Assessment of the German Language Teaching Curriculum at the Islamic Azad University

Curriculum is a pre-regulated document that includes the general learning goals, the goals for any of the provided subjects, teaching activities and evaluating methods. Nowadays, by the increase in the number of foreign language students, teaching language has gained a considerable importance and a great number of these students study language through their university education. Hence, an integrative curriculum could meet the needs of the students and the education system. The curriculum of teaching German language major in master’s program in Islamic Azad University has been prepared around 20 years ago in order to train qualified people for teaching this language in the universities and higher education institutes to meet the needs of the society by providing the professional human resources in the field of research in teaching language. This curriculum could not meet all the needs of the current students of German language teaching major in master’s program and it is not able to train the students with adequate skills for teaching German language. This research tries to study the current curriculum and provides solutions to improve it. For this purpose, the information was generally collected from library studies including articles, thesis and books related to teaching. Also, in the field study, the statistical research was carried out by studying 20 students of German language teaching in the master’s program of IAU Science and Research Branch, Tehran. Initially, the prerequisites and main subjects provided in this curriculum were studied and the objectives, weaknesses and strengths of this curriculum are considered. Subsequently, the students’ opinions were analyzed and ultimately, a set of recommendations are provided to improve the curriculum through considering the carried-out studies on the curriculum of German language teaching in the master’s program of IAU Science and Research Branch, Tehran, and the carried-out survey summary. It could be generally claimed that the teaching units provided in German language teaching major is theoretical and the lack of practical experiences is considerably felt among the graduates of this major. Additionally, due to the curriculum being outdated, a need for updating and revising the curriculum, considering the latest research in the field of teaching, seems necessary. Considering the fact that further education for the students of all majors related to German language in Ph.D., in state universities and IAU, is only possible in German language teaching major, the new curriculum should be designed so that it could provide the basis for the further education, while meeting the specific needs in this course.