English Language Teacher Education Curriculum in Farhangian University: Appropriacy to Teacher Trainee’s Future Professional Needs

Many experts believe that one of the main causes of ineffective language learning in Iranian state schools has been inefficient teacher education. As a result, a new curriculum for English language teacher education has been in place in Farhangian University since 2012. This study aimed to examine some aspects of the curriculum that needed to be improved, changed and/or maintained in order to help improve English language teaching in Iran. The evaluation framework of second language teacher education developed by Richards (1998) was employed as a guideline for analying the curriculum. The research was conducted through a course material analysis and the data was collected through questionnaires and interviews from 150 male and female teacher-students and 5 teacher educators. The results revealed that the programme has many advantages including its special emphasis on language teaching theories, teaching skills, communication skills and subject matter knowledge. However, there were some shortcomings, namely lack of close supervision of the practicum at schools, no pre-thought policies for teacher-students participation in English teachers' communities of practice, insufficient time allotted to teaching conversational skills and more consciousness-raising activities for teacher-students in terms of pedagogical reasoning skills and the influential socio-cultural factors in second language learning.