رجب اسفندیاری

The study of EFL in Iran reveals complex challenges faced by both teachers and learners, particularly in fostering learner autonomy. This qualitative study explored the challenges to learner autonomy in the Iranian EFL context through semi-structured interviews with 17 teachers and 13 learners selected through purposive sampling to ensure diverse representation from various educational settings. Thematic analysis using MAXQDA was employed to identify recurrent themes related to the challenges. Findings revealed that both groups face significant obstacles, primarily stemming from curriculum rigidity, which includes prescriptive syllabi, an overemphasis on standardized testing, rote memorization, and severe time constraints. Teachers also reported barriers related to their adherence to traditional teacher-centered approaches, limited understanding of innovative methods, and insufficient professional development, alongside perceiving learners' lack of motivation and passive learning styles as hindrances. Learners, conversely, highlighted the focus of curriculum on memorization, assessment methods prioritizing grammar over practical language use, and a lack of personalized guidance from instructors, compounded by personal struggles with initiative, time management, and cultural influences. The study concludes that comprehensive educational reform is essential, advocating for more flexible curricula, diversified assessment methods, continuous teacher professional development, supportive learning environments, and a cultural shift towards valuing autonomy to enhance student engagement, language proficiency, and lifelong learning.

Grammatical accuracy has always been a concern for most Iranian EFL learners. This grammatical variability is more visible in the writing of Iranian IELTS candidates. In this study, the impacts of (distributed, peer and reciprocal scaffolding on IELTS learners' horizontal grammatical variability were investigated. An explanatory mixed design was employed to measure the differences among scaffolding types and to develop a better understanding of teachers' and learners' perception toward them. 120 IELTS candidates were randomly selected from a pool of 367 candidates, and they were put in three experimental groups and a control group. Each scaffolding type was used in one of the experimental groups as the treatment. Five different essay topics were given to each student before the course and after the course. Two official IELTS mock examiners rated the writing performances according to the details of IELTS criteria about grammar accuracy and variability. Next, using an ANCOVA procedure, the data were analyzed. Moreover, the data collected in the qualitative phase were content analyzed. The findings showed that in distributed and reciprocal scaffolding classes, the differences were significant. The qualitative findings showed that although there was a discrepancy between the teachers' and the learners' attitude toward the possible success of the treatments, at the end, both parties confirmed that they can be beneficial. Due to the fact that 'time' has always been a precious parameter in IELTS preparatory classes, these findings can be of help to IELTS teachers and candidates.