The Routledge Intermediate Persian Course

Farsi Shirin Ast, Book Two

What the book really is

The Routledge Intermediate Persian Course: Farsi Shirin Ast, Book Two is best understood as a full intermediate learning system rather than a simple textbook. From the opening description and introduction, the authors make clear that they are trying to solve a specific problem: the lack of strong intermediate Persian materials for English-speaking university students. They explicitly say many available books fail to integrate language skills in a communicative way or are not built on a solid linguistic and pedagogical foundation, and this book is their answer to that gap.

That matters because the book is not only teaching Persian forms. It is trying to move learners from controlled classroom Persian toward real reading and cultural literacy. The authors say the diversity of the texts should help students become familiar with different literary genres and give them the building blocks to continue reading on their own. That is an important goal. It means the book is not simply about surviving a course; it is about preparing learners for independence.

Target audience and level

The intended audience is clearly intermediate learners at the university level, especially English-speaking students in a second year of Persian. The introduction says the book continues where the introductory volume ends and that, depending on the instructor and class pace, it may even serve the beginning of a third year. That gives the book a very practical place in a curriculum: it is a bridge from basics toward broader literacy.

The authors’ backgrounds also reinforce the book’s seriousness. Pouneh Shabani Jadidi and Dominic Parviz Brookshaw bring expertise in Persian linguistics, education, Persian literature, and university-level teaching. That combination helps explain why the book is both language-focused and culturally rich. It is not written only by a linguist or only by a literary scholar; it feels built at the intersection of both.

Teaching philosophy

The clearest pedagogical idea in the book is communicative, student-centered learning. The opening description says the book makes use of up-to-date pedagogical techniques and stresses communicative competence. The introduction then sharpens that by calling the book content-based and task-based, explaining that the materials are selected to support a student-centered class environment in which the teacher becomes more of a facilitator.

This is probably the book’s biggest strength. Many language textbooks separate language from content or reduce culture to decorative side notes. Here the content is the method. Students read about real topics, discuss questions before reading, work with vocabulary in context, rewrite texts, compose their own paragraphs, use media vocabulary actively, and then engage with literature and culture. That makes the course feel like participation in language rather than just rule memorization.

Structure and lesson design

The book’s structure is very strong. The introduction lays out the recurring sequence clearly: title-question, pre-reading discussion, short adapted reading, vocabulary, comprehension, vocabulary exercises, sentence-building, writing and speaking tasks, grammar explanation in Persian, media vocabulary, a literary text, a “Bishtar bedanim” section, and an “Iran-ra behtar beshenasim” cultural/photo section. Audio recordings accompany the main texts and other key sections.

That kind of repeatable structure is pedagogically smart. It helps students know what to expect while still allowing the content to change from lesson to lesson. A consistent frame reduces anxiety, especially at intermediate level, where students often know enough to be challenged but not enough to feel comfortable. The book seems very aware of that stage.

What the lessons cover

The table of contents shows a wide range of topics that combine everyday life, culture, history, and literature. Early lessons include football, divorce in tribal communities, ancient sites, Tehran, Nizami, railways, and the environment. Later lessons move into the Shahnama, clothing in Iran, the Nowruz table setting, famine in Iran, and Islam in Iran. That is a very deliberate mix: contemporary social topics, high culture, material culture, and historical awareness all appear together.

This range matters because it keeps the language work anchored in meaningful subjects. Learners are not just drilling neutral sentences. They are learning Persian through culturally dense material. That makes the book more motivating and probably more memorable. It also means students gradually build an image of Iran through language rather than through separate “culture notes” alone.

Literary progression

One especially good design choice appears in the treatment of literary texts. The introduction explains that in Lessons 1–9, the literary section uses excerpts from modern Persian short stories, often with colloquial elements, helping students understand the relationship between colloquial and formal written Persian. Then in Lessons 10–15, the literary text changes to excerpts from well-known medieval Persian prose works. That shift is excellent because it gradually expands the learner’s sense of what Persian literature is.

This is more ambitious than many intermediate textbooks. It does not stop at functional Persian. It introduces learners to Jalal Al-e Ahmad, Goli Taraghi, Simin Daneshvar, Sadeq Hedayat, Firdawsi, the Qabusnama, Kalila va Dimna, and others. That gives the book real cultural depth. Even if the excerpts are short, the effect is to position Persian as a literary civilization, not just a language of classroom exercises.

Grammar and vocabulary design

The grammar sections are also interesting because the introduction says they are written predominantly in Persian. The goal is to familiarize students with Persian grammatical terminology and encourage them to think about the language on its own terms rather than through translation. That is a demanding but valuable choice at the intermediate stage.

The range of grammar covered across the book is broad but carefully paced: simple sentences, subject and predicate, exclamatory sentences, compound nouns and adjectives, Arabic broken plurals, past participles, reported speech, passive voice, tense and person, subjunctive, conditionals, impersonal constructions, and compounding. The index of grammatical terms at the end reinforces that the book is meant to remain usable as a reference, not just as a lesson sequence.

Cultural richness and end matter

The “Let’s get to know Iran better” sections are another major strength. The introduction says these use original photographs of places in Iran, with captions and discussion prompts, so that students can talk about visual culture and place-based topics. The contents show examples such as script, wind tower, mud brick, motorway, column, pigeon tower, kilim, pilgrim, synagogue, potter, Hafiz’s tomb, alley, and mosque. This is a very strong way to keep the book visually and culturally grounded.

The end matter is also practical. The book closes with both Persian–English and English–Persian glossaries and then an index of grammatical terms. That is a sign of good coursebook design: the book remains useful after the lessons are done. A student can come back to it as a reference tool.

Strengths

The biggest strength is integration. Language skills, literary exposure, grammar, vocabulary, and culture are all woven together instead of being isolated.

A second strength is the book’s literary and cultural ambition. It does not treat intermediate learners as too fragile for real Persian writing. It introduces them gradually to both modern and classical prose, and that is unusually valuable.

A third strength is its classroom usability. The lesson architecture is clear, the audio support is built in, and the activities move naturally from input to output.

Weaknesses

The main limitation is that the grammar explanations are intentionally not exhaustive, so students still need outside grammar support at times. The authors say this directly.

A second limitation is that the book is clearly designed for guided instruction. It does promote independent learning, but many of its activities work best with an instructor or class discussion.

My judgment

My judgment is positive. This looks like a thoughtful and unusually rich intermediate Persian textbook that respects learners and gives them real content to work with. It is strongest when it combines communicative language learning with literary and cultural depth, and that combination makes it more substantial than many intermediate language books.

Command Palette