This study investigates the impact of cultural and politico-religious dominance on the practice of critical reading (CR)
of texts by a group of Iranian postgraduate students in Australia. Four postgraduate students were interviewed individually four times (each
time for reading one text) for critical understanding of two pairs of Persian texts, each with opposing viewpoints, on current
socio-political and nationalistic debates of Iran. They were then involved in a focus group discussion for further critique of each other’s
viewpoints. Findings indicate two major Persian constructs that influence CR: hefz-e zaaher ‘keeping up appearances’ and
ta’sob/gheyrat, approximating to ‘one’s honor combined with prejudice and bigotry’. Findings also reveal that
participants’ CR is contributed by heavy emotional attachment to nationalistic views engendered by Persian poetry. Chafe (1982), too, found that emotional attachment in appraising text was true with American English speakers.
Finally, the focus group discussion had a slight impact on encouraging CR. Overall, it seems that participants’ repositioned journeys in
Australia have influenced their perspective.
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Cited by
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Zaini, Amin
2022. Ambivalent reading: Ambivalence as a reading practice in critical literacy. Language Teaching Research► pp. 136216882211267 ff.
Zaini, Amin
2022. Co-text and critical reading for international postgraduates in Australia. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 40:3 ► pp. 353 ff.
2024. Unsourced evidentiality and critical reading: the case of international postgraduates in Australia. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies 21:1 ► pp. 86 ff.
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