Teacher factors encompass the teachers’ cognitive and affective characteristics that are likely to affect their instructional efficacy. Language teacher immunity is one of the affective factors that determines the teachers’ psychological well-being in their settings. The present study strived to itemize the factors in novice and experienced EFL instructors’ teacher immunity philosophy. To this end, first, the researchers used convenience sampling for selecting 62 EFL teachers including 38 novice and 24 experienced teachers at ten prominent language institutes in Tabriz (Iran) as the participants. Second, they conducted 30-minute interviews with the participants for determining the factors that influenced their TI philosophy using a researcher-developed semi-structured interview protocol. Lastly, they used thematic analysis in order to particularize the main factors in their teacher immunity philosophy. The findings of the study indicated that while the novice teachers considered external support as the main factor in their philosophy, the experienced teachers regarded their internal strength as the decisive factor that influenced their teacher immunity philosophy. The findings may have practical implications for teacher education courses in foreign language contexts.

Within recent advances in education, teachers are expected to be aware of and apply effective procedures of instruction and assessment to enhance learning. This requires teacher education programs to provide opportunities for teachers to improve their knowledge in different areas, including assessment knowledge, to meet the new challenges. To help EFL teachers to improve their language assessment knowledge (LAK), the first step is to have information on their present status of LAK. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate the LAK needs of EFL teachers. Fulcher’ s needs assessment questionnaire (2012), expanded by some open-ended questions, was administered to 246 EFL teachers to explore their perceptions of the importance of major issues in language assessment and the level of their own knowledge. The findings revealed that the majority of the participants considered the major topics in language assessment as either essential or important to be included in language assessment courses. However, major differences were found between the priorities given to these topics by various groups of teachers. Further, it was observed, in line with the findings of previous research, that EFL teachers claimed they needed to improve their LAK. Details of the findings and implications for teacher education programs are discussed.

Learner autonomy (LA) has always been a controversial issue among applied linguists. Several studies have been carried out to investigate the teachers' and learners' perceptions of learner autonomy as well as the feasibility of learner autonomy. Despite the importance of learner autonomy and the existence of several related studies, the challenges in promoting LA in Iranian institutes to the researcher’ s best of knowledge have not been explored appropriately, yet. The main objective of the present study was to investigate the challenges in promoting learner autonomy from Iranian EFL teachers' perspectives. To do so, a qualitative research design was used. In doing so, 23 Iranian EFL teachers employed as full time teachers in different universities in Tehran, Iran were selected through purposive sampling. The data were collected through in-depth interviews and analyzed through content analysis following Randor model. Based on the content analysis of the interviews, three different themes were extracted. The first most frequent observed theme, institution related challenges, consisted of prescribed objectives, materials, and assessment methods. The second theme, learner related challenges, consisted of seven sub-themes. However, the third extracted theme was teacher related challenges which consisted of four sub-themes. The findings can be used by teacher trainers, teachers, as well as EFL learners. It can be concluded that EFL teachers should receive training in learner autonomy through both pre-service and in-service training courses.

Language learners have frequently been classified according to individual difference variables such as aptitude, personality, cognitive style, and motivation. However, a language teacher’ s view seems to have been missing from such classifications. This exploratory research investigated whether and by which criteria Iranian EFL teachers classify their students. Based on preliminary interviews with 29 high-expertise Iranian EFL teachers, 21 criteria were identified and included in a questionnaire that was completed by 175 Iranian EFL teachers. The respondents almost unanimously agreed that they did classify their students according to their understanding of the character type, behavior patterns, and achievement patterns of their students. Then they rated the 21 criteria on a scale from 0 to 4 according to how important each classification criterion was for them. Factor analysis of questionnaire responses revealed six major classification criteria. Subsequently, in a case study, 26 EFL students in a typical Iranian high school class were asked to rate their classmates according to the six major criteria. Only five of the criteria were found to predict English achievement and Grade Point Average (GPA). A cluster analysis of the students’ peer ratings using the five criteria generated three clusters. An ANOVA revealed that the three clusters were accurately differentiated not only on the clustering criteria but also on the two non-clustering variables: EFL Achievement and GPA.

Burnout is one of the potential threats to teachers which can negatively influence their performance and bring about many side effects such as poor health conditions, depression, absenteeism, etc. It has, however, been found teachers who use effective coping strategies to deal with stressful job conditions can resist burnout. This qualitative design study aimed to investigate the coping strategies of 15 Iranian high school EFL teachers who did not show burnout on Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). The participants were interviewed and observed in classrooms and they were asked to keep journals for 8 sessions. The data were content analyzed and results show that establishment of rapport with students, discussing problems with principals and colleagues, class management, rEFLection, ongoing learning, adherence to moral principles and adopting a traditional teaching style are among the coping strategies these teachers used. The low frequency of these strategies, however, implies that EFL teachers, even those who resist burnout, need to be trained on different burnout coping strategies.

