Foreign Language Education Policies in Iran: Pivotal Macro Considerations

Foreign Language Education Policy (FLEP) needs to beunderstood as part of broader educational policies and as situatedwithin overarching social macro plans. In this paper, based on aconception of policy as distinct from goals and objectives, and with aview of the relevant literature, we will present some theoreticalguidelines of setting and/or evaluating foreign language educationpolicies in the context of broader social and educational policies.Considering theses guidelines a point of departure, several nationalplan-based documents and in some cases non-finalized documents thatreflect some aspects of language education policies of Iran wereexamined to find the directions and orientations of these plans and the(in)consistencies among them: The 20-year National Vision; TheComprehensive Science Roadmap; The National Curriculum; Policiesof the 5th 5-year Development Plan; The National Document ofEducation; Philosophy of Education in the Islamic Republic of Iran;Fundamental Principles in Islamic Education; and Roadmap of theOfficial and General Educational System. Referring to the strengthsalong with some shortcomings and inconsistencies among thesedocuments as well as the statues of English in the so called globalvillage, we call for a separate unitary FLEP document for Iran andpresent the requirements and procedure for its actualization.