A Comparative Study of the Government and Private Sectors’ Effectiveness in ELT Program: A Case of Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners’ Oral Proficiency Examination

Abstract

Learning context in which learners learn language skills, especially oral proficiency, is very crucial factor in an English Language Teaching (henceforth ELT) program. In fact, a context of language learning in which communicative principles are provided can be a great help for learners to use the language communicatively in real situations. An ideal learning context requires a friendly environment to provide enough exposure to the language input. Iranian students learn English both in government high schools (henceforth GHS) and private language institutes (henceforth PLI). Two different educational systems with their own special features are applied in two GHS and PLI contexts. Therefore, this study investigated the comparability of two systems regarding their effectiveness difference on speaking performance of the students. In addition to the direct observations and two-stage interviews, a TOEFL speaking test was taken by 220 students of two contexts in Behshahr city located at Mazandaran province. Then, the correlation of 8 internal and external moderator-factors with speaking performance was examined. The results of the independent t-test indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the speaking performances of the learners of two contexts. Furthermore, Pearson Correlation revealed that some variables might have effect on speaking performance of language learners.