Transacting with Comparative English-Persian Literature in EFL Classrooms: A Reader-Response Approach

Abstract

Despite scholarly criticisms censuring the monopoly of Eurocentric and Anglophonic literatures in English as Foreign or Second Language (EFL/ESL) teaching, cross-cultural literatures have not received due attention in such contexts, Iranian one as a case. Addressing the gap, in this practitioner-led inquiry, the researcher attempted for integrating Comparative Literature in English language teaching through deploying translated Persian works of literature apropos of thematically-resembling foreign ones. The participants of the study were twenty Iranian English Literature freshmen who were taking a reading comprehension course in a state university in Tehran. Partially framing the practice within reader-response approach to reading, the teacher-researcher concentrated on the ways by which the students transacted with the selected literary texts. The analysis of the class events and the students’ reflective writings revealed that the students drew upon their sociocultural and literary backgrounds to construct meanings of the texts and to establish connections between them and their personal and social milieus. Considering the mounting concerns about the linguistic and cultural imperialism of English and its teaching, practices like this may hint at the way local sources of knowledge could find a niche in EFL classrooms. Keywords: English as Foreign Language (EFL), Comparative Literature, Persian literature, Practitioner inquiry, Reader-response theory.