The Contribution of Peer Coaching to the Enhancement of Language Achievement: A Case of Iranian EFL Students

There is a burgeoning interest in collaboration amongst teachers at all levels. One of the most intensive collaborative experiences is peer coaching a course with one colleague. A peer coaching program that leads to reflective practice might be regarded as a model to culminate in an optimal level of performance among EFL students. The peer coaching model allows teachers of equal status to engage in a process of mutual collaboration and interpersonal support, assisting one another in reflecting on their own practices on a regular basis (Gottesman 2000) Moreover, peer coaching fosters the adjustment of beginning teachers, the improvement of underdeveloped teaching skills, and the transfer of newly acquired skills to classroom practice. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the peer coaching in the enhancement of language achievement. For the purpose of this study, forty seven intermediate EFL students in three intact classes of an institute in Tehran were investigated. One of the classes which served as the experimental group was taught by the collaboration of the two colleagues based on peer teaching model and the other two classes which served as the control groups were taught by either of the two teachers separately. The treatment lasted for a period of one semester. The results of the data analysis for the final achievement test administered at the end of the course revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group on the final achievement test. The result of the current study has the theoretical and practical implications for the Iranian language education and teacher education program.