Localization, a Suitable Approach to French Language Teaching in Educational System of Iran

In recent years, the development of sociolinguistics basis along with the effective role of contextual features in didactics, have led language teaching policy makers to “localization of language teaching” approach all over the world. The attempt to resolve the educational deficiencies and shortcomings in the current methods of language teaching such as ignoring the language learners’ needs and context, led to development of theoretical basis and practical strategies in localization. This research, following an intercultural approach, intends to study the localization concept in French language teaching in Iran and to suggest a theoretical and practical framework for localization of foreign language teaching according to social, cultural, educational and political contexts in our country. In this research we aim to answer the two following questions: what are the mechanism and necessities of French language teaching localization in Iran, and, how is teaching culture in existing French textbooks and how far is it applicable .The present research is applicatory in nature and in terms of methodology, it is descriptive analytics, answering the main questions by means of content qualitative evaluation techniques. Our findings confirm the fact that French teaching in Iran is applicable in three levels, macro (educational localization), medium (curriculum localization) and micro (manual localization). On the other hand, content analyses of seven French teaching textbooks reveal unequal and unbalanced application of national identity factors versus French culture factors, ignoring intercultural approaches.