1

Ioan Lucian Popa

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2

Chung Chin-Yi

In this paper I examine the negative phenomenologies of Merleau-Ponty and
Blanchot. Negative phenomenologies repress difference as the transcendental
and the empirical are repetitions of the same through iterability. I argue that
a negative phenomenology or a reversal of phenomenology repeats it rather
than managing to escape from it. This is because it still proceeds within its
metaphysical vocabulary and ontological structure. Thus, Merleau-Ponty and
Blanchot, in inverting and reversing phenomenology, only repeat it by
borrowing entirely from its metaphysical vocabulary and structure. Derrida's
phenomenology in place, is a meta-phenomenology in discovering the origin
of phenomenology as difference, or the difference between philosophy and
non-philosophy, transcendental and empirical. Derrida discovers the
condition of possibility for phenomenology as quasi-transcendental, or the
interval between the transcendental and empirical which conditions
phenomenology in its entirety. The transcendental and empirical are
paradoxically identical and non-identical because the difference translates
into sameness.

3

Mihaela Mitescu-Lupu , Andreia Irina Suciu

The paper introduces a brief analysis of current trends in the field of initial teacher education whilst focusing on the relationship between policies and practices as depicted in the recent flow of research literature focusing on the issue. An overview of recent literature is presented with the purpose of situating possible perspectives on new research addressing the subject of initial teacher education.

This work has been supported by CNCSISUEFISCSU,
project number 282, PN II –RU - 58 /2010.
Keywords: initial teacher education, policy, practice, research

4

Sasan Baleghizadeh , Mohammad Golbin

A large number of variables influence the way a learner comprehends a reading passage, one of which is vocabulary size. The studies which have focused on this seemingly important aspect, in some settings, are few and far between. This indicates the importance of running more research in this respect. The present study endeavored to examine this variable to discover its effect on reading comprehension ability of Iranian EFL learners. In so doing, 83 Iranian first-year university students (22 males and 61 females) were given a vocabulary size test (Nation 1990) and a reading comprehension test (TOEFL version 2004). The results showed a very significant correlation between vocabulary size and reading comprehension (r = .84, p < .05), which points out the necessity of improving the learners' vocabulary size in coping with reading passages. However, the high correlation found in this study calls for more replications to add to the precision of such a relationship.

Keywords: vocabulary size, reading comprehension, Iranian EFL learners.

5

Zia Tajeddin , Minoo Alemi

This study addressed high- and low-proficiency learners' preferences for two compensation strategies: guessing and compensating for missing knowledge. To this end, the TOEFL and a compensation strategy questionnaire were administered to 229 EFL learners. The results showed there was a simple pattern in guessing strategy use in that high- proficiency learners drew more frequently on guessing strategies. However, a curvilinear pattern emerged as to the strategies of overcoming limitations. More proficient learners manifested less preference for these strategies but used them more effectively. By contrast, less proficient learners took recourse to L1-based and avoidance strategies to overcome limitations. 

Key words: compensation strategies, language proficiency, guessing the meaning, compensating for missing knowledge

6

Ali Rahimi , Soheila Tahmasebi

In Sociocultural Theory (SCT), mediations in second language learning include (1) mediation by others (2) mediation by self (3) mediation by artifacts, which incorporates brilliant insights for EFL contexts (Lantolf, 2000a). Putting these ideas in a task-based method, the present study aimed at examining the contribution of scaffolding and private speech in improving EFL learners’ reading skills. Screened through an Oxford Placement Test, 54 EFL freshmen taking a reading comprehension course participated in this study. Two types of measurements were used: 1) a final test of reading comprehension, 2) an oral presentation of a text whose readability matched that of the texts used during the experiment. The students' performances on presenting the text orally were rated based on the idea units recalled (Johnson 1970). 

7

Zénó Vernyik

This paper deals with Maurice Maeterlinck’s L’Oiseau Bleu and the question of its adaptability. The play has a history of big-budget adaptations encompassing seven decades; yet, no major film version has been successful, either commercially or critically. This essay offers a hypothesis for the continuing fascination of generations of directors in face of such a solid history of inability to reach either spectators or critics. It points out that the play’s popularity is both controversial and insufficient to account for this, and so is its seeming canonicity. Likewise, it argues against Andrea S. Thomas’ (2009) claim that the play has become an apparently authorless myth (422) through its history of multiple adaptations, and instead offers the alternative explanation, relying on Joseph Campbell’s (1949) theory of the monomyth, that the play has been a pastiche-like and authorless myth even at the very beginning, and this is the very reason it has such an impressive record of adaptations