Second, Foreign or International Ethnic language, culture and identity in shaping attitude to English in the kaleidoscopic Iranian context

Today’s world seems to be quite overwhelmingly concerned with communication an incontestable aspect of which is communicating with people lacking a shared linguistic background. A common language (or lingua franca) would, therefore, be needed which can cut across all local, national, and regional linguistic boundaries. Following the functional approach, language is a vehicle of social behavior; hence, English as lingua franca is expected to bring along intriguing issues such as identity, culture and behavior. This study aimed at exploring the attitudes of 400 college students and EFL learners at a semi-state-run language institute (named ILI) whose mother tongue were Persian, Azerbaijani Turkish and Kurdish and were residing in Yazd, Tabriz, and Mahabad, respectively. The present study investigated English language status in the three domains of English Language, culture and local identity in the linguistically diverse context of Iran. For the purpose of the study, a standardized questionnaire containing 37 Lickert-type items was distributed. The scale points were assigned numerical values, therefore turning the data into interval scale type. Kruskal-Wallis H test and correspondingly Mann-Whitney U-test (post hoc analyses) were employed for data analysis revealing that learners from different linguistic backgrounds had significantly different reactions and attitudes to the issues such as: English language difficulty, its general value, priority alongside the national language, instructional importance, the status of English in Iran, text and content matter comprehensibility through English, job prospects, official status, culture learning, integrating with American or British cultures, religion and foreign language learning, English ownership, adherence to either British or American varieties of English, and distinction between English as a foreign vs. as an international language.

Keywords:

attitude , English as Foreign language , identity and culture , multinational Englishes , ownership of English