Identifying factors affecting English teachers' tendency towards conceptual teaching (Case study: Kermanshah Province)

Conceptual teaching has been proposed as an effective model in the teaching and learning process, which emphasizes understanding the principles, concepts, and content being taught so that students are able to use and apply them in real-life environments instead of memorizing the material. This study, which identified factors affecting the tendency of first- and second-year high school English teachers in Kermanshah province to teach conceptually, was applied in terms of its purpose and qualitative in terms of its data collection method, with an exploratory nature. The participants were English teachers in the first and second grades of secondary schools in Kermanshah province in the academic year 1402-1403, 18 of whom were selected through a purposive, criterion-based method. In-depth, semi-structured individual interviews were used as a data collection tool. The present qualitative study, which was conducted with a purposive sampling method and with 18 participants (11 male teachers and 7 female teachers), aimed to diagnose the current state of English language teaching and identify the factors affecting (and possible obstacles) on the tendency of English teachers in the first and second grades of secondary schools in Kermanshah province to teach conceptually. The data collection tool was based on qualitative methods and was conducted using in-depth, semi-structured individual interviews with each of the selected samples. Data analysis was performed using content analysis. Based on which 1 overarching theme, 7 organizing themes, and 117 basic themes were obtained. The most important results obtained include the relative satisfaction of English teachers with teaching methods, the need to increase the hours allocated for the implementation of conceptual teaching, and the positive effects of teachers' professional development activities for teaching using the conceptual method. Also, teachers' lack of motivation, lack of time, large class sizes, and many teachers' unfamiliarity with this teaching method were among the most important challenges mentioned, the elimination of which will make it possible to find solutions for implementing conceptual teaching. The results of this research will be useful for all those involved in education, teachers, and the office of authoring books and teaching resources.