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English in Iran
Author(s) -
Goodrich Negin Hosseini
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
world englishes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.6
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1467-971X
pISSN - 0883-2919
DOI - 10.1111/weng.12491
Subject(s) - world englishes , politics , history , islam , english language , foreign language , media studies , sociology , political science , linguistics , classics , economic history , law , pedagogy , archaeology , philosophy
Iran, a country in the Expanding Circle of world Englishes, has not received much academic attention in international journals. The English language has faced many ups and downs in this country over the past 50 years, which makes its story even more entitled to academic investigation. The objective of this paper is to add to the existing but still limited literature of English in Iran. Having followed the model suggested by Berns (1990), this paper provides a sociolinguistic profile of English in Iran from the Qajar era (1796‐1925) through the Pahlavi dynasty (1925‐1979) and the Islamic Revolution to the present era. In addition to the status of English (and other foreign languages), political, historical, and social factors which have contributed to the rise and/or decline of this language in the country are discussed for each era.