New Traces of CLT in Iran: EFL Teachers’ Perceptions and Difficulties in Implementation

Communicative Language Teaching was not heeded in Iran until the Ministry of Education appointed a revision team to develop new curricula and syllabi in order to solve existing teaching problems, improve teaching practice, develop students' communicative competence, and, all in all, to bring about fundamental changes. The new syllabus that has come out in ۲۰۱۳ highlights the use of language for the purpose of communication. The great emphasis which places on the actual use of the language for communication is an innovation in the history of ELT in Iran. The goal of the research is to investigate junior high schools EFL teachers' perceptions towards CLT in Iran. The participants of this study were ۱۵۴ junior high school EFL teachers from Mazandaran province. The main instrument used to elicit data for the study was a written questionnaire. There are positive indications that Iranian EFL teachers are relatively aware of the basic principles of CLT.Keywords: Perception; Communicative Language Teaching (CLT); Implementation; Problems; Innovation.