when practice distances itself from policy! a comparative evaluation of three generations of eap textbooks in iran

English for academic purposes (eap), as a significant branch of english language teaching (elt), has been taken seriously in higher educational systems in recent decades. the trend has also expanded in iran especially in the last two decades. the research findings reveal that the top-down trend in eap curriculum policy-making is still dominant in iran in the sense that eap policies are issued to systematize eap programs and objectives are set to operationalize these policies. despite the implementation of this centralized curriculum, the research on the status of iranian eap textbooks, probably as the most important component of eap in iranian academic setting, shows that this branch has experienced the appearance of three generations of textbooks in its around four-decade lifetime. while policy-making in this field has not been considerably changed, textbook development, as an inevitable practice in any language teaching program, has evolved. studying the reasons for this change indicates that due to some global as well as national developments in the fields of education, economy, communication, science, etc., the needs and desires of eap learners have pushed the materials developers to present different eap textbooks with respect to their content and structure. considering these points, in this paper, firstly the authors attempt to provide a vivid picture of eap policy and practice in iran. then, through reviewing and comparing the features of three generations of eap textbooks published so far for iranian higher educational system, their main changes are described and analyzed. finally, the reasons and rationale for such a transformation in which practice distances itself from policy are dealt with.