Social, Cultural and Linguistic Factors Affecting EFL Learners’ Language Proficiency: A Quantitative Analysis

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Research

مقاله 9، دوره 5، شماره 17، شهریور 2017، صفحه 121-135   

نوع مقاله: Research Papers

نویسندگان

Somaye Amirabadi^{* 1}؛ Seyyed Ayatollah Razmjoo²

¹Department of English, Qeshm Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qeshm, Iran

²Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

چکیده

Many factors may be involved in determining why some students are more and some are less proficient in language. This study tried to explore the factors affecting Iranian EFL learners’ proficiency. 221 students at second, third and fourth year of university, including 50 male and 171 female were selected randomly to participate in the study. A researcher-made questionnaire and a proficiency test comprised the data collection instruments. The researchers were able to identify three factors affecting language proficiency. They were classified as social factors, cultural factors and linguistic factors, Then a model was developed to represent the relationship among these factors and language proficiency. In line with Bourdieu’s (1986), the results of data analysis indicated that social factors are among the most dominant factors affecting the learners’ language proficincy.

کلیدواژه‌ها

Social factors؛ Cultural factors؛ linguistic factors؛ confirmatory factor analysis؛ structural equation modeling