Studies in English Language Teaching ISSN 2372-9740 (Print) ISSN 2329-311X (Online) Vol. 5, No. 1, 2017 www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/selt 86 A Comparative Study of the Government and Private Sectors’ Effectiveness in ELT Program: A Case of Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners’ Oral Proficiency Examination Hooshang Khoshsima 1 & Seyyed Morteza Hashemi Toroujeni 1* 1 English Language Department, Faculty of Management and Humanities, Chabahar Maritime University, Iran * Seyyed Morteza Hashemi Toroujeni, E-mail: M.hashemi@cmu.ac.ir Received: February 14, 2017 Accepted: February 19, 2017 Online Published: February 22, 2017 doi:10.22158/selt.v5n1p86 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/selt.v5n1p86 Abstract Learning context in which learners learn language skills, especially oral proficiency, is very crucial factor in an English Language Teaching (henceforth ELT) program. In fact, a context of language learning in which communicative principles are provided can be a great help for learners to use the language communicatively in real situations. An ideal learning context requires a friendly environment to provide enough exposure to the language input. Iranian students learn English both in government high schools (henceforth GHS) and private language institutes (henceforth PLI). Two different educational systems with their own special features are applied in two GHS and PLI contexts. Therefore, this study investigated the comparability of two systems regarding their effectiveness difference on speaking performance of the students. In addition to the direct observations and two-stage interviews, a TOEFL speaking test was taken by 220 students of two contexts in Behshahr city located at Mazandaran province. Then, the correlation of 8 internal and external moderator-factors with speaking performance was examined. The results of the independent t-test indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the speaking performances of the learners of two contexts. Furthermore, Pearson Correlation revealed that some variables might have effect on speaking performance of language learners. Keywords language learning context, effectiveness difference, speaking performance, government high school, private language institutes