Language education in Iran: A dialogue between cultures or a clash of identities

Abstract

Learning about another culture is an integral component of learning a foreign language. The mission of developing an effective intercultural communication, as a result, has become one of the paramount concerns of language courses in many countries including European nations (Savignon, 2002). This emerging calling envisages language learners as open-minded representatives of their L1 community who are engaged in a dialogue of cultures (ibid). Given the dialogic nature of language learning, the current article perceives language pedagogy in Iran as an instance of a pseudo dialogue resisting an extensive inclusion of target culture in the course of English language education. One reason proposed as an explanation to this opposition is a potential clash of identities between two cultures.