A Critical Look at the EFL Education and the Challenges Faced by Iranian Teachers in the Educational System

Abstract

The ultimate aim of any EFL program is to promote long life language development in learners and prepare them for the language use in real life communicative situations. However, many educational systems all over the globe might not achieve this end. Actually, a number of factors within or beyond any system can influence the success or the failure of the language curriculum. In the case of the educational system of Iran, a critical look reveals the fact that despite a great amount of investment and expenses on the part of the government for so long, it is yet unable to generate proficient learners. Keeping this issue in mind, the researcher as the teacher educator teaching in an in-service class held through the Education Organization of Yazd, Iran could uncover the teachers' views and perceptions accordingly. Using currere and collaborative dialogue, the researcher in this qualitative study attempted to explore the challenges faced by teachers in addition to the potential factors leading to the current failures of the language curriculum in the system. The insightful findings of this study can be of great assistance to policy makers, textbook writers, and teacher educators to take critical actions towards the betterment and fruitfulness of the EFL program in our education system

Keywords

• language development, language curriculum, currere, collaborative dialogue