A Study of Iranian EFL Teachers' Perceptions and Practices Regarding Listening Instruction

Abstract

Research on teacher cognition in the area of listening instruction has not been sufficiently touched upon. This case study aimed to investigate Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers' stated practices, perceptions, and their actual classroom practices in terms of the key activities and techniques of four common listening instructional approaches namely, text-oriented, communication-oriented, learner-oriented, and metacognitive approach. Additionally, this study sought to explore to what extent the teachers' stated practices and perceptions corresponded to their actual classroom practices. To this end, a mixed methods design was utilized. Five experienced EFL teachers were required to be observed and to fill the three instruments namely, the questionnaire, the lesson plan analysis task, and the belief inventory. The findings of the study from both the stated practices and lesson plan analysis task revealed that communication-oriented listening instruction was the dominant approach to listening instruction. Similarly, the findings from classroom observation proved this dominance. It was also found that text-oriented instruction was the second most dominant approach. In addition, more convergence between stated practices, perceptions, and beliefs with actual classroom practices was observed in terms of the product-oriented approaches than in terms of the process-oriented ones. Finally, pedagogical implications for EFL teachers, teacher trainers and material developers regarding the role of teachers in how best to teach listening were discussed.