A Comparative Analysis of Students’ and Teachers’ Perceptions of Effective Foreign Language Teaching in Iran

Abstract

This study investigates L2 teachers’ and L2 students’ perceptions of effective foreign language teaching in Iran by evaluating adjustments and maladjustments among each group’s perception of what they think an effective L2 teacher should recognize and perform in the classroom. The main aims of this study were triple: First, the recognition and contrast of post-secondary L2 students’ and L2 teachers’ perceptions of effective teaching conducts on a Likert-scale questionnaire; second, the contrast of students’ and teachers’ perceptions of how often particular teaching conducts are implemented; third, the contrast of students’ assessments of teaching to their teachers’ self-assessments on a similar questionnaire. Fifty teachers and their one hundred and fifty students from eight classes in some universities in Golestan province, Iran willingly joined the study in fall semester, 2014. In two visits, the students and teachers completed questionnaires concerning perceptions of 1) what effective FL teachers should be performing in the classroom, 2) how often definite target conducts are implemented, and 3) how effective teachers do them. An extra section of the study included the contrast of the students’ evaluations on the language-teaching questionnaire with certain questions related to teaching taken from the standard Teacher-Course Evaluation Questions. Statistical analyses indicated that teachers and students, generally and by teacher, do have very various perceptions of what should be performed in the FL classroom, what is at this time being performed, and how effectively it is being performed. Questions that indicated statistically important distinctions among teachers and students generally concealed matters such as direct error modification, task-based teaching, and students’ utilization of FL early, use of pair and small-group work, and grammar teaching. Teachers’ and students’ answers to the utilization of English in testing reading and listening skills, the need for the teacher to have native-like command of the target language, the explanation of the FL by the teacher to help students’ comprehension, and the need of positioning grammar into real-world backgrounds were alike. Students and teachers look to have different views concerning grammar teaching and the worth of communicative language teaching strategies with students preferring a more common grammar-based method and teachers preferring a communicative FL classroom.