Educational Context

This study، first، attempted to explore the conflict or tension between EFL teacher intuition or concepts and the conception with a composite view assembled from learner's accounts of the distinctive features of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)، and second to investigate the latter's ""hidden agenda"" (Nunan، 1998) of what ELT should be. On the other hand، role of educational context as an independent variable in determining such conflicting conceptions was also investigated. The study was carried out in the Iranian educational context conventionally categorized into three settings including; authoritarian، semi-democratic and democratic، given their varying existing educational policies and planning. Both the learner and teacher-participants (N=150، 45، respectively) answered three triangulating and already validated questionnaires (Brindly، 1984 and BALLI of Horwitz، 1987) attempting both the nature of language learning activities and their beliefs on CLT. Findings revealed that the learners hold variety of self-efficacy beliefs different from those of their teachers about learning language، many of which supported to be attributed to the educational context type and language planning and the pertinent administration policies. While both sides agreed in general on the virtues of CLT to language teaching، there were interesting differences in their perceptions mainly as to lesson purposes، classroom activities، and learning outcomes. The implications of the study would revolve around the (I) dependency of reflective teaching and learning on teacher's awareness of learner's needs، capabilities، potentials and preferences or in Richard's (1996) term of learner's"" maxims""، (II) necessity of teacher-learner cooperation in syllabus design، (III) significance of narrowing the gap between their maxims of instruction and learning، and (IV) awareness of the possible imposition of negative impacts like tension، anxiety and dissatisfaction on the learner's side resulting from any cognitive and intuitive mismatch on the teacher's side.

This study explored the status of professionalism and commitment among Iranian EFL Teachers. In doing so, 136 (86 private-and 50 public-sector) EFL teachers of different ages (25-55) from different schools and institutes in Tehran participated in this study. The participants completed the pertinent instruments (i.e., Teachers’ Professionalism and Organizational Commitment Questionnaires). Moreover, out of 136 participants, 40 EFL teachers were interviewed. The results showed that both professionalism and commitment along with their subcategories were rationally high among EFL teachers. Furthermore, a positive correlation was found between EFL teachers’ professionalism and commitment. Besides, the content analysis of interviews indicated that professional teachers were committed to their teaching and were sensitive to learners’ needs. Likewise, committed teachers were actively looking for professional development opportunities. The results also showed that female EFL instructors had a higher level of professionalism and commitment than their male counterparts. Additionally, the results indicated that EFL instructors in language institutes had a higher level of professionalism and commitment than those in senior secondary schools. The findings can support EFL policymakers, supervisors, managers, and teacher trainers to grasp a better picture of professionalism and commitment in Iranian EFL educational contexts.