Introductory Persian A
UndergraduateANU-PERS10012025
Course information for 2025 intake View information for 2024 course intake
Take your first foray in Persian language. Learn to read all characters in the Persian alphabet, train your tongue with pronunciation, master conversations on set topics, and tackle past and present tense. Move beyond basic survival needs.
- Study method
- 100% online
- Assessments
- 100% online
- Enrol by
- 9 Feb 2025
- Entry requirements
- Prior study needed
- Duration
- 14 weeks
- Price from
- $1,700
- Upfront cost
- $0
- Loan available
- FEE-HELP available
Introductory Persian A
About this subject
Upon successful completion of this subject, students will have the knowledge and skills to:
- Read all characters of the Persian alphabet and simple cursive writing equivalent to usual printing or typescript containing high frequency structural patterns and vocabulary;
- Speak with understandable pronunciation and maintain simple, predictable face-to-face conversations, and responding to simple questions on familiar topics;
- Write independently with sufficient control of the Persian script and basic vocabulary with some grammatical and syntactical error (including in the present and past tense) in handwriting and/or typing; and
- Comprehend short conversations and questions beyond basic survival needs and limited social demands in areas of immediate need or on familiar topics in both the present and past tenses.
In order to achieve these learning outcomes, each week students are expected to study 10 hours per week, as follows:
- Preparation for the weekly class, studying the written and audio materials for the week;
- Online lesson/tutorial per week;
- Memorising the written and spoken forms of that week’s class content; and
- Individual study practising the week’s lesson, including written and spoken language forms, and vocabulary, and reviewing feedback on their work.
- Basic linguistic points, alphabet and script, consonants and vowels
- Making words, syllabus, gender, simple present “to be”
- Noun, plural, subjective pronouns, negation, interrogation
- Simple present tense “to have” and its negative form, verb endings, word order
- Sentence stress, intonation
- Numbers (1-9), the conjunction unit "and", the conjunction unit "to", genitive 'ezafeh'
- Present stem, simple infinitive and compound infinitive
- Present indicative, joined forms “to be” and its negative form definite, indefinite, indefinite marker (ی ), object marker (را), Tanv
- Past stem, simple past tense, possessive marker
- Numbers (11-19), subjective pronoun, possessive pronoun
- Hamze, imperative verb, plural form of nouns
Requiring no previous knowledge of the language, Introductory Persian A instructs students in the fundamentals of the Persian Language which is the mother tongue of more than 150 million people in the Middle East and is spoken today primarily in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Students will quickly master the Persian script and on completion of the subject be able to speak, listen, read, write, and comprehend Modern Standard Persian at a basic level across various everyday communicative subjects in both semi-formal and formal social and literary contexts. Students will acquire a basic vocabulary of the 300-400 most commonly used words as well as understand and reproduce the most important grammatical structures in Persian. Historically, Persian was widely understood from the Mediterranean to India, and Introductory Persian A students will acquire a familiarity with the rich Persian historical, literary, and cultural legacy across the great Middle East and Central Asia with a particular focus on Iran.
- Completion of exercise, online lessons and virtual classroom exercises (10%)
- Six online quizzes, 5% each (30%)
- Four written compositions, 5% each (20%)
- Five-to-ten minute online oral tutorial presentation (20%)
- Two hour final test (20%)
For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).
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Entry requirements
Others
This is a subject for beginners. If you have prior experience in learning this language, this subject may not be appropriate for you. You may be required to take a placement test.
Additional requirements
- Equipment requirements - To successfully engage in this subject students will need the following: • Laptop or computer • Computer camera (either inbuilt or webcam) • Headset with microphone • Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome browser • Reliable internet access • Access to a scanner or smartphone
Study load
- 0.125 EFTSL
- This is in the range of 10 to 12 hours of study each week.
Equivalent full time study load (EFTSL) is one way to calculate your study load. One (1.0) EFTSL is equivalent to a full-time study load for one year.
Find out more information on Commonwealth Loans to understand what this means to your eligibility for financial support.
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