The Interplay of Socio-economic Status and Grade Point Averages among Iranian EFL University Students

In universities, due to its impacts on the students’ academic achievement, the problem of socioeconomic status is getting more and more tangible. Therefore, it is important to have a clear understanding of what benefits or hinders university-age students’ educational attainment. As such, the present research aims to investigate the effects of the socio-economic status (SES) on EFL junior learners’ grade point averages (GPAs) in the national university of a city of Iran named Kerman. Pearson Product Moment correlation showed that the relationship between SES and GPAs for the participants of this study was so that SES had remarkable relationship with GPAs. However, the direction of this relationship shows that the participants with a mid/high SES had significantly lower GPAs than the participants with a low SES. /This finding of the study has valuable implications for families and educational programs.

Keywords:

EFL students , Socio-economic status , Grade point averages