Challenges of the French Literature Curriculum at the Bachelor's Level in Iran

The presence of the French language in Iran dates back to the Safavid period and teaching of the language officially dates back to 1936 in Iranian universities. University of Tehran was the first university in Iran that had a course of French language and literature. Currently, Universities of Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan, Tabriz, Ahvaz, Sabzevar, Shiraz, Hamedan, and Yazd accept students at BA, MA, and PhD level interested in French translation, teaching and literature. French language and literature has the highest number of applicants at BA level, and Islamic Azad University has the biggest share. Many researchers have studied problems of French language students in phonology, grammar, writing, and oral production, but the challenges of teaching literature is underresearched. To this end researches should be conducted from three perspectives: professors, students and curriculum. In this research, through observation and questionnaire students perspectives regarding curriculum set by the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology were examined. Then strengths and weaknesses of the topics used in different universities were analyzed. The purpose of this study was to take a step towards solving the problems of a large part of the students accepted in this study and to provide solutions to solve some of these problems.