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Introduction
The purpose of writing this essay will be to examine the various varieties of English that exist in Farsi language classrooms and also to determine the type of English language pronunciation that Iranian learners are aiming for and the interference of Farsi language in attaining the desired pronunciation levels. The focus or context of the study will be on Iranian children between the ages of 16 and 18 years who are in high school and are learning English as a foreign language (EFL).
The reason for selecting high school students is that the teaching of English as a foreign language has been on the increase in most high schools in Iran for the past two decades. Despite this increasing interest in learning English within educational institutions, little knowledge exists on what actually happens within Iranian EFL classrooms in most high schools in the country (Rezvani and Rasekh 2011).
This study will seek to address this gap by determining the varieties of English that exist in Farsi language classrooms as well the type of pronunciation that most Iranian students seek to attain. The use of metaphors during English learning lessons within Iranian schools will also be explored as metaphorical expressions have contributed significantly to the pronunciation of Farsi speakers undertaking English language lessons.
The study will also address the influences of English which have mostly been attributed to the globalization process around the world and the growing need to communicate in English (Davis 2006). English as an international language (EIL) refers to how it is viewed as a global means of communicating within very many dialects and how the English language is viewed as an international language.
As a world-renown language, English mostly places importance on learning the diverse parlances and other forms of speaking, writing and reading English and it aims to provide individuals with the necessary linguistic tools which will allow them to communicate in a more global or international context.
English as an international language is also used to develop and nurture the communication skills of various people who exist in diverse cultures around the world because it is a common language (Acar 2006). There are very many varieties of English with some of the most common being American English and British English.
The British English dialect differs from American English in terms of accent, pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. The British dialect mostly accentuates the English grammar and pronunciation and their dialect differs from that of American English in terms of accent.
The pronunciation of English words varies significantly amongst British speakers when compared to American speakers of the language. American English, which is mostly used in many Iranian schools, incorporates differences in pronunciation and vocabulary and also the dialect.
The other dialects of English, which are used in the various countries around the world include Burmese English, which is spoken by people from Burma in the Asian continent, Portuguese English, Australian English, European English, Caribbean English and other forms of English (Wakelin 2008).
While American English is used in most English learning classes in Iran, the pronunciation of the language is basic or general English meaning that English learners in the country do not have any American or British accents when speaking the language.
Farsi Language in Iranian Classroom
In their analysis of how Farsi or Persian language is used in the classroom setting, Tucker and Corson (1997) noted that the type of tasks students were involved in during class time varied significantly in Farsi speakers that were studying English as a foreign language.
Varieties in English grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary were mostly notable in direct translations, visual descriptions and grammatical explanations. This demonstrated that an accurate measurement of inter-language competency was needed to take into account different conditions and stages of English speaking and learning within Farsi language classrooms (Majd 2008).
The strategic competence of Iranian students when it came to inter-language use was explored by Yarmohamadi and Seif in their 1992 study where they set out to determine the communicative ability of these students in handling problematic English concepts.
Iranian students that were studying English at the various levels and stages of high school were assessed based on their placement of primary stress and emphasis on English words and the use of morphological, syntactic and phonological hierarchies to determine the complexity of English words.
The results of their assessment demonstrated that the use of such measures was able to determine the communication proficiency of many of the students as well as their pronunciation of the varieties of English that were used during classroom instruction (Yarmohamadi and Seif 1992).
With regards to the varieties of English within Iranian classrooms, Taki (2010) conducted an assessment where two groups of Persian and English language teachers were selected to provide some correspondence for metaphorical equivalents based on their use of both Farsi and English languages during the instruction of students.
The criteria used by Taki was whether they taught the high school students with their native language, their familiarity with metaphorical languages, expressions and the basic knowledge that they had of concepts or figures of speech. A total of 40 animal terms were selected for comparison between English and Persian languages to determine the metaphorical variety that existed between the two languages.
The purpose of conducting this study was to determine whether the use of metaphorical expressions aided Iranian students in their English learning activities (Taki 2010).
The results of Taki’s study revealed that the metaphorical expressions used in both languages were 20% similar for animal terms that were presented to the respondents. This corroborated the idea many linguists have developed on the partial mappings or metaphorical expressions that exist between the same source of information and the target domains of both the Farsi and English languages.
The results also revealed that 50% of the metaphorical expressions used to describe animal images were similar for both the English and Farsi languages and they also differed in separate ways. This meant that the metaphors worked in different ways for both languages when they were used in different contexts as they elicited different meanings from both languages (Taki 2010).
The results of the study pointed to the various similarities and differences that existed between both languages, especially when used within the school context. Metaphors played a great role in enabling the Iranian students to better understand what was being communicated to them in the English lessons.
