AN INVESTIGATION OF IRANIAN EFL LEARNERSʹʹ AND TEACHERSʹʹ PERCEPTIONS AND EXPECTATIONS ON THE MOST EFFECTIVE METHOD OF LANGUAGE TEACHING AT UNIVERSITY LEVEL

The present study aims at investigating Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ and teachers’ perceptions and expectations on the most effective method of language teaching at University level. Participants of this study were 91 EFL learners and 34 MA and PhD EFL teachers from five English Departments of Islamic Azad Universities. Instruments used were 2 Likert questionnaires which were designed by the researchers and were confirmed as valid questionnaires. Theses questionnaires were distributed among teachers and learners. Statistical analysis of obtained data using SPSS software revealed that that learners and teachers selected as participants of the present study considered community language learning (CLL) as the most effective teaching method. Some pedagogical implications were recommended for all the communities of the educational practice including the syllabus designers, policy makers, language teachers. The most universal suggestion to all these practitioners is to be aware of the most effective methods in an EFL context and be more selective in their design.