A Critique on the Approach of Foreign Language Education Section in Iran National Curriculum

This article examines the underlying approach of Iran National Curriculum to foreign language education. To this aim, it is necessary to refer to higher ranking writs such as ‘The Writ of Fundamental Development of Education’. The methodological approach of this article is ‘critical theory’, which seeks to reveal and criticize the ideological aspects of educational settings and practices. The data are mainly collected from the official documents about education, which have been obtained through library and data-base searching. The results of data analysis show that those parts of National Curriculum that are related to foreign language education have the advantage of taking into account the new theories of language education. However, at the same time it suffers from two crucial problems: 1) being affected by the ideological sphere of higher ranking writs, and 2) ignoring the normativity deficit inherent in the theories of language education which National Curriculum refers to. Therefore, the whole approach of National Curriculum to language education lacks the moral and normative aspects.