Integrating Culture in Persian Language Teaching: A Classroom Guide
摘要
This chapter argues that Persian language classes are appropriate places for teaching culture. I propose that incorporating culture in Persian language classes can facilitate a better understanding, awareness, and engagement with the language, resulting in training critical international citizens, as it is a shared aim of most regional studies departments. This chapter also examines the evolving dynamics in language education, particularly in relation to shifts in other academic disciplines regarding how culture is conceptualized and presented. Through a historical review of cultural teaching in language education, I equip Persian language educators, including those who design and teach materials and curricula with the necessary tools for evaluating their educational resources. I will then introduce practical classroom techniques that are in line with the most recent theories on teaching culture. These techniques challenge the assumptions of a unified and monolithic Tehran-centric nation-state and introduce Persian and Iranian culture as layered, diverse, and dynamic. The result aims to aim to train critical intercultural speakers in Persian language classes.