Journal of
Languages and Culture

  • Abbreviation: J. Lang. Cult.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 2141-6540
  • DOI: 10.5897/JLC
  • Start Year: 2010
  • Published Articles: 131

Full Length Research Paper

The interaction between bilingualism, educational and social factors and foreign language learning in Iran

  Mojtaba Maghsoudi, Ph.D. in TEFL
Payam Noor University of Shazand, Arak, Iran
Email: [email protected]

  •  Accepted: 13 October 2010
  •  Published: 30 November 2010

Abstract

 

The main concern of the present study was to probe the probable differences between Iranian bilingual/monolingual learners of English regarding their syntactic knowledge. It was an attempt to investigate whether bilingual and monolingual learners of English differ significantly in learning embedded question, preposition stranding and pied piping knowledge. To carry out this study, a total of 399 male and female subjects at seven