A Comparative review of the curriculum of teaching essay-writing in the secondary education systems of Germany and Iran

Nowadays¡ in most of the world’s curriculum systems¡ teaching essay-writing is of utmost importance and essay-writing skill is one of the basic skills in schools. The purpose of this study is recognizing¡ describing and comparing the elements and components of essay-writing teaching in Germany and Iran’s language learning curriculum. The methodology of the research is descriptive¡ and the required data are collected and classified on the basis of George Berodi’s implementation process through language learning curriculum documentations and interviews with the experts of national language planning of both countries. Research’s findings show that teaching essay-writing as a combination of skills is presented in German language curriculum as well as in other curriculum areas such as social studies¡ biology¡ and math¡ science¡ art and life skills. Whereas in Iran essay-writing skill is to be taught only in Persian language curriculum just for interdisciplinary breakdown and with no relation to other curricula. In Germany¡ learning essay-writing for teachers¡ students and even parents is considered as a learning necessity and mastering the skill of essay-writing and authorship is of cultural¡ social and career dignity¡ while mastering this skill is not taken seriously in Iran. The main goal of German pedagogues is to value students’ empowerment in producing text and utilizing them in life¡ while the main aim of Iranian teachers of students’ textuality is composing essays¡ regardless of their application in life. In Germany essay-writing is part of the total score of the German language schedule¡ while in Iran because of following the breakdown approach¡ essay-writing is to be assessed independently from other language skills.