The Study of Using Prose Texts in Persian Textbooks for Non-Persian Speakers and Their Interests to These Texts

Discussing second language teaching, the issue of transferring the culture of foundation society to objective society has always been considered by the teachers and even some instructors have considered that the transfer of culture as the fifth constituent after reading, writing, speaking and listening, in teaching language as effective. In this research, we discussed the importance of teaching classical literature as the transmitter part ofculture to non-Persian speakers and also the rate of using prose literary texts in booklets of teaching Persian language to non-Persian have been discussed. The chairs of Persian language in foreign countries have been reviewed and 10 booklets that are taught in these chairs reviewed due to the high value of ancient prose texts, and finally three texts selected from Golestan, Kalila and Dimna, and contemporary literature. Then a questionnaire designed to evaluate the rate of non-Persian students’ interest to ancient Persian texts. The statistical society consisted of 100 language learners who were taught Persian language in teaching centers in Iran and also 30 instructors completed the special questionnaire for themselves. The data were used to access validity and reliability of this research. The results of this research indicated that advanced learners are interested in the literature of 7^th and 8^th century AH, especially Golestantexts, and presentation of simplified texts helped them to understand their contents.
Extended Abstract:
In theories of second language teaching, the factor of culture has always been considered as the fifth effective factor in language learning. The purpose of this study is to investigate the interest of Persian learners in Persian prose texts.
In order to select texts, the authors have first done various studies in this field. Girar (1986) believes that learning literary texts can not be effective as a means of communication, but by creating beauty and introducing the learner to the culture of another country, it can be attractive and motivating.
According to Dadbeh & Scolton (1996), "what is valuable for a literary speaker familiar with the field is good speech, and all the effort and insistence is on "how to say" and this "how to say" to Clearness can be seen in the charming poems of the Persian language."
The main issue of the research is that if literary prose texts are included in the curriculum for teaching Persian to non-Persian speakers, what should be the characteristics of these texts, on the other hand, at what level we should add literary texts (introductory, intermediate, advanced) to the curriculum? Since literary prose texts, especially in the field of ancient literature, are mixed with difficult words and they are mainly taught at an advanced level, it seems that the advanced level is suitable for teaching prose texts such as "Golestan" and " Kelileh, Demneh" texts. According to the "Common European Framework", the learner acquires the necessary skills to understand Persian poetry at an advanced level.
Regarding the characteristics of texts, it is necessary to mention that considering lexical variables has a great effect on the choice of texts. In the design of this research, the issue has been considered either it is better for literary prose texts to be in the same state or provide a dictionary of difficult words? Will the use of simplified words in the text affect the rate of language learners' learning or not?
Another issue that has been considered in this research is the simplification of prose texts. Considering three approaches toward simplification, namely; The tendency to be faithful to the content and form of the original text, the tendency to content and manipulation in the form of the original text, and the tendency to manipulate the content and form of the original text, texts from "Kelileh, Demneh" and "Golestan" have been simplified and presented to learners.
The questions posed in this research are:
1. Are non-Persian language learners interested in classical literature?
2- At what level is this interest manifested?
3- How do simplified texts help language learners to understand?
Researchers developed and used a questionnaire using English language resources that surveyed students' interest in classical literature in their primary language. For this purpose, a questionnaire presented to the students of the University of "Alberta" and the results of which were used by the university were translated and used as a guide. In this questionnaire, students were asked to read 12 questions and answer them according to Likert criteria.
To simplify the research texts, the proposed model of Javadi Rad (2013), Payvar (1945) and Campbell (1987) have been used. Also, ten series of Persian language teaching books for non-Persian speakers (the best sellers) have been examined and evaluated from the perspective of whether the classical texts of Persian prose are included in the course content or not.
The method of this research is experimental. In this research, an attempt has been made to observe all the principles required for experimental research and to collect clear information and data and to examine the relationship between independent and dependent variables, and analyze the data to give clear and explicit answers to research questions. This research consists of two parts. In the first part, a questionnaire has been prepared for teachers. In this questionnaire, 11 questions were asked and teachers were also asked about the interests of language learners. 30 teachers with different educational backgrounds who teach at "Imam Khomeini International University", "Saadi Foundation" and "Dehkhoda Institute" answered these questions.
The collected data by this questionnaire were classified according to the teaching experience of teachers also the result clarified that the level of interest of language learners in advanced literature is "much" and they show more interest in "Golestan Saadi's" texts. The data of teachers' questionnaires were used to assess the validity and reliability of the research.
The second questionnaire was designed to assess the level of interest of language learners and is presented in two parts. In the first part, three lessons including the story of "Zagh va Mar" from "Kelileh and Demneh", "The Story of " Keshti va Gholam" from "Golestan" and "Boots" from "Houshang Moradi Kermani" are presented. Sample characteristics, study, classification, coding, and summarization were performed and sample statistics were calculated and SPSS 22 software was used for statistical analysis of the obtained data. The chi-square test was used to evaluate the significance of the answers to the multifaceted questions and the two-sentence test was used for the two-sided questions.
The results show that in the section "Interest in Persian literature and prose texts" the highest frequency of answers was related to the option "much" with 43.5%, which shows that students were significantly interested in Persian literature and prose texts. Regarding the question " At which level is the use of literary texts more efficient?" The highest frequency of answers was related to the "advanced" option with 73.3%.
To answer the question, "How do simplified texts help language learners?" Simplified texts with stories were presented to the learners and they were asked about their effect on the learners' comprehension. Regarding the question "How much the summarized text helps to understand the text of the "Kashti va Gholam", the highest frequency of the answer was related to the "much" option with 48.4%, which shows that the summarized text has helped to understand the text to a great extent.