Document Type : مقالات علمی پژوهشی
Authors
1
lecturer of teaching Persian department of Imam Khomeini international university
2
professor in Persian language & literature department of Mohaghegh Ardabili university
3
Associated professor in Persian language & literature department of Guilan university
4
Associated professor in Persian language & literature department of Mohaghegh Ardabili university
Abstract
With the development of the language-based learning approach, language pedagogy takes more advantage of Child and Adolescent literature in teaching to non-native speakers. Besides, language plans were driven to adopt certain expected features; such as modern grammatical and morphological structures, expressing tangible meanings and events of everyday life, being pleasant, equipping learners with eloquence methods, and applying general and universal language pedagogy issues. Since literary texts have various levels and types, language education policymakers need to consider them in designating language plans. With survey methods, this paper illustrates the significance role of Child and Adolescent literature in teaching Persian to non-Persian learners. To achieve this goal, the authors created a questionnaire with eight literary genres in Child and Adolescent literature at three levels of language proficiency. The questionnaire was sent non-randomly to 94 Iranian teachers, experts in teaching Persian to non-Persian speakers and acquaintance with Persian literature. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS 22, calculating one-way Chi-square, applying Friedman and Mann-Whitney statistical test. Data analysis reveals that the relevant indices for beginner levels are either minor or insignificant. However, in the intermediate and advanced levels children’s tales and stories, along with adolescent poetry, are more emphasized.
1. Introduction
Children and adolescent literary texts retain an important role in teaching English as a second/foreign language, as some of the features of this literature have turned it into an indisputable pedagogy tool. Some of the many beneficial characteristics of this literature include the vocabulary and modern language structures which are close to the standard criteria of a language (due to novelty and lack of archaism), expression of tangible concepts and everyday events of the learners’ lives (due to categorization of the audience), introduction of eloquence methods to the learners simply and pleasantly, benefitting from general and global concepts, the ability to adjust the length and difficulty level of these texts to the goals and levels of the learners, and uniformity of the features and elements of this literature with the optimal structures of extensive-reading sources. Although, in many languages and especially in Persian, this literary category consists of many different sub-categories, and the choice of suitable texts requires thorough study and research. Hence, using the survey method and inquiring about the views of expert teachers in teaching Persian to non-native learners, the present study aims to determine the position of each of these sub-categories in teaching Persian to adult non-native learners at different (learning) levels.
The questions that the present study is posing to answer are as follows:
1. From the POV of expert teachers of Persian as a second/foreign language, how important are children and adolescent literature indices in teaching Persian to non-native learners at beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels?
2. What is the best order of application of children and adolescent content, based on the degree of importance, in teaching Persian to non-native learners of beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels?
3. How effective is the experience level of teachers in the determination of the importance of children and adolescent literature in teaching Persian to non-native speakers?
2. Methodology
The present study, which has been conducted across the universities and Persian language institutes of the country (Iran), has used the survey method. The study sample consisted of 94 Iranian teachers with experience in the field of teaching Persian as a second/foreign language who were also familiar with Persian literature. They were therefore chosen by a non-random, purposeful method based on accessibility.
The measuring tool of the study is a researcher-made questionnaire which was designed by using a five-point Likert scale based on the importance scale, degree of significance, and accordingly, the significance of applying examples of children and adolescent literature in creating educational material for teaching Persian to non-native speakers of beginner, intermediate and advanced levels and teaching Persian based on children and adolescent literature content from the point of view of expert and skilled Persian teachers.
To examine the validity of the questionnaire, two methods of face validity (views and modifications of experts on the statements of the questionnaire) and construct validity (the number of initial similarities between the statements) were employed. Hence, the face validity of the questionnaire was confirmed according to the opinion of experts, and the construct validity was verified by the minimum number of similarities between statements (0/7) at three levels beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Next, the final questionnaire was distributed online to be answered by the sample population.
To check the reliability of the questionnaire, an initial sample of 30 completed questionnaires was examined as a pre-test. Then, Cronbach's alpha coefficients of the questionnaires were calculated using the obtained data from the initial sample. The amount of Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels were 0,881, 0,943, and 0,933, respectively, which confirms the acceptable reliability of the questionnaire.
3. Summary and Conclusion
Examination of some of the educational material used for teaching Persian to non-natives shows little evidence of using children and adolescent literature, which could be a result of consecutive cognitive issues about examples of this literature. This means that the consciousness of the authors of examined teaching materials about the differences between the dominant narrative in children’s literature and adult literature might have led them to believe that instances of children’s literature cannot present an appropriate learning template for adult Persian learners and, in other words, this literary category might be inappropriate for an adult audience.
Also, research results show that the sample population distinguishes between examples of children and adolescent literature, such as 4 indices of folklore children’s literature including lullabies, nursery rhymes, game songs, and tales, and formally-recognized children and adolescent literature that consists of 4 manifestations including children and adolescent poetry and prose(stories). They identify the former category (folklore) as unimportant, but they permit the use of children’s poetry on an intermediate level, adolescent poetry, and children’s and adolescent prose (stories) on intermediate and advanced levels. Therefore, the aforementioned criteria can be used to compose educational texts for teaching Persian to non-native learners. By correctly choosing the material, the issue of balance between the topics and concepts and the adult audience can be resolved.
Keywords
Subjects
Language Related Research