ELT LEARNERS’ PREFERENCES AND TEACHERS’ ATTITUDES: DETERMINANT FACTORS IN CURRICULUM DESIGN

Appropriateness of English language teaching (ELT) materials in teaching English has raised issues such as limitations of purposeful materials and curriculums; needs and preferences of teachers and students who are using materials; authenticity of materials; and cultural components. This study tried to discover teachers’ attitudes towards ELT material development and to determine the special purposes and learning preferences of Iranian English language learners with a focus on general English materials. Twenty instructors and 200 students participated in this study. To verify the results of the questionnaire, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six instructors. The findings indicated that language teaching would be meaningful and purposeful when curriculum designers and teachers target specific language skills and learners’ wants. Local teachers’ knowledge of their situations as well as their familiarity with their students’ motivation, culture, and learning styles give them a potential advantage over native-speaker teachers in material development.