فصلنامه نوآوری های آموزشی
پیاپی 35 (پاییز 1389)

Vocabulary teaching is an important part of language learning and it has been deservedly considered in “Primary School Persian Language Curriculum Guide” (PSPLCG). However it has been somehow ignored in first grade Persian Language textbook ‘bexanim’. This paper aims to analyze the lexical pattern of ‘bexanim’ with regard to PSPLCG principles. To do this, first the words used for ‘bexanim’ pictures and lessons was entered into the Excel, so that their frequency could be determined and they could be classified. Then, cases such as low-frequency words, inappropriate order, frequency differences of the words with the same semantic weight, incompatibility of the words of pictures with words of lessons and lack of child-oriented words was presented with evidence. In sum, using Excel, 1826 word tokens and 553 word types were obtained and then their frequencies and categories were identified. A new word classification, based on their educational function (core words, marginal words, letter-teaching words) and finally, the ‘metaword model’ are among the noticeable points of this paper. Considering the ‘metaword model’, we could provide a new direction to vocabulary teaching in the first grade.

The present study tries to pave the way for developing the objectives and components of language arts instruction in the national language curriculum at secondary education level, consistent with primary and guidance educational level. The research method was qualitative content analysis. The data consisted of national language curriculum guide of Iran (1386), national language curriculum of America (New Jersey state, 2004) and Western Australia (1998) at secondary educational level, which were gathered through library research and taking notes from Iranian and foreign documents. In this research, the objectives and components of language arts instruction in national language curriculum of the mentioned countries were analyzed carefully, using the features of “autonomous” and “ideological” approaches. It became clear that the objectives and components of language arts instruction in national language curriculum of America and Australia were developed according to the ideological approach, but the objectives and components of language arts instruction in national language curriculum of Iran was developed mostly under the influence of autonomous approach. After discussing the characteristics of national language curriculum of the above mentioned countries- all developed under the influence of ideological approach- the weaknesses and strengths of objectives and components of language arts instruction in Iran’s National language curriculum was discussed.

One of mostly criticized topics in high school Farsi textbooks is “compound verbs”. This is the most problematic topic according to Farsi literature teachers. In this paper, First, some of the grammarians and linguists΄ views on compound verbs is presented. Then, the scientific and linguistic basis of compound verbs is introduced. And at last, the problems of high school Farsi textbook (2) on this topic would be considered and criticized. The topic of compound verbs in the above mentioned textbook reflects Vahidiyan Kamyar΄s views. On the contrary to many Iranian grammarians and linguists (Khanlari,1365; Sadeghi,1372; Dabirmoghadam,1374), he believes that the number of Farsi compound verbs are very few. To support this claim, he resorts to the syntactic criterion of “non-expandability of the non-morphological part of compound verbs”. There is lots of cases that violates this criterion, due to its haphazard assortment (mishmash) of the grammatical and syntactic principles. In this paper, while criticizing Vahidiyan Kamyar΄s views, the inadequacies of the compound verb topic in high school Farsi textbook (2) was discussed. Then, following Karimi (2005) and Karimi-Doostan (2005), it has been tried to resolve the above mentioned problems. Also, using semantic and syntactic criterions such as clefting and the use of morpheme “ra”, some criterion for identification of compound verbs was introduced.

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the relationship among working memory (WM), reading performance and academic achievement in male monolingual (ML) and bilingual (BL) students. Also, the second aim was presenting a well-fitted model for interpretation of these interrelationship, based on the theoretically recommended model. Participants consisted of 380 (188 BL Fars-Tork and 192 ML Fars) male primary students at grade five (12-13 years of age) who were matched on variables including age, sex and grade and were selected through multi-stage cluster sampling. To assess working memory (WM), we used Information Processing Index (IPI) and to assess reading performance we used tests for assessing the reading performance and dyslexia (NMA). Also, the students’ average scores on Math, Farsi and Science final exam were used as indexes of academic achievement. The impact of WM on reading performance and academic achievement, path coefficients and the fitness of suggested model on ML and BL students were investigated. The results showed that the direct effect of WM on endogenous variables of research (reading performance and academic achievement) and also the direct effect of reading performance and academic achievement as endogenous independent and dependent variables in both groups were positive and significant. However, path coefficients were higher for BL students. Also, the data were fitted with predicted model in both groups. The highest path coefficients were between WM and academic achievement for BL students, and between WM and reading performance for ML students. Also, for both groups of students, the lowest path coefficients were between reading performance and academic achievement. Furthermore, Analysis of variance demonstrated that the differences between the two groups in all components (variables) were significant except for phoneme deletion and reading high frequency words. It meant that BL students outperformed ML students in all components.

According to Arabic language curriculum guide, Among different approaches for second Language Teaching, the approach of “text comprehension specially religious one” has been chosen for teaching this subject. The reasons of this choice were: the authors’ conception of Iran’s constitution (Basic Rules), the advice of supreme leader and the educational needs and experiences. This approach determines some “musts” and “must nots” for textbook authors and has its effect on every part of textbooks such as contents exercises, core vocabulary, idioms etc. This article is going to explain this approach and its reasons, methods, procedures and so on. Finally it is concluded that the choice of the mentioned approach does not have any important influence on Learning Arabic standard language.

The aim of this research was to evaluate how much the Arabic teachers use teaching methods determined in Arabic textbooks of pre-university level. Statistical population of this research consisted of all students and teachers in humanity field in Pre-University of the cities Dorud, Brujerd, Azna, Aligudarz of Lorestan province. The research method was survey, the research instrument was a questionnaire and the method of sampling was random clustering. Four questions of this research were: a. From students’ view, how much Arabic teachers use suitable methods for teaching texts? b. From the teachers’ view, how much they use appropriate methods for teaching texts? c. Is there a difference between experienced and low-experienced teachers’ views? d. Is there any significant difference between students’ answers and teachers’ answers? Findings showed that there is a significant difference between students and teachers’ answers, due to poor performance of teachers and low understanding of students and because of lack of interest in Arabic texts and problems of Arabic textbooks in Pre-University level.

The communicative approach in teaching foreign languages which was first introduced as an alternative against the traditional Grammar Translation and Audio-lingual Methods overcame its limitations and has been reinforced in its process of development. Now it has the status of the dominant approach in teaching foreign languages in many countries especially in Asia and the Middle East. The numerous researches which have studied the secondary level curriculum of foreign languages in our country have all confirmed its inadequacy and most of them have attributed the inadequacy to its traditional approach. In 2006, with the aim of improving the foreign languages curriculum, the Curriculum Centre in Organization for Educational Research and Planning formed a committee of curriculum experts and University professors with the mission to develop a Guide to curriculum of the three foreign languages: English, French and German. The committee’s work over one and a half years led to the development of a guide to the above mentioned curriculum. In May 2007, the framework was evaluated in a one-day meeting in which the managers and curriculum experts from almost all subject departments participated. The present article intends to introduce the major themes of the the guide to curriculum of foreign languages and its critique. Also, through discussing the required bases for its implementation, the paper intends to set forth the opportunities and challenges ahead of the implementation phase. Since success in making positive changes in the curriculum depends on the public discussion of relevant issues with the aim of convincing all the stake-holders, the present article intends to set the scene for this purpose through its discussion of the issues.