NEW HORIZONS IN TEACHING ENGLISH IN IRAN: A TRANSITION FROM READING-BASED METHODS TO COMMUNICATIVE ONES BY “ENGLISH FOR SCHOOLS” SERIES

After setting some macro-level policy documents such as “The 20-year National Vision of Islamic Rep. of Iran”, “The Comprehensive Scientific Roadmap” and especially “The National Curriculum” which was finalized and ratified in early 2013, Iran’s ministry of education is now responsible for paving the ground of an educational revolution and obviously English as a compulsory subject which is thought for 6 years in both junior and senior high school level has received much scholarly attention. The major argument of this article is to report the ongoing revolution of TEFL in k-12 official education system of Iran. Arguments have encompassed both the administrative changes in factors such as time, grades and methods of teaching English in Iranian high schools and teaching resources, mainly the new textbooks. In this paper we will start the discussion with a view to the relevant literature of TEFL in Iran before and after the educational reform of recent years. This will be followed by introducing different aspects of this above mentioned revolution with a main focus on newly authored and published textbooks known as “English for schools” series. Although the research has been done within Iranian context and reports this country’s experiences and achievements, many findings and suggestions may be interesting for other foreign/second language situations.