The present research aimed to investigate the problems of teaching and learning English in middle schools in Esfahan, Iran. These problems are associated with the learner, teacher, textbook, syllabus and language policy. The instrument used was a self-constructed likert scale questionnaire. All the variables had a hand in the problems among which textbook, syllabus and language policy had the most effect. Twenty five problems were distinguished among which some are as follows: students do not consider pair work important; most of the time, most teachers do not speak in English in the classroom; the textbook does not include CDs or cassettes, does not consists of all the English Skills; the syllabus does not include one or two projects for students apart from the midterm or final test, Language Policy being not completely familiar with the steps of EFL teaching, does not selecting the most qualified and proficient teachers in EFL teaching. It can be concluded that the language policy should take a practical step in reducing the problems by changing the textbooks and providing more teaching aids for the teachers. Keywords: teaching and learning English, problems of teaching and learning English, middle school, Iran INTRODUCTION Teaching and learning English has been a crucial issue in developing countries particularly in Iran. Most teachers have concerns about teaching and learning English and what methods and approaches are the best for students. As the same result, problems in teaching and learning English have always existed. In Iran, students graduate from school while they are not able to communicate in English (Dahmardeh 2006; Karimnia {\&} Zade 2007). In order to know what factors contribute to such problems, it is better to know what the characteristics of a good language learner, a teacher, a textbook, a syllabus and a language policy are. So by going through literature, one can find out these characteristics, afterwards by using a questionnaire, the opinions of the students towards learning English can be investigated and based on the objectives of the study it can be tried to specify the problems of teaching and learning English. Rubin and Thompson (1983) as cited in Nunan (2006: 57-58) have conducted a well-known study in which they state that good language learners tend to have the following characteristics which make them distinct from other learners: