Volume 7-2 April 2011.

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Title
Guiding a Persian EFL Instructor to Create Individualized Classroom Environments: Novel Opportunities for ELT Practitioners

Authors
Ali Rahimi (Ph.D.)
University of Kashan, Iran.

Nabi. A Ebrahimi (M.A.)
Islamic Azad University, Arsanjan Branch, Iran.

Bio Data
Ali Rahimi, assistant professor in TEFL, received his Ph.D. from Shiraz University in 2004. He has taught at Isfahan, Kashan, Tehran Teacher Education and Shiraz universities. He is now supervising M.A. and Ph.D. students at Kashan, Tehran Teacher Education and Allameh Tabatabai universities. He has written and translated many books on critical discourse analysis, social psychology, globalization, translation theories, and teaching methodologies. He has published many articles and presented papers at national and international conferences.

Nabi. A Ebrahimi, M.A on TEFL from University of Kashan, Iran. He is now teaching in Islamic Azad University, Arsanjan Branch, Iran. He has presented some papers in national and international conferences. He is interested in educational reform studies, psycholinguistics, discourse analysis, and learning environment researches.

Abstract
Taking into account the sad fact that most of the researches carried out in the field of learning environment research are allocated to science and mathematics classrooms, we have endeavored to introduce the field of learning environment research to ELT practitioners. The idea presented here is that the insights gained through decades of learning environment research conducted basically in science and mathematics classrooms can be conducive to the improvement of English classroom environments. Furthermore, since this was the first in-depth study concerning learning environments in Iran, it would elucidate the practical benefits of learning environment investigations by explaining how a learning environment instrument could be used to guide a Persian EFL instructor to foster a more individualized learner-centered classroom environment. 32 (F=26 and M=6) EFL students were given the Individualized Classroom Environment Questionnaire in its actual and preferred forms. The statistical analyses revealed that there was a significant difference (p<0.05) between the scores on actual and preferred forms, hence the students’ dissatisfaction with their classroom environment. In addition, the dimensions from which this dissatisfaction arose were also explored and proposed to the instructor to make him able to meet his students’ ideas and preferences. The ideas can be utilized by EFL teachers, materials developers and assessment specialists to create more innovative, creative, critical and democratic classroom environments as the sine qua non of modern successful learner based education.

Keywords: Learning environments, Individualized classroom environments, English classroom environments, Students’ perceptions, Satisfaction, ICEQ; ELT.