Reza Pishghadam - Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Islamic Republic of Iran
Reza Zabihi - University of Isfahan, Islamic Republic of Iran

Teaching  English  in  an  Iranian  and  Islamic  culture  poses  complex  questions  for  both  teachers and learners. In this paper, the authors intend to shed light on what it means to teach English as a  foreign  language  (TEFL)  in  an  Islamic-Iranian  context.  Having  reviewed  the  colonial  and postmodern views of English language teaching, the authors took a look beyond the current state of TEFL in Iran, which is marked by its continuing global tendency, and into the future with an emphasis  on  the  importance  of  including  the  local  specificities  of  the  Iranian  culture  and religion.  The  status  of  the  TEFL  in  Iran  and  the  direction  it  should  take  in  the  future  are accompanied  by  offering  some  solutions  to  inherent  problems.  Iranian  TEFL  is  introduced  as the successful assertion of Iranian  local culture against the  cultural and ideological domination of  the  West,  which  can  be  an  antidote  to  the  harshness  of  all  marginalizations  Iranians  have suffered for centuries.

globalization, Colonialism, postcolonialism, linguistic imperialism, postmodernism, Localization, Iranian TEFL