فهرست مطالب هدی حسین پور بوانلو

Literary texts can be used in language teaching/learning programs as a means of teaching the language. Moreover, potent language learners consider reading literature as a language-learning goal. In this regard, it is of utmost importance to design, develop, and re-evaluate language learning materials with regard to the literature. The present study was thus motivated to evaluate the literary texts in teaching Persian to non-Persian books in order to help the improvement of Persian teaching programs. To this end, an integrated approach was employed to investigate different aspects of the mentioned books in terms of language skills, cultural concepts, communicative functions, type and genre of the texts, type of homework, grammatical structures, and presentation of literary texts. The obtained results indicated that the perceptual-motor speaking skills were ignored in most cases. Moreover, most literary texts were indicative of intercultural aspects rather than cross-cultural or intercultural ones. In addition, most literary texts were not related to the the grammatical point raised in the unit, and the communication functions in literary texts were presented at a low level. Therefore, there were some weaknesses in the presentation of literary texts, especially communicative functions, perceptual motor speaking practices, and intracultural concepts. Moreover, all language skills were not equally presented in the investigated books.

There is a twofold relationship between the literature and language learning. On one hand, one of the ultimate goals of language teaching is enabling learners to comprehend a literary text independently. On the other hand, literature is a means of teaching languages and improving linguistic skills.  This aspect of language teaching has attracted a scant attention in Iran, which motivated the current study to address this issue. In this regard, 13 literary approaches to language teaching were collected from reliable sources and then theoretical aspect of each approach was elaborated and analyzed using relevant examples from Novin Persian Teaching book series (one of the main sources of teaching Persian language to non-Persian speakers in reliable language centers). The obtained results of the current study were indicative of the influential role of literature in teaching Persian language, which can open new horizon in this regard.

As the title indicates, the main purpose of this paper is to consider how the early mystics dealt with the essential concept of reason. To this end, we have examined forty works either written on or including the ideas of the mystics living in the first five centuries of the Islamic era. The findings are then placed in ten main categories: Reason and one’s knowledge of god; Reason and the Koran; Reason and Riligion; Reason and Ethics; Reason, this world, and hereafter; Reason and Mystical Hierarchies; Reason and Mystical states; Reason and Love; Reason and soul. Each category has then received its due attention. The paper intends to delineate how these mystics discuss divergent issues related to knowledge, this world, the hereafter and mysticism with reference to reason. Also, attempts are made to shed lights on the relationship between them. It must be admitted that these mystics had a limited view of reason; however, the very reference to reason in their arguments points to their concern about this concept. In fact, in their delineating of the limitations of reason in different realms of knowledge, they have resorted to the same notion (i.e reason). Although our main concern here is issues related to reason in one way or another, one can note the extent and diversity of knowledge theses mystics have touched upon in their works.