Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Elham Sedaghat ¹
• Esmaeil Azar ²
• Bahman Zandi ³

¹ Ph.D. Candidate of Persian Language and Literature, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

² Professor of Persian Language and Literature, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

³ Professor of General Linguistics, Department of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Payam-e-Noor University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Proverbs are an important part of the language and literature of nations which can introduce foreigners to the linguistic community that emerged from it. Therefore, a comparative study of proverbs can be useful in foreign language teaching and strengthening the communication ability of language learners. Considering the significant number of foreign Persian learners around the world and their vast presence in Persian language teaching centers in Iran, a comparative study of proverbs is one of the ways to achieve cultural-linguistic commonalities in order to facilitate the teaching of Persian language to foreigners. In this qualitative research, which was conducted with the descriptive-analytical method and with the presence of 250 Persian learners from different Arab countries, twenty widely used and common Persian and Arabic proverbs containing the names of animals (ten Persian proverbs and their equivalents in Arabic language and ten Arabic proverbs and their equivalents in Persian language) were matched based on Richmond's model (1987) and Zarkoub and Amini's classification (2014). The results showed that there are many cultural-linguistic commonalities between Arab-speaking and Persian-speaking people in using animal names in proverbs. Considering these commonalities and using common Persian proverbs whose equivalents are also used in Arab countries can prevents most of the cultural and linguistic misunderstandings and facilitates the teaching of Persian language to Arab Persian learners.

Keywords

• proverb
• animal symbols
• Persian Learning
• Arab Persian learners
• Richmond's model
• Zarkoub and Amini's classification

Main Subjects

• Criticism of patterns and methods of teaching Persian language inside and outside the country