Esmaeel Salimi - Associate Professor, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, University of Allameh Tabatabaii, Tehran, Iran
Omid Ostad - Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, University of Allameh Tabatabaii, Tehran, Iran

The incentive behind conducting the present study was initially ignited by the curiosity to examine the extent of Iranian EFL teachers’ familiarity with the concept of “critical literacy”. This qualitative contribution was carried out in two phases. In the first phase, an open questionnaire was developed and compiled after reviewing the literature, analysing existing questionnaires and gathering feedback from academics in the field. Qualitative data was then collected from ۲۹ EFL teachers and analysed using an open questionnaire followed by an interview. The obtained data allowed the development of ۲۳ questions for the interview part, which was accompanied by observing the online courses of all teachers by the researchers throughout the semester. It was concluded that the participants displayed very low levels of knowledge of Critical Literacy along with little, if any, application or incorporation of it. These findings may assist stakeholders in education, including second/foreign language (L۲) policy makers, teacher educators, teacher recruitment institutes and material developers. They need to take appropriate action to enhance the critical literacy of L۲ teachers before and during employment, thus promoting the implementation of this key concept in the pedagogical context of the process.

Critical Literacy, Teachers’ Familiarity, Online EFL Classes, Iranian Students