Students of Persian come from diverse backgrounds. With the gradual formation of the concept of “world literature” and the discipline of “comparative literature” in the West, scores of scholars and students wish to undertake the study of Persian literary history and heritage. The Persian-speaking diaspora, constantly growing in size, has led to the operation of many Persian-language heritage schools that strive to address the need of the second/third Iranian-American or Afghan-American generation. Also, with its fairly recent emergence as a “critical” language for U.S policy, people of military/government status have undertaken the study of Persian as well.
Categorized as an “immigrant language,” Persian is less commonly taught in the United States than “colonial languages” such as Spanish, French, and German. Hence, there is a much longer way to go for the development of teaching materials and training professional teachers. Currently, there are about fifty Persian-language programs in American universities and colleges. The number of heritage schools and institutes, however, is not clear.
The following entry consists of several sources that have informed my teaching at the Iranian School of San Diego. Itself accredited by many unified districts in San Diego, ISSD has been a pioneer in creating its autonomous curricula and assisting other schools to operate and cater to their community. The aforementioned groups have distinct linguistic profiles; hence their cases require different pedagogical implications. All the same, these sources in my opinion can be helpful should they be incorporated based on an accurate knowledge of the students’ unique learning profile. Should you have any ideas or questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
با آرزوی موفقیت
For students:
- Persian-Persian Dictionary | Online Dictionary
- Behnevis: a software for transliteration
- Verb conjugator.
- L.A.-based, live Persian-language radio (KIRN 670 AM)
- Audio library in Persian for more advanced readers/learners
- Nakhnama a website devoted to reviewing (primarily) novels.
- Stories for children (with illustration).
- Listen to the Shahnameh online.
- Chai and Conversation.
- Persians of Texas: a multimedia web-source.
- General directory of links: Persian magazines, websites, books.
- Center for Contemporary Iranian History Studies
- FarhangSara: On various aspects of arts & culture
University resources
- NYU: Language lessons for for all levels.
- U. T. Austin: Language lessons for intermediate and advanced levels.
- UK-based: Persian online for all levels
- U. T. Austin: Persian of Iran Today (textbook).
- Persian at SDSU (Language Acquisition Resource Center) for all levels
- Grammar project
- The tales of Shahnameh (in prose) modified for novice, intermediate and advanced levels
For educators:
- American Association of Persian: a non-profit, professional organization whose objective shall be to advance and improve the study and teaching of the Persian language and culture.
- UCLA’s language project: a list of textbooks and other published pedagogical materials
- Articles on how to teach Persian to speakers of other languages (In Persian)
- Articles on bilingualism by Dr. Marjorie Faulstich Orellana on the Huffington Post
- On the specific profile of heritage learners of Hindi and Russian
- An article on the issues of education to Iranian diaspora youth by Dr. Shirin Vossoughi.
- An essay by Dr. Anousha Sedighi on the profile of Persian heritage learners.
Comment
Hi Aria Jaan,
Thank you very much for the websites. They are really really helpful.