فرهاد مظلوم زوارق

One of the key issues in language planning and policy (LPP) studies is the start age policy of learning/teaching English (Spolsky, 2009). Although several Asian nations have lowered the age of English education in their national curricula (Nunan, 2003), English is formally offered to Iranian students when they are about thirteen years old. On the other hand, private language schools have grown extensively in number offering English to children as young as five and posing a challenge to Iran's English education policy. Iranian parents (key stakeholders at micro-level policy-making process) generally choose to send their children to such private language institutes (Mazlum, 2010). This paper is an attempt to provide an emic perspective of the rationale of this group of policymakers-in-practice (i.e. parents) in choosing to send their children to private English schools. To this end, thirty-two parents participated in a semi-structured interview. Three levels of data analysis followed interview recording and transcription: determining patterns, deriving broad themes from the patterns, and drawing conclusions. Findings suggest that Iranian parents are primarily concerned with utilitarian, functional, and pragmatic role of English in their children's future lives followed by its intercultural communication role. Other pertinent issues such as regulative and imaginative roles (Kachru, 1992b), hegemonic and imperialistic perspectives, and ideological imperatives are not issues of concern for Iranian parents. Findings are used to maintain that formulation of efficient educational de jure policies vis-à-vis TEYL (Teaching English to Young Learners) needs to be systematically fed with de-facto realities of practice and implementation level.