Abstract :
The present study tended to survey English language teaching (ELT) in Iranian contexts of state-run and private language schools in Mashhad, the third biggest city of the country. The comparative study aimed at presenting a microcosm of the state-of-the-art in ELT in Iran by focusing on three major levels of teaching approaches, instructional designers, and pedagogic procedures. Statistical analyses of the teacher questionnaire, taken by 299 teachers in secondary schools (199) and language institute (99), at the level of approaches showed no significant differences in the teachers’ behavioral-structural, cognitive-generative, and functional-interactive perspectives in the two locations. However, the data analysis at the level of instructional designs revealed significant differences at the sublevels of educational objectives, error-correction strategies, choice of syllabus, criteria for evaluation of teachers, teaching-learning activities, teacher roles, learner roles, and media use. Despite the similarity of the two contexts in testing techniques and formats, it became clear the two groups significantly differed in their focus on assessing English language (sub)skills. The findings for the procedures showed that more form-focused, mechanical and translation techniques are in vogue in state-run schools, while more interactive-communicative techniques with a focus on the learner engagement and freedom are the prevalent trends in private language institutes.
