KNOWLEDGE ABOUT LANGUAGE AND ITS EFFECTS ON TEACHING AND TESTING PRACTICES IN AN EFL CONTEXT

The present study investigated the role of KAL (knowledge about language) of the Iranian teachers in teaching and testing English in school. The paper enjoys a qualitative approach to data collection which tried to systematically uncover the constraints of using KAL in teaching and testing in Iran. In order to find the effective factors, an open-ended questionnaire, accompanied by interviews were employed. A number of factors were extracted which are classified into two categories of internal and external factors. By internal category we mean the teachers’ language proficiency, teachers’ lack of KAL, and teachers’ inability to transfer what they have learned theoretically to their classes. The external constraints, as its name suggests, are those which are imposed by external factors such as the curriculum, the imposed scheme of testing, negative backwash effect, lack of facilities, etc. A set of pedagogical recommendations are also provided for different stakeholders ranging from policy makers and curriculum developers to school officials and teachers.