Innovation in Language Learning

The EFL population in Iran has been burgeoning in recent years, and hundreds of enthusiastic  Iranian students enter universities every year, hoping to pursue their future in the field of teaching English as a foreign language. Along with this, language educators and learners are barraged with cutting edge research in the field, much of which haslittle instructional efficacy. An obvious consequence of this isa superfluous amount offocus on theoretical knowledge rather than the practical applications, and research now dominates contemporary EFL at higher education level. One reason for this imbalance and mismatch between purely theoretical research and practical applications might be rooted in Massification; the increase in EFL population, which is apparently making it virtually impossible to pay proper attention to the application of theory in practice. Simply put, it seems we are gradually failing to remember that the ultimate goal of all research is to improve the quality of what is done in the language classroom. We are drowned in statistical analyses without understanding the implications of our findings in real situations. While arguing for a combination of theory and practice, the present paper intends to discuss the possible options for bridging the gap between the two, while being mindful to keep both on the front burner.

Keywords: Massification, EFL, Theory, Practice, application