EFL teachers’ recruitment and dynamic assessment in private language institutes of Iran

The critical role and effect of teacher assessment in ELT has been ratified by researchers among whom are Darling-Hammond (2000); Knox (2002); Bailey (2006); Davison & Cummins (2007); and Blum (2009).Taking this issue into account, this exploratory study seeks to investigate the underlying criteria of both recruiting and assessing in-service EFL teachers in private language institutes of Iran. To this aim, five of the most well-known and expanded language institutes in this country were selected. Their procedures for employing teacher applicants and later on assessing their in-service performance have been obtained, analyzed and discussed in this study. Interviews with the supervisors along with analysis of application forms, observation sheets and other relevant documents illuminated the procedures and criteria of teacher entry and assessment in the target setting. Findings are presented more in depth in the Results and discussion section.