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ENGLISH IN IRAN: CULTURAL REPRESENETATION IN ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS

<p>This investigation into the status of English
in Iran and cultural presentations in Iranian English has two areas of
emphasis. The first is a sociolinguistic
profile of English in Iran in which the status, functions, uses and users of
this language are described within in the country’s social and political
contexts. In this part, contributing
factors to the growth of English in three political periods, including the
Qajar dynasty (1796 -1925), the Pahlavi era (1925-1979) and post-Revolutionary
time (1979 – present), are elaborated upon to establish the historical and
political bases for the second area of focus.</p>

<p>The second focus is the cultural content in the
locally developed English textbooks used from 1939 to the present time (2020).
Accordingly, the content of four generations (across five textbook series) of
Iranian high school English textbooks are analyzed based on an evaluation
scheme which the author has developed. This research finds answers to the
questions on the status of culture in the Iranian English textbooks;
distribution of Iranian and non-Iranian cultures; dominance of cultural
elements (products, practices and perspectives) in each English textbooks
series; and the political and ideological influence of each era on the content
of English textbooks.</p>

<p>This investigation finds that the English
textbooks which were developed before the Islamic Revolution (first and second
generations) were highly cultural compared to the post-Revolution materials
(third and fourth generations). Also, non-Iranian cultural components
(particularly the American and British cultures) were more represented in the
English textbooks of the Pahlavi period, whereas Western cultures were all
eliminated in the post-Revolution textbooks, replaced by the
Islamic/Revolutionary cultures. Additionally, cultural perspectives outnumbered
cultural products and practices in the first and second generations of English
textbooks (Pahlavi era) whereas cultural products dominated the post-Revolutionary
English materials. This study finds that political and ideological hegemony of
each era have directly influenced the textual and illustrative content of
locally developed English textbooks in Iran.<a> </a></p>

  1. 10.25394/pgs.12584636.v1
Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/12584636
Date24 July 2020
CreatorsNegin H Goodrich (9037970)
Source SetsPurdue University
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, Thesis
RightsCC BY 4.0
Relationhttps://figshare.com/articles/thesis/ENGLISH_IN_IRAN_CULTURAL_REPRESENETATION_IN_ENGLISH_TEXTBOOKS/12584636

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