Iranian EFL Teachers’ Perceptions of the Different Features o f Mediation

With the emergence of social constructivism, gradual changes in the role of teachers have been observed and the interests in the recognition of the importance of mediation in English language classrooms have been surged. It appears that the history of mediation pretty ignores exploring the teachers mental lives and has not treated some variables in much details. This paper sought to reveal Iranian EFL teachers thoughts on the importance of the different aspects of mediation and to discover the degree that they act as mediators. It is also aimed to investigate the differences in Iranian high school English teachers’ perceptions across various genders, ages, degrees as well as teaching experience groups. In order to collect data Mediation Questionnaire for Language Teachers consists of three parts designed by Williams and Burden (1997) was distributed among 40 Iranian EFL teachers in three institutes in Gorgan. The results showed that 57 percent of teachers believed that mediation was very important for them. Meanwhile, they consider themselves as a mediator quite often. The findings also demonstrated no statistically significant difference in Iranian high school English teachers’ perceptions across different genders, ages and degrees apart from teaching experience.