Teachers’ View on Using Literary Texts with Cultural Features to Teach Persian to Non-Persian Language Learners

Document Type : Research

Author

Assistant Professor, Department of Teaching Persian Language, Persian Language Learning Centre, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran

Abstract

Since the early eighties of the 20th century and following the criticism of the empty place of culture in language teaching methods and approaches, emphasis was placed on  the necessity of using culture as a basic pillar in language teaching; because the critics evaluated the awareness of the cultural themes governing the target language society as very important, and considered mastering a foreign language to be much more than a simple combination of words, sounds and sentences (Roche, 2001; quoted from Firoozabadi & Amiri, 2010). Therefore, selecting sources that effectively reflect societal cultural issues is crucial for incorporating culture into second/foreign language teaching.  This is where literary texts stand as one of the worthiest representatives of cultures of nations in this field. This research was aimed to determine the importance of the indicators of literary instances with cultural characteristics in teaching Persian to non-Persian speakers through literary texts at both intermediate and advanced levels. The questions that this research seeks to answer are as follows:

What is the importance of using indicators of literary instances with cultural characteristics for teaching Persian language to non-Persian speakers at the intermediate and advanced levels, according to experienced teachers?
What is the best order of using literary contents with cultural characteristics based on their importance in teaching Persian language to non-Persian speakers at both intermediate and advanced levels from the perspective of experienced teachers in this field?

Keywords

Main Subjects


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