English Culture, a Threat or an Opportunity: The Role of English Education on the Cultural Identity of Iranian EFL Learners

English is a world-wide medium of education and is nearly taught all over the residential areas of the blue planet. It is spoken and written almost always on TV, newspapers, virtual world, educational and academic institutions and even in business. Due to its nature, a great deal of general and technical information, scientific findings, and cultural premises are transferred or transformed to the target language. Here in Iran, English is approximately thought of as a university franchise or a social class for many purposes like immigration and obtaining scholarship overseas. Almost all the universities and English institutes make use of native English textbooks and media. Eventually, apart from the knowledge which is derived from this exposure, a considerable amount of cultural loads are given to the learners. Among those who receive these cultural packs are EFL and English Institute learners. The researcher, because of significance of the subject matter, is trying to find any causal relationship between teaching English to Iranian English learners and their culture and identity changes.

Keywords:

culture , identity , cultural identity , ELT , EFL