They heightened the comprehension abilities of the students while at the same time enhancing their understanding of the English language.
Rezvani and Rasekh (2011) conducted a study to determine the teaching patterns of four Iranian EFL teachers when it came to language alternation and Farsi speaking language within the classroom setting.
The results of their study demonstrated that the four EFL teachers used code-switching tendencies during classroom interaction sections and also in the discipline of students, which was otherwise known as classroom management.
The authors viewed code-switching to be an important activity for many Iranian teachers as it enabled them to successfully interact with their students who were mostly Iranian native speakers (Rezvani and Rasekh 2011).
Most of the teaching language used by these Iranian teachers was Farsi or Persian language and therefore teaching students without any code-switching strategies proved to be difficult in relaying the proper pronunciation, grammatical representation and vocabulary of certain words (Nilep 2006: Myers-Scotton 1997).
Another study conducted by Gholamain and Geva (1999) examined the extent to which basic reading skills in both the Farsi language and American English could be understood by students after considering their underlying cognitive processes and by understanding the unique characteristics of the alphabets between the two language systems.
Farsi or the Persian language makes extensive use of sound-symbol correspondences during the pronunciation of Persian words when compared to the English language which makes limited use of sound-symbols.
Gholamain and Geva (1999) examined Persian students who were enrolled in school systems where the language of instruction was English. The researchers noted that the students performed better in measures of English reading and cognitive capabilities when compared to Farsi reading and understanding of the Persian language.
Iranian Pronunciation in the English Language
Farsi or the Persian language has been the main tool that is used for literacy and scientific contributions in the eastern part of the Islamic and Muslim world. The language is similar to that of many contemporary European languages and it has considerable influence on various languages such as Turkic languages which are used in Central Asia, Caucasus and Anatolia.
Farsi language is classified to belong to the western group of the Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family and it is termed to originate from three periods of Iranian history which include the Old period where the Achaemenid language was introduced, the Middle period which was also known as the Sassanid era and the Modern or post-Sassanid period.
The Persian language has been termed as the only Iranian language that has a close genetic relationship will all the three historic periods (Katzner 2002).
Farsi language can be spoken in three dialects which include Iranian Persian or Farsi which is mostly spoken by many people in Iran, Afghan Persian otherwise known as Dari which is used by many people in Afghanistan and Tajik Persian or Tajiki which is a common Persian language spoken in countries such as Russia, Uzbekistan and Cyria (Henderson 1994).
All these three dialects are based on classical Persian literature, which was a period in Persian history that was marked with some of the world’s best Persian language poets and linguists from the eastern parts of the world such as Rudaki, Omar Khayyam and Varand (Clawson 2004).
The heavy influence of the Persian language from the classical period has mostly been witnessed in many parts of the Islamic world especially since it is viewed as an important piece of literary work as well as a prestigious language that is used amongst the educated elite in the fields of Persian art and literature as well as in Qawwali music (Perry 2005).
Educated people from most of the Middle Eastern countries are able to comprehend each other with an elevated level of clearness, but the differences are only noticeable in their vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. This has been termed by many linguistic scholars to be similar to the same differences in vocabulary or pronunciation that exist between British English and American English.
In terms of Farsi language morphology, Persian grammar is mostly made up of suffixes and a limited number of prefixes where there is no grammatical gender in Farsi language and there are no pronouns that can be used to denote natural gender.
The syntax that is used for the language involves declarative sentences that are structured as (S) (PP) (O) V which means that sentences can be made up of optional subjects, objects and phrases (Megerdoomian 2000).
The vocabulary that is used in Farsi languages involves the use of word-building affixes as well as nouns and adjectives. The language mostly makes the use of adding derived affixes to the base of a word so as to create a new word, noun or adjective (Perry 2005).
Since the Farsi language is part of the Indo-European languages, most of the words between English and Persian are similar like for example the English name of daughter in Persian is pronounced dokhtar, mother in English is pronounced as madar in Persian while the English name of brother is pronounced as baradar in Persian.
This demonstrates that many words that are of Persian origin have been incorporated into the English language. Most of the English vocabulary has been influenced by the Persian language and the Persian language has also had most of its grammar and pronunciation influenced by the English (Majd 2008).
This essay seeks to determine the varieties of English that are used within many high school classrooms in Iran as well as the other Middle Eastern countries that use Persian in speaking and learning activities.
In addressing the question of English pronunciation amongst Iranian high school students, Hayati (2010) notes that the pronunciation of Iranian high school students should be based on their ability to accurately and correctly pronounce different words of the English language correctly as well as hold proper dialogues with their peers.
