foreign language teaching

If the target of foreign language teaching is to use the language, communicative language teaching (CLT) seems to be an ideal teaching model. The goal of teaching with this method is to use the language as a medium of communication (Adi, 2012).The application of the communicative approach in teaching English as a foreign language, however, is associated with some problems that can cause the method turn out not to be so much successful and the learning outcome not to be efficient enough. This paper mainly intended to evaluate the problems that may lead to the failure of communicative language teaching in EFL contexts and some possible solutions for such problems. Awareness of these problems and the possible remedies can be helpful for both EFL teachers and learners, providing them with insightful ideas about how to manage their teaching and learning activities for the successful implementation of this method.

Parallel with the global outbreak of Covid-19 disease in 2020 which widely affected the educational milieu, many institutions of higher education shifted to fully online blended and/or synchronous courses and programs. The extent to which each of these modalities (i.e. fully online blended courses versus online real-time ones) may contribute to language learners’ achievement is largely unknown. Previous studies on blended learning (BL) across various disciplines including foreign language teaching have largely focused on courses featuring a combination of face-to-face and online sessions. This quantitative quasi-experimental study presents an attempt to compare the effectiveness of a fully online blended technical English course with a mix of online synchronous sessions and asynchronous interactive content with that of an online real-time course. The language achievement of 25 university level students attending this online blended course was compared with that of students in an online synchronous course. Drawing on independent and paired sample t-test results obtained from two sets of pre and posttests, it was observed that while both groups performed significantly better in the final language achievement test, students in the fully online synchronous course outperformed those in the blended one. The findings speak to the significance of careful design of online blended courses in terms of session and content delivery along with the essence of increasing peer-to-peer and learner-teacher interaction opportunities to improve the effectiveness of these courses for language learners.

Keeping pace with the continuous changes and innovations in the field of English language teaching is considered to be a necessity for the quality of teachers' teaching. There are numerous approaches to teacher development, among which self-initiated development stands as one of the noticeable trends. Although teacher development is crucial for the quality of education, it appears that there are not many studies on self-development of English language teachers in Iran. There are studies mostly concentrating on the evaluation of pre- or in-service programs in English language teaching. Addressing this call, the main purpose of this study was to investigate perceptions of 48 in-service English language teachers towards their professional development. The data collection instrument used was a researcher-made questionnaire consisting of both open-ended and close-ended items. Employing descriptive statistics, the data was analyzed. The results indicated that the teachers agreed with most of the concepts that indicate the importance of professional development. Moreover, they were aware of the importance of major professional development activities for their development. Yet, peer observation and action research were not preferred as much as the other activities.