Is there anything else you would like to add?
14. What should I have asked you that I did not think to ask?
Appendix A: List of Movies
1. Shawshank Redemption (1994)
2. The Mist (2007)
3. Dont Breathe (2016)
4. Green Mile (1999)
5. Shutter Island (2010)
6. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
7. Memento (2000)
8. Sing (2016)
9. The Secret Life of Pets (2016)
10. Incredible 2 (2018)
11. The Boss Baby (2017)
12. The Godfather (1972)
13. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
14. Forrest Gump (1994)
15. Parasite (2019)
16. Joker (2019)
17. Avengers: Endgame (2019)
18. Hamilton (2020)
19. The Father (2020)
20. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
==================
alexanne don
enmore-harcourt-adelaide
