Language and culture: the importance of cultural language to enhance the teaching and learning of Persian language in a Persian heritage language school

This research project tries to investigate how the integration of culture and language or Cultural Language can enhance the teaching and learning of the Persian language in a Persian Heritage Language school. Furthermore, it aims to investigate the relationship between Persian Heritage Language and its effect on conserving the cultural awareness of the second and third-generation Muslim Persian - British in London. In this project, I attempt to propose a new framework with a ‘cultural syllabus’ to be incorporated into language education to develop, preserve, and revitalize Persian language skills amongst the future Persian generation living abroad. In another word, my research is aiming to link the teaching of cultural matters with the Persian language to impact positively on the children’s general attainment in the Persian language. To do this, I started to conduct a participatory action research project through the lens of ethnography. I employed four main types of research methods and techniques: classroom observations, focus groups, feedback interviews or conversations and reflection sheets.
Three groups of participants took part in this research. The main participants of the investigation were a group of 75 Persian-English bilinguals (boys 35 and girls 40; mean age: 10.3) who have been living in the UK for different lengths of time (mean: 6.9 years). The second group consisted of 5 monolingual Persian teachers in the UK. The third group of participants were sixteen Persian parents who were born in Persia and immigrated to the UK at different ages.
The main areas of impact found in data extended to (a) teachers’ personal and professional development; and (b) impact on learners, parents, and the educational environment. In the light of the findings from this project, I found that cultural and Islamic elements with the Persian language should not remain separate entities and insisted that their integration can contribute towards a holistic approach to the teaching and learning of the Persian language. Hence, this research has given important support for the positive impact of cultural familiarity in the culturally-oriented syllabus for language learning enhancement in heritage language contexts. Furthermore, I found that heritage schools like IRIS School allow children a safe haven for exploring cultural and linguistic awareness.