Needs Analysis for the Course of Dialectology" and the Necessity of Developing the Relevant Textbook in the Universities of Iran

Endangered languages and dialects, as a mirror of cultural and civilizational history, constitute a major part of spiritual heritage and national identity of a country. “Dialectology” is a methodological measure. In Iran, this field of study lacks a rich literature since the only core of reference is the few graduate theses done in the area of linguistic research and some other few relevant academic fields. While the studies of dialectology have been carried out in Iran since 1961, no general or determined university unit of study has been assigned to “dialectology” in academic curricula. Consequently, no specific textbook has been developed to better organize and cover this subject. In this article, the internationally oriented attention paid to this field of study is reviewed and the existing national Iranian dialects with their branches have been listed. Besides, a sort of complete portrait of all the national researches concerning “dialectology” has been presented to the readers to make available better studies. Finally, after the explanation of the existing models, the apt path of developing the needed material to this end is mapped while the possible obstacles of specifying an independent university course unit of study have been introduced and discussed. Inclusion of a “dialectology” unit in the curricula of the relevant fields is impressively advised to pave the way for the purposeful composition and presentation of textbooks for This subject.