Challenges of Employing the Underlying Tenets of English as an International Language in Iran

Abstract

Concerning the complexities that are closely related to the rapid spread of English around the world over the past few decades, English as an international language (EIL) was proposed to represent a revisiting of the established notions within the field of teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) by holding a positive attitude toward non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) and their cultures. Given that English is not their first language, non-native English language learners, such as Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) learners, may feel frustrated by the current status of EIL discussion. Consequently, searching for the challenges that they may struggle against seems to be an unexplored issue, which is the purpose of this qualitative study. Six Iranian Ph.D. students of TEFL who attended their EIL course were selected. The collection of student journals was combined with semistructured interviews with each participant. After analyzing the data using MAXQDA software and grounded theory, the challenges of EIL in Iran were categorized into five categories: (a) disownership of English, (b) Iranian cultural dominance in high school English textbooks, (c) prevalence of discrimination against NNESTs, (d) acceptance of only American and British varieties, and (e) lack of intercultural competence. The findings bear some implications for TEFL professionals to to explore the effects of challenges associated with employing the EIL tenets in EFL settings and to suggest potential solutions.