EXCESSIVE ORIENTATION TO EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH AN OBSTACLE FOR INNOVATIVENESS AND CRITICALITY IN ELT METHODOLOGY

This article has been aimed at discussing the ways in which experimental methodological research in English language teaching (ELT) in many contexts is problematic. It also addresses how excessively orienting Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) student researchers and teacher researchers towards experimental studies, at the expense of engaging them in thought-provoking argumentative writing and theorizing, has rendered them incapable of discovery-learning and critical thinking in their field of specialization. A discussion has also been presented about different educational philosophies and how they apply to our EFL context in Iran. In summary, it has been argued that our ELT context in Iran is highly dominated by strict adherence to experimentally-oriented thinking and researching away from provision of opportunities for ELT-specializing students to practice thinking through an argumentative genre. Consequently, rarely have they developed the ability and self-confidence to doubt and think beyond and above what they have read in books or been dictated upon by other western scholars. This has given rise to a trend of thinking the only product of which has been the habit of believing what the so-called [omniscient] Big Names have too much confidently argued to be the TRUTH.