ON IRANIAN EFL TEACHERSʹʹ DOMINANT TEACHING STYLES IN PRIVATE LANGUAGE CENTERS: TEACHER-CENTERED OR STUDENT-CENTERED?

The significance of learning English as an international language is widely acknowledged in diverse areas particularly in educational settings (Farhady, 2010). Effective language learning is undoubtedly appreciated in an educational setting and teaching styles contribute to fulfillment of this ambition. Teaching style is viewed as teachers’ identifiable and consistent behaviors and techniques in classroom (Conti, 1986). Generally speaking, every teacher follows particular styles in classroom depending on the learners, subject matter, and course objectives. Grasha (1996) proposed a model for teaching style in which teachers’ teaching styles are categorized into five groups. It is worthy of note that this model provided the theoretical framework for the current study. Acknowledging the great impact of teaching styles on learnersʹ achievement and varying teaching styles in different context, this survey study aimed at describing English as a foreign language (EFL) teachersʹ dominant teaching styles at private language centers. To this end, 103 EFL teachers working at private language centers in Iran were randomly selected to fill out the teaching style inventory (TSI) developed by Grasha (1996). Using descriptive statistics, the findings of this study showed that EFL teachers dominantly implement formal teaching style in private language centers. The implications of the findings are also discussed.