iranian efl teachers’ challenges of implementing world englishes in the classroom

World englishes is in accordance with the spread of english and its pluralization around the world. based on this approach, english is not seen as belonging to the english-speaking countries only, and rather belongs to all countries around the globe. therefore, countries are divided into three groups, namely inner circle countries, outer circle countries and expanding circle countries, which signify english as a first language, english as a second language, and english as a foreign language, respectively. in line with world englishes, localization is accepted in terms of accent and form; moreover, all cultures are acknowledged, and thus there is no need to include american/british culture only. the present study aimed to find out the challenges of implementing a world englishes approach in the iranian efl context from the perspective of teachers. to this aim, 12 efl teachers who worked in different language institutes were interviewed. the interviews were then examined and through thematic analysis, the main themes were extracted which were the following: expectations of learners to speak with a native-like accent, learners’ interest in the culture of english-speaking countries, and the mismatch between the expectations of language institutes from teachers with world englishes theory. the findings were in line with previous studies which had taken into account the perspective of learners in this regard, both showing lack of interest in world englishes in the iranian efl context. finally, the implications of the study were discussed and suggestions were provided for further research.