Mahsa Abedi; Marjan Vosoughi; Mohammad Ali Kowsary
Abstract
In this study, the researchers intended to screen English language learning perceptions on four relational contexts including language learners’ family members, English teachers, classmates and their best friends. To this aim, a group of Iranian adolescents (no=38), with an age range of 12-16 were ...
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In this study, the researchers intended to screen English language learning perceptions on four relational contexts including language learners’ family members, English teachers, classmates and their best friends. To this aim, a group of Iranian adolescents (no=38), with an age range of 12-16 were randomly selected from three language institutes located in Sabzevar, Khorasan Razavi. The researchers distributed a modified version of a validated questionnaire by Taylor (2010) titled Quadripolar Model of Identity (TQMI) to investigate variability of the learners’ perceptions for 1)learning English with regard to four relational contexts above and 2) their insights over two conceived selves including public and imposed self. Findings indicated that within diverse characterizations of personality types, the preferences for including “family members” in the learning processes and future functioning were conspicuous. As to respondents’ preferences towards achieving their goals in learning English regarding their two selves (public and imposed), it became clear that the level of imposing on the part of “language teachers” and “families” on the learners was roughly the same in both present and future self categorization presentations and in the public self, again family members had more rates. Finally, the results from the data on the relationship between two aspects of identity (imposed vs. public), and language learning success, measures represented a significant relationship for only imposed identity indicators. Implications for overall recognition of other-related people in the language learning processes were discussed in the end.
Mahnaz Mostafaei Alaei; Mohammad Reza Ghamari
Volume 2, Issue 2 , December 2013, , Pages 85-111
Abstract
The present study was aimed at examining concerns about the social effects of EFL learning, a challenging area of research which has not been discussed sufficiently. It tried to investigate the relationship between EFL learning and national identity. In addition, attempt was made to find a relationship ...
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The present study was aimed at examining concerns about the social effects of EFL learning, a challenging area of research which has not been discussed sufficiently. It tried to investigate the relationship between EFL learning and national identity. In addition, attempt was made to find a relationship between language motivation types and national identity. Furthermore, the role of two demographic variables, gender and age was examined. To this end, a sample consisting of 350 undergraduates studying at Allameh Tabataba'i University in Tehran took part in the study. A questionnaire on national identity and another one on language motivation types followed by an interview were the instruments used. The questionnaires had already been developed. However, there were some major modifications for the former which consisted of 30 items measuring national identity for all participants. The latter contained 42 items measuring language motivation types for only EFL learners. The Regression analysis, independent samples t-tests and a one-way ANOVA were run. The results revealed that claims over the harmful social effects of EFL learning were not arguably significant and it was found that among the eight language motivation types, going abroad and social responsibility were correlated with national identity. Furthermore, gender and age indicated significant differences among the participants' tendencies. The findings indicated that the social concerns about EFL learning are too pessimistic. So, materials developers, syllabus designers and teachers might consider the potentiality of some social elementsand demographic variables for the development of EFL learning.