Applicability of CLT and Postmethod Pedagogy in Iranian Context of ELT: Expert Teachers’ Perspectives

Abstract

After all the methods and approaches of English Language Teaching (ELT) have been through, today in 21st century there are two current controversial ways of English language teaching named as Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and Postmethod pedagogy with the former labeled as being an approach belonging to method era and the latter an outcome of the belief in moving beyond the methods. This paper is concerned with the common mainstream of ELT in Iran and aimed to explore the preferred way of English language teaching in this context. After a careful review of literature regarding the present debate, the study adopted a qualitative research design including observation and semi-structured interviews. The participants of the study were five experienced English language teachers teaching at five well-known language institutes in Iran. The findings of this study help teachers’ self-understanding of their teaching styles. Additionally, it helps decision makers and teachers to know the reasons behind choosing specific ways of ELT which work better in this particular context. Moreover, some practical implications are suggested to teacher education programs.