Hayati (2010) notes that while the pronunciation of most Iranian high school students is poor, it can be improved further by sensitizing students in the conversational tactics that they use when they converse in their native language.
Most Iranian students as well as Iranian EFL learners aim to have “proper” English pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, which have been evidenced by the growing number of EFL learners within the country.
Hayati (2010) in his case study of how Iranian EFL high school students were taught on English pronunciation focused on various factors that influenced the pronunciation of most of the EFL learners within the Iranian classroom context.
Hayati (2010) divided the factors into direct and indirect factors where he identified the direct factors to be those that influenced the correct pronunciation of English words. These included the English proficiency of the English teacher and the English proficiency of the Iranian learners.
In most Iranian high schools, students were usually advised by their EFL instructors to read and translate English words that were mostly found in magazines, academic books, journals and articles. This was done to enable them collect important information which they would use for specific areas of interest during their English lessons.
Since English is viewed by most Iranians as a second language, the EFL programs in many of the high schools have directed their efforts towards teaching students how they can read and translate English words (Hayati 2010).
A lower emphasis has therefore been placed on the accurate pronunciation of English words, which has in turn registered a low proficiency for EFL learners. This further underlines the importance of understanding the English words that need to be pronounced as proper pronunciation ensures that the learner is able to understand the meaning of the words (Hayati 2010).
To counter this, English teachers in Iran need to concentrate on the language proficiency of their students by involving the use of language proficiency tests and English learning material that is meant to aide in the English pronunciation of the students.
With regards to the indirect factors, Hayati focused on aspects such as the time assigned for English classes, which was usually limited for most EFL classes taking place in Iranian high schools. The limited amount of time made it difficult for most EFL instructors to be able to complete the outlined English learning objectives in time which meant that most EFL learners emerged from these classes half-baked.
Hayati (2010) also identified another indirect factor which affected the pronunciation of high school students to be that of large numbers of students in one classroom session. The high number of students in most high school classrooms in Iran which ranges from 60 to 70 made it difficult for teachers to effectively monitor and control the performance of students during pronunciation exercises.
The large numbers also made it difficult for most teachers to follow their lesson plans properly which meant that certain parts of the EFL course were omitted (Hayati 2010).
Yarmohammadi (2000) conducted a study on the English pronunciation of Iranian students by examining their level of context-free sentences, where he assessed the phonological elements of the student’s native language (L1) and the elements of the English language (L2).
Yarmohammadi (2000) was able to make the observation that student’s were able to learn the proper pronunciation of English words because of the similarities and differences that existed between their native language (L1) and the English language (L2). Yarmohammadi was also able to measure the pronunciation efficiency of those students by measuring their contextualization abilities.
Contextualization during most EFL lessons involves integrating pronunciation instructions into other important elements of instruction that will enable the student or learner to grasp the meaning of the word in various contexts.
He was able to note that contextualization allowed teachers and students to be able to deal with different pronunciation problems that were presented through the use of different techniques. Yarmohammadi (2000) was able to note that storytelling enabled many of the EFL learners to contextualize their English pronunciation thereby improving their proficient communication of the language.
Challenges of EFL Learning in Iran
Despite the use of various EFL learning techniques, researchers such as Brown (2001) and Rifkin (2003) have noted that many Iranian EFL learners will be unable to acquire an accent-free command of the language because of the limited amount of pressure that has been placed on speaking the language.
The two authors noted that young English learners would be able to acquire as many foreign language skills as they could, but they would find it difficult to shed off their Iranian accents which would be made more difficult if they understood certain English concepts in their native languages.
Rifkin (2003) recommended that for students to be able to acquire the proper pronunciation of the language, parents had to begin teaching their children the language during their early or formative years. This would ensure that they did not have an accent when it came to speaking or pronouncing in English.
Based on his research, Ansari (2011) was able to note that a major challenge for most English learners in Iranian classrooms was their inability to properly express themselves through the English language. This is mostly attributed to their heavy use of their native language as a means for communication.
This means that they cannot properly communicate in English within the classroom setting which Ansari has attributed to the kind of instruction given to these children, the type of textbooks used for instruction, the procedures and techniques used by most instructors when teaching English and the poorly defined objectives that make it difficult for students to overcome English language learning problems.
The learning objectives set by most of the EFL teachers are poorly defined, which means that students do not know what their learning outcomes will be from the EFL lessons.
The challenge that continues to face most Iranian English learning classes is the focus on the traditional method of teaching foreign languages where students are required to write out the pronunciation of English words in their own language rather than speaking the language itself. This has contributed to the poor pronunciation skills that many high school students have of the language.
In pronouncing various English words; p, t and k are voiceless in Farsi language and they are commonly replaced with the words b and g in pronunciations that require the use of p, t, and k. Other words that Farsi speakers are unable to pronounce properly include t, f, s, z, h and d which are also voiceless.
These words are usually substituted with words such as n, m, b, and g because Farsi speakers find it easier to pronounce these words within sentences and also during speech exercises (Hall 2007).
Ferguson and Donno (2003) have recommended that in-service classes have to be introduced in many ESL programs to ensure that English tutors in Iran are able to collect the theoretical and practical information of the English language, which will enable them communicate appropriate course materials to their students.
Apart from these classes, textbooks can also play an important role in improving the English language proficiency of many Iranian EFL students.
Textbooks allow instructors to be knowledgeable on the material design of the course where they are able to refer to English textbooks as core resources during their instruction and also as supplemental materials that can be used to support the pronunciation activities of students within the programs (Ferguson and Donno 2003).
Influences of English Speaking on EFL Learners
The major factor that has influenced the increasing number of high school students in Iran to take part in EFL lessons is globalisation and the changing cultural world where more and more young people are becoming ethnically diverse in their language background.
More young people are now taking time to experience different cultures while at the same time learning new languages that will enable them communicate with people from different cultures around the world.
Since most young people in Iran communicate in Farsi languages, the introduction of EFL programs within school systems in Iran has provided them with an opportunity to communicate in another language that is different from their native language.
The increasing internationalization of many activities performed within various countries around the world has also played a major role in influencing the English learning activities of many students and adults within EFL programs (Taki 2011).
Another major influence that has determined the English language capabilities of students in Iran has been the increasing growth of international relations that Iran has with the rest of the world.
After the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the government that came into office strived to foster international relations with westernised countries to ensure that Iran would be able to enjoy a beneficial relationship with many developed countries in the world.
Some of the benefits that would be accrued from these relationships would be an improvement in the educational systems that within the country where subjects and course programs would be tailored to meet the international needs of the global market rather than the needs of the Iranian market (Clawson 2004).
The growing interest in the technological and scientific fields around the world has also played a contributing factor to the growing English learning activities in many Iranian high schools. In Iran, English is the dominant language that is mostly used in international conferences, foreign trade affairs and in other forms of communication within the country.
The growing number of international book fairs and foreign trade exhibitions that have taken place in the country have also influenced the increasing number of EFL programs in most of the high schools within the country. Such events have shown that Iran is capable of maintaining international relations with the international market through the use of the English language.
The cooperation of Iran with major international organizations such as the United Nations, OPEC, NATO and other regional offices around the world has increased the practicality of using English amongst the various nationals who work for these organizations (Clawson 2004).
The influence of Farsi language plays an important role in determining how language transfer will take place during the EFL lessons and also how pronunciation exercises will influence the language outcomes of students.
Katzner’s review of various studies has revealed that the differences in pronunciation of the target language can be used to measure the overall pronunciation accuracy of native speakers who use their mother tongue to communicate. Apart from transfer, other factors that influence the pronunciation of Farsi speakers include typological and universal factors which at times function separately from language transfer.
Typological and universal factors such as cultural backgrounds, religious affiliations and societal factors influence how the native speakers will be able to effectively utilise the target or foreign language (Katzner, 2002).
Conclusion
The focus of the study was on high school students in Iran who were undertaking English speaking lessons. By focusing on this group and analysing various research work conducting on the Farsi language, the paper was able to determine the varieties of English that are used in Farsi language classrooms with the most common being British English and American English.
The study has also focused on the type of pronunciation that many Iranian students and EFL learners want to achieve, which is American English. The study has also highlighted the factors or aspects that influence EFL learners to take part in English learning activities one of which being to gain a more global perspective of the world and also learn about other cultures apart from that of Iran.
Many Iranian students are influenced to participate in EFL learning programs in Iran because of the increasing nature of international relations within Iran as well the changing educational systems, which now require most students to be more conversant with the English language.
The study also addressed the challenges of English learning among Iranian students where one challenge of English learning was the inability of the students to properly express themselves in the English language. Because Iranian children are raised to talk and express themselves in their mother tongue, it becomes difficult for them to learn to communicate in another language apart from their own.
Another challenge of English learning, especially when it comes to pronunciation is that the students pronounce English words with a heavy Iranian accent. This is a challenge when communicating with proper English speakers who might find it difficult to understand what the speaker is saying.
While study was able to address the pronunciation and influences of most Farsi speakers in Iranian high schools, more research needs to be conducted on Farsi and English languages to determine the similarities and differences that exist in both languages. More research also needs to be conducted on whether Farsi speakers are able to lose their accents once they start communicating in the English language.
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