Failing a course: A diary case study of an Iranian EFL student

Journal of Teaching English Lnaguage Studies

مقاله 2، دوره 7، شماره 2، اسفند 2018، صفحه 14-25   

نویسنده

Alireza Bonyadi^*

English Dept., Faculty of letters, Islamic Azad University of Urmia, Urmia, Iran.

چکیده

Students’ failure in an academic course is usually considered as a common phenomenon in the
eyes of instructors. Luckily, in recent years some scholars have attempted to reconsider the issue
trying to investigate students experience and perceptions on their academic success and failure.
Taking attribution theory as their theoretical framework, these scholars have tried to shed light
on this neglected aspect of education. Drawing on a learner’s course diary, this paper explores an
Iranian EFL learner’s perceptions of difficulties and constraints in failing and retaking a course
on Linguistics. The results of the study indicated that EFL learner attributed factors such as
examination anxiety, deficient study skills as the influential factors of her failure. Furthermore,
socio- psychological issues such as negative self-evaluation and peer- negative –judgements
were emerged as the most bitter experience the diarist went through after her failure. Based on
the findings of the study, some pedagogical implications have been presented.

کلیدواژه‌ها

Course failure؛ Diary studies؛ EFL learning؛ Language Teaching؛ students’ perceptions

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