This article reports research examining a group of English language teachers' perceptions of the teacher appraisal scheme with a developmental purpose. Speci"cally, the researchers tried to "nd out if there is a discrepancy between what the institution intended to achieve and how teachers perceived the scheme before and after their participation in it. The "ndings of the study, which were obtained by analysing the data collected from the teachers and appraisers in the form of two structured interviews revealed some signi"cant clues for the institutions which are involved in or interested in running teacher appraisal schemes in their workplace.