An Investigation into the Iranian EFL Teachers’ Knowledge and Application of EFL Standards (Learners’ Perspectives)

Knowing something is drastically different from using something as the former does not necessarily guarantee the latter one. In line with this trend, this study was an attempt to empirically investigate the Iranian EFL teachers’ knowledge of EFL standards of teaching and learning as well as the extent to which they are committed to practically observe and apply them in their classroom. For this purpose, 600 male and female high school students filled out two separate questionnaires; one addressing their teacher’s knowledge of the EFL standards and the other addressing their teacher’s application of EFL standards. To do so, frequency analysis, chi-square test and ANOVA were run. Based on the results the students were not sure about their teachers’ knowledge of ESL standards. They had also taken a neutral position more than expectation. However, they selected the “strongly agree”, “disagree” and “strongly disagree” choices less than what was expected. As to the application of the standards, the learners were not sure about their teachers’ application of ESL standards as the teachers themselves were. An analysis of chi-square showed statistically significant differences in their views on the application of the standards. Comparatively speaking, it is concluded that the teachers believe that their knowledge on ESL standards are significantly beyond expectation while the students hold the opposite view.

کلیدواژه ها:

ESL/EFL Standards ، Teachers’ knowledge ، Application of ESL/EFL standards ، Learners’ perceptions