Representation of Nature in an Elementary Persian Textbook

Due to the importance of textbooks in forming students’ social identity and character, the present research tends to study Grade two Persian primary textbook in terms of the importance given to nature. This issue is of crucial importance affecting learners’ outlook and behavior toward their environment. Taking some linguistic features such as lexicons, grammar (transitive, non-transitive and relationals) used to depict nature, the researchers analyzed the book to find the writer(s)’ outlook toward nature. The findings of the study shows that nature, in general (flower, animals, mountains, sky, etc.), do not have powerful status. From a more specific standpoint, birds, sky and those associated with the sky are found to be more powerful compared with soil, ground, food, and the like. Surprisingly, water and related words are in the weakest position. Considering the age of the learners and impact of textbooks on building the students’ personality, some suggestions and implications are in order.