The “Cultuling” Analysis Model as an Effective Approach in Teaching Iranian Culture to Non-Persian Speakers: The Case of the Cultuling of Mortal Thoughts in the Shahnameh

In view of the fact that culture is of importance in teaching Persian, the application of cultulings sounds relevant. Cultuling are words and phrases reflecting the culture of people; notably Shahnameh, appears to be good sources for education. Intending to reflect on a method for teaching culture in light of “cultuling analysis model", that is a comprehensive model for pinpointing cultural models and patterns, this study examined the cultuling of mortal thoughts in the Shahnameh. In doing so, 130 pieces of utterances concerning mortal thoughts were taken from Dehkhodā’s Proverbs and Mottos, which originally belonged to the Shahnameh. They were analyzed from the perspective of the SPEAKING model the type of emotion and frequency of people’s experience with this cultuling was evaluated based on the emotioncy model and the embedded culture in this cultuling was scrutinized. The results show that this cultuling holds a high frequency in the Shahnameh. Together with their auditory, visual and kinesthetic ways of experiencing mortal thoughts, people tended to use this culturing for encouraging charity, dealing with the inevitability of death, acknowledging the fear of death, avoiding worldly desires and acknowledging the universality of death. The cultuling of mortal thoughts mirrors an Iranian culture featuring collectivism, restraint, short term orientations and uncertainty avoidance. To teach these cultural values and patterns, the researchers chose a text, which contained the cultulings in questions and was designed according to the SPEAKING model. The text was then taught in light of emotioncy; a model underlying the of emotions in learning and teaching.
Extended Abstract:
It is no denying that culture plays a central role in teaching Persian as language learners from different countries and with different cultures travel to Iran. To achieve their goals and meet their daily needs, language learners should communicate with people in the target language community. Nevertheless, learners’ original culture may enter into conflict with the culture of the target community, resulting in misunderstandings. To overcome this barrier, language learners should be acquainted with the target culture. Additionally, language is part of culture and culture is part of language. Having considered the relationship between culture and language, Pishghadam (2013) introduced the concept of “cultuling”, referring to the structures and phrases in a language and mirrors people’s culture. Along the same line, Pishghadam, Ebrahimi and Derakhshan (2020) developed the “cultuling analysismodel” to analyze different cultulings available in societies. The model relies on the environmental, cultural and emo-sensory factors and takes into consideration cultural, emo-sensory, and linguistic differences and appears to be a comprehensive model in introducing culture to non-Persian speakers.
Theoretical Foundation
The “cultuling analysis model” is a mash-up of three models, namely, SPEAKING, cultural values and emotioncy, as elaborated in the following.
Given the importance attached to speakers, listeners, settings and interactions, Hymes’s (1967) SPEAKING model takes into account all factors influencing interactions between people and embraces eight components, namely, setting or scene, participants, end, act sequence, key, instrumentalities, norms of interaction and interpretation and genres. Emotioncy, which was coined and developed by Pishghadam et al (2013), consists of two items; emotion and frequency. The model postulates that words in each language carry varying levels of emotions and this emo-sensory level is called emotioncy. The six levels of emotioncy, as Pishghdam spells out, embrace null (1), auditory (2), visual (3), kinesthetic (4), inner (5) and arch (6).
Null emotioncy happens when an individual has not heard about, seen, or experienced an object or a concept while auditory emotioncy has it that an individual has merely heard about a word. Visual emotioncy concerns the fact that an individual has both heard about and seen the item and kinesthetic emotioncy occurs when an individual has touched, worked, or played with the real object. It is inner emotioncy where an individual has directly experienced the word and arch emotioncy implies that an individual has done research to get additional information.
Hofstede is a well-known scholar, who developed a comprehensive classification of cultural values (1991). He stresses the role of culture and the impact of cultural differences. His extensive studies have examined different dimensions of cultural values and national culture. These dimensions are power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity, long term orientation/short term orientation, indulgence/restraint.
Research Methods
Drawing on the “cultuling analysis model”, the present applied, qualitative research examined one of the most frequent cultulings in Shahnameh. That is to say, mortal thoughts. In doing so, 130 pieces of utterances related to mortal thoughts were taken from Ali Akbar Dehkhodā’s Proverbs and Mottos yet they originally belonged to Shahnameh. The extracted utterances were then analyzed in the light of the SPEAKING model. The results of the previous stage were examined from the perspective of emotioncy. Next, the results obtained from the two stages mentioned above were investigated from the perspective of cultural values. Having passed these stages of analysis, the researchers detailed an approach to teach culture in accordance with the “cultuling analysis model”.
Results
The findings suggest that the cultuling of mortal thoughts in the Shahnameh has a high frequency. In addition to their auditory, visual and kinesthetic ways of experiencing mortal thoughts, people tended to use this cultuling for encouraging charity, discouraging worldly life, dealing with the inevitability of death, acknowledging the fear of death, avoiding worldly desires and acknowledging the universality of death. There were expressed in a serious, advisory, compassionate, and fearful manner either orally or in writing. The cultuling of mortal thoughts represents an Iranian culture featuring collectivism, restraint, short term orientations and uncertainty avoidance. To teach these cultural values and patterns, the researchers chose a text, which contained the cultulings in questions and was designed according to the SPEAKING model. The researchers then elaborated on approaches that could be employed to teach this text in light of emotioncy; a model that focuses on the importance of emotions in pedagogy. This highlighted the use and value of “cultuling analysismodel” in teaching cultural values and elements to non-Persian speakers and this approach can make teaching and learning more engaging and compelling.
Conclusions
It appears that the cultulings available in literary texts, notably in the Shahnameh are rich and appropriate sources for teaching culture to non-Persian language learners. Learning through the “cultuling analysis model” helps learners achieve educational goals in different aspects of Persian language, especially culture.