Determining appropriate educational content standards for employing fictional stories in teaching Arabic to Iranian children and teenagers

“Children’s fictional literature” is a suitable tool for educating Iranian young people for two reasons: it is an original and attractive art that works to develop their linguistic and expressive skills, and provides them with interesting images; also it has qualities that distinguish it from other literary genres (poetry, novels, and drama), which makes it more suitable for foreign language classes. However, the problem of choosing educational content, and selecting meaningful and appropriate story texts based on the features of learners, stands in the way of achieving this goal, because it is a process that needs accuracy and good choice in view of the factors and standards surrounding the learners and their environment, and modern methods of education. Moreover, the educational program for Arabic language in the middle stage in Iran was not intended to choose original fictional texts from Arabic children’s fictional literature, so employing children’s fictional literature in teaching Arabic to children and adolescents in Iran has become a matter worthy of attention to obtain the scientific criteria for the selection of appropriate texts to teach Arabic in Middle school. So this study suggests a solution to this problem based on the descriptive-analytical approach. Whereas the results of the study concluded that the important criteria for choosing the appropriate educational content for employing the children’s story are summarized for the safety of the language and the correct cultural use of it, cultural sharing in religious values and the distance from monotony and linguistic dryness in order to increase linguistic competence, and develop the ability to understand and enjoy the fictional text. Thus, it would be a starting point in building a new curriculum suitable for Iranian children and young people in the current era.