The present study was an attempt to extend our knowledge on the perspectives of English language native and non-native teachers about assessment literacy. Furthermore, it was intended to find if there was any significant relationship between native and non-native English language teachers’ perceptions regarding assessment literacy and their experience. To achieve such goals, a mixed methods design was utilized. In the quantitative phase, Classroom Assessment Literacy Inventory developed by Campbell and Mertler (2004) was utilized which consisted of five scenarios. Through a combination of availability sampling and snowball sampling procedures, the researcher either distributed the questionnaire among 100 native and non-native English teachers or sent it by E-mail to them. In the qualitative phase, a semi-structured interview was selected as a qualitative tool for collecting data. To this end, 10 teachers volunteered to take part. Based on the quantitative findings, there was a positive relationship between native English language teachers’ perceptions regarding assessment literacy and their experience. However, there was not any significant relationship between non-native English language teachers’ perceptions regarding assessment literacy and their experience. Based on the qualitative results, seven codes were classified according to three themes, namely, assessment assumptions, assessment targets, and professional development. These seven codes were classroom observations, assessment consistency, formative assessments, summative assessment, higher-order thinking skills, lack of assessment literacy of coursework, and lack of technology assessment literacy. Thus, it is concluded that teachers should assume the role of classroom observation and consistency of the assessment as two major assumptions of assessment.

teachers’ assessment literacy plays a crucial role in the assessment quality and student achievement. To shed more light on this issue, this mixed- methods study intended to measure and describe the assessment literacy level of 80 randomly selected Iranian EFL and field specialist ESP university teachers who sat for an assessment literacy questionnaire and 10 of them for a semi-structured interview.Analyses of the data showed that: first, members of neither group possessed an acceptable level of assessment literacy; and second, there were significant differences among them on the nine sub-scales of assessment literacy. Though the EFL university teachers showed higher assessment literacy level than the field specialist ESP counterparts, both groups suffered significant deficiencies which not only indicate weaknesses in EFL teacher education programs in terms of language testing and assessment but also are persuasive enough to render specific assessment education for each group involved in foreign language teaching programs necessary.

Following the previous research studies, the present study intends to investigate the positive function that code-switching to L1 (Farsi) performs in the EFL classes of three English institutes in Iran. The case study focuses on revealing the attitudes of teachers and learners towards the patterns, functions and factors of switching to L1 in EFL classes in the context of Iran. In this study, quantitative research method is employed in order to analyze code-switching to Farsi through questionnaires. The analysis of the collected data revealed that code-switching to L1 is a prevalent strategy used by most EFL teachers in English institutes of Iran. It was also concluded that code-switching to L1 plays a positive role in teaching and learning of the English language.

Understanding the opinions of major role players in education (i.e. teachers, students, and policy makers) on all aspects of learning and teaching is influential to the success of the educational process. The purpose of this study was to investigate EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers' views on measuring reading comprehension. A cohort of 50 Iranian EFL teachers teaching at university, school and institute levels were invited to fill out a tailor-made questionnaire. Based on the analysis of 23 returned questionnaires, it was revealed that in most cases teachers did not have the freedom to make their own tests, or had to follow out-dated guidelines by relevant authorities.

To deal with the harmful consequences of teachers’ stress and burnout, there has been a growing call for the development of resilience in teacher preparation programs. Despite the importance of teachers’ resilience, it seems that insufficient studies have been done on Iranian EFL teachers’ resilience resources and strategies that make them immune to the difficulties and challenges that might lead to their burnout. To this end, a mixed-method study was conducted. The participants of the quantitative phase of the study were 79 EFL teachers who filled in the questionnaire, and only 65 questionnaires were completed. Out of 65 teachers, 36 Iranian EFL teachers who showed low and high scores on the Multidimensional teachers’ Resilience Scale (MTRS) accepted to participate in the qualitative section of the study. A series of semi-structured, one-on-one interviews were conducted. To ensure data validity, other data collection tools, including journal keeping and classroom observation, were also applied. Data analysis, guided by the grounded theory approach, resulted in a multi-dimensional approach involving interrelated aspects of personal, professional, organizational, social, and economic dimensions. The study may offer helpful resources and strategies to address some of the challenges faced by teachers in the profession.