Examining the Relationship between cultural identity and attitude of high school students of Tehran toward learning English

PayandehDariNejad, Zohreh; Habibzadeh, Hamed

doi:10.22059/jflr.2021.323841.841

Examining the Relationship between cultural identity and attitude of high school students of Tehran toward learning English

Document Type : نقش فرهنگ در آموزش زبان های خارجی

Authors

Zohreh PayandehDariNejad ¹

Hamed Habibzadeh ²

¹ MA Student in English Language Teaching, English Department, Faculty of Literature and Foreign Languages, University of Kashan, Kashan, Iran

² Assistant Professor of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Foreign Languages, University of Kashan, Kashan, Iran

10.22059/jflr.2021.323841.841

Abstract

It is essential for teachers, especially foreign language teachers, to understand the relationship between culture, language, and identity. These three interrelated categories construct both a teacher’s attitude and that of a student. This study aims to examine the relationship between cultural identity and attitude of high school students of Tehran toward learning English. This research also intended to examine the sense of cultural identity of high school student boys and girls. To do so, 180 secondary school students (88 girls and 92 boys) of four districts of Tehran (First, Fifth, Twelfth, Eighteenth) were chosen through random cluster sampling. Then, the data was gathered through Gardner’s short-form questionnaire of motivation and attitude toward English language learning, and cultural identity questionnaire. The questionnaires distributed online among the students. The results of the statistical analysis revealed that there was a weak negative correlation between the two variables of cultural identity and the attitude of students toward learning foreign language. It means that there was a weak negative relationship between increasing cultural knowledge of the Iranian adolescents (16–18-year-old) toward Iranian cultural identity and their attitude toward English language learning. The results also revealed that there was not any significant difference between the two groups of boys and girls in the sense of cultural identity. The findings of this study would be helpful to everybody in charge of teaching, especially English language teaching, the designers of learning materials, English teachers, and the instructors responsible for training English teachers.

Keywords

English language learners

culture

identity

cultural identity

attitude toward English language

Altugan, A. (2015). The Relationship between cultural identity and learning. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 186, pp. 1159-1162.

Dahmardeh, M., & Kim, S. D. (2020). An analysis of the representation of cultural content in English coursebooks, Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, DOI: 10.1108/JARHE-09-2020-0290

Dahmardeh, M., Parsazadeh, H. (2015). Language and Culture: Can we shape what the future holds?. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology, 12(2), pp. 61-72.

Dumitraskovic, T. (2015). Culture, identity and foreign language teaching and learning. Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, 2, pp. 251-258.

Ebrahimi, S., Afraz, S., & Samimi, F. (2019). On the development of a model of cultural identity and language achievement among Iranian advanced EFL learners. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Research, 7(26), pp. 117-135.

Gelisli, Y. (2014) Values of national identity in child magazines. Journal of Procedia- Social and Behavioral Science, 116 , pp. 3308-3312.

Hassanzadeh, M., & Alizadeh, M. (2018). Iranian EFL teachers’ cultural identity in the course of their profession. Journal of Issue in language teaching (ILT), 7(1), pp. 111-134.

Kim, D. (2020). Learning language, learning culture: teaching language to the whole students. Journal of Review of Education, 3(3), pp. 519-541.

Mahmoodi, H., & Haddad Narafshan, M. (2020). Identity types and learners’ attitudes in language learning: Voices from students of medical sciences. Journal of Research and Development in Medical Education, 9 (17), pp. 2-7.

Oroujlou, N., & Vahedi, M. (2011). Motivation, attitude, and language learning . Journal of Procedia- Social and Behavioral Science,29, pp. 994-1000.

Porto, M. and Byram, M. (2017), New Perspectives on Intercultural Language Research and Teaching, Routledge, Abingdon, Oxon.

Tafaroji Yeganeh, M., & Raeesi, H. (2015). Developing cultural awareness in classrooms at secondary school level in an Iranian educational context. Social and Behavioral Science Journal, 192, pp. 534-542.

Tajeddin, Z., & Teimournezhad, Sh. (2014). Exploring the hidden agenda in the representation of culture in international and localised ELT textbooks. The Language Learning Journal, 1, pp. 1-14.

Tsang, S., Hui, E., & Law, B.C. (2012). Positive identity as a positive youth development construct: A conceptual review. The Scientific World Journal, 2012(3), pp. 1-8.

Wong, D., Zhang, W., Kwan, W., & Wright, E. (2019). Gender differences in identity concerns among sexual minority young adult in China: socioeconomic status, familial, and cultural factors. Journal of Sexuality & Culture, 23(4), pp. 1167-1187.

Zare-ee, A., & Asgari Matin, S. (2014). The Relationship between EFL Learners’ Self Identity Changes, Motivation Types, and EFL Proficiency. Iranian Journal of Applied Language Studies, 6(2), pp. 141-178.

ابراهیمی، شراره، افراز، شهرام و صمیمی، فضل الله (1399). نقش هوش چندگانه در هویت فرهنگی و پیشرفت زبانآموزان ایرانی زبان انگلیسی. پژوهشهای زبانشناختی در زبانهای خارجی، 10(1)، 1-18.

بذول نژاد، معصومه (1397). رابطۀ انگیزۀ یادگیری زبان انگلیسی و نگرش به‌زبان انگلیسی با عملکرد درس زبان انگلیسی. کنفرانس ملی دستاوردهای نوین جهان در تعلیم و تربیت، روانشناسی، حقوق و مطالعات فرهنگی اجتماعی، شیراز: دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی واحد زرقان، موسسه آموزش عالی علامه خویی.

قربان دوردی نژاد، فرهاد (1394). ساخت، رواسازی و پایاسازی پرسش نامۀ انگیزش و نگرش. دوماهنامۀ جستارهای زبانی، 6(2)، 107-129.

قهاری، شیما (1392). تاثیر رشتۀ زبان انگلیسی بر هویت فرهنگی: بررسی مقایسهای هوش فرهنگی و انزوای ارزشی، پژوهشهای زبانشناختی در زبانهای خارجی، 3(2)، 278-312.

محمدحسین پور، رسول و سربندی فراهانی، مریم (1398). هوش فرهنگی، هویت فرهنگی و استفاده عناوین خطابی انگلیسی توسط فراگیران ایرانی زبان انگلیسی. پژوهشهای زبانشناختی در زبانهای خارجی، 9(2)، 585-607.