A comparative analysis of cultural items in the textbooks of teaching Persian language.

Abstract This study offers a brief evaluation of the quantity and the impact of teaching culture parallel to teaching Persian language to others using Byram's checklist (1993). For this purpose, the following three books have been selected as samples to investigate the process of cultural transmission in a comparative analysis: ‘Zaban-e Farsi: Book 3’ (1386 — Ahmad Saffar Moghaddam), Amoozesh-e Zaban: book 1’ (1384 – Mehdi Zarghamiyan) and ‘Dars-e Farsi’ (1386 — Taghi Poornamdariyan). In these three books big ‘C’ culture refers to cultural items and materials such as national history, music, literature and art, and little ‘C’ culture refers to social practices such as behavior, etiquette, beliefs, values, and rules. This method counts the examples of teaching language with a focus on themes like life, family, school and workplace, while also keeping track of the quantity of cultural themes and the pertinent interactions. This study tries to develop a theory in which teaching culture is fully incorporated within the teaching of language. Key words: education, culture, language, communicative competence, non-Persian learners of Persian language,