Language Teachers’ Perception of an ELT Program: The Case of Iranian English Reform Developed for Secondary Schools

Abstract

The present study investigated the characteristics of the new ELT program in Iran from the perspective of its most direct implementers both qualitatively and quantitatively. To this end, 19 teachers implementing the new program were interviewed to describe the newly introduced change through their perception of its attributes such as its complexity, explicitness and practicality. After conducting content analysis on the transcribed interviews, the emerged themes were used to survey 256 lower and higher secondary teachers by means of a 5-point Likert-type questionnaire across the nation. The results show that, although the program implementers felt more satisfied with the new program due to the perceived advantages of the change over the previous one, the lack of crucial factors such as giving due attention to the oral skills, adjustability of the change to the needs of a wide range of users, training teachers to improve their skills in making use of methods and techniques compatible with the reality of local language classrooms replete with logistical shortcomings, permeation of change to different layers of the educational system and mobilizing all influential subsystems for putting the change into practice has handicapped the effective fulfilment of the program’s objectives from teachers’ eyes.

Keywords

• change attributes
• communicative language teaching approach
• elt change program
• secondary education
• program evaluation