The speech act of refusals has been studied widely either alone or in relation to such areas as apology, requests, promotion, and invitation. The present study aims to investigate the strategies employed by Iraqi females in refusing marriage proposals. It attempts to explore their preferences to respond directly or indirectly in relation to their ages and educational background of the parents. The sample of the study consists of 25 participants; they are learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) at the College of Education for Women/ University of Baghdad. The data are collected by using a discourse completion task (DCT) followed by a follow up interview. The researchers used a Google form shared via emails to get responses from the participants. The items of the completion task are mainly designed by the researchers after surveying the literature so as to have the situations in the final shape. Beebe’s et al. (1990) taxonomy is selected as the most comprehensive modal for the analysis of refusal strategies of the respondents. The results indicated that the Iraqi females tend to use more indirect strategies to refuse the marriage proposals. The most frequently used order of responses began with an apology followed by gratitude and then the reason for refusal, as a typical Iraqi way of expressing their refusal. Based on the fact that the study sample are EFLs, there were signs of pragmatic failure as some of the responses carry some negative transfer, thus, the researchers recommend that future studies have to focus on teaching the methods of refusing appropriately by incorporating the teaching of speech acts, including the speech act of refusals, with more details in their Bachelor Program.
This study investigates the phonotactics of English obstruent clusters in the word-final position from a markedness theory perspective among Iraqi EFL College Students whose native language, Arabic, prefers only two-member word-final obstruent cluster as a maximum. The markedness of clusters is measured depending on Iraqi EFL College Students’ utilization of the simplification strategies. This study tries to answer whether or not word-final obstruent clusters are marked or unmarked for Iraqi EFL College Students, and whether or not the markedness of the obstruent cluster increases as to its length. In order to answer these questions, a test has been distributed among 60 Iraqi EFL Fourth-Year College students, Department of English, Colleg
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People are supposed to use language harmoniously and compatibly. However, aggression may characterize much of human communication. Aggression has long been recognized as a negative anti-social issue that prevails in most personal interactions. If it abounds in familial communications, it is more dangerous due to its harmful effects on individuals, and consequently on societies. Aggression refers to all the instances in which we try to get our way without any consideration for others. Moriarty’s novel (2014), Big Little Lies, is argued to represent the patterns of aggressive communications. This study aims to find out the motivations behind aggressive language in familial communication in this
... Show MorePragmatics of translation is mainly concerned with how social contexts have their own influence on both the source text (ST) initiator's linguistic choices and the translator's interpretation of the meanings intended in the target text (TT). In translation, socio-pragmatic failure(SPF), as part of cross-cultural failure, generally refers to a translator's misuse or misunderstanding of the social conditions placed on language in use. In addition, this paper aims to illustrate the importance of SPF in cross-cultural translation via identifying that such kind of failure most likely leads to cross-cultural communication breakdown. Besides, this paper attempts to answer the question of whether translators from English into Arabic or vice versa h
... Show MoreBackground: Patients requiring renal biopsies have various glomerular diseases according to their demographic characteristics.
Objective: To study types of glomerular disease among adult Iraqi patients in a single center in Baghdad/Iraq
Material and Methods: A total of 120 native kidney biopsies were studied. All biopsies were adequate and were processed for Light Microscopy.
The age range of the study patients was 17-67 years, with a mean of 38.5 years. The mean follow up period was 28 weeks (4-52 weeks)
Indication for biopsy included: Nephrotic syndrome (N=72; 60%), Asymptomatic proteinuria (N=21; 17.5%), acute nephritic presentation (N=17; 14.16%), asymptomatic haematuria (N=10; 8.33%).
Results: Primary glomerulonephrit
The present study investigates the use of intensifiers as linguisticdevices employed by Charles Dickens in Hard Times. For ease of analysis, the data are obtained by a rigorous observation of spontaneously occurring intensifiers in the text. The study aims at exploring the pragmatic functions and aesthetic impact of using intensifiers in Hard Times.The current study is mainly descriptive analytical and is based on analyzing and interpreting the use of intensifiers in terms ofHolmes (1984) andCacchiani’smodel (2009). From the findings, the novelist overuses intensifiers to the extent that 280 intensifiers are used in the text. These intensifiers(218) are undistinguished
... Show MoreListening comprehension of Iraqi EFL college students are not given time for practice, and incorporate in the programme of the Department of English, therefore, students are not well-prepared to comprehend the spoken language also the Iraqi EFL College students are deficient in comprehending the spoken English. So, listening strategies require a larger amount of consistent practice. The present study aims at finding out the effect of teaching the proposed listening strategies programme on EFL university students' listening comprehension. The sample consists of 104 of 1st year college students at the Department of English Language, College of Education Ibn-Rushed for Humanities. The programme deals with the following strategies: summrazing-n
... Show MoreBackground: Hypothyroidism is the most prevalent thyroid disorders worldwide. Hypothyroidism manifestations are wide spectrum, affecting various systems in human body including the nervous system. Hypothyroidism can cause neuropsychiatric symptoms such as anxiety, depression and diminishing in attention, memory and executive function. Aim: to investigate the level of anxiety and depression in patients with hypothyroidism receiving levothyroxine treatment. Method: a cross-sectional study was conducted at Baghdad Center for Nuclear Medicine and Radiation Therapy from March to June 2022. The study population included patients of both genders, aged 18-65 years, diagnosed with hypothyroidism, were receiving levothyroxine treatment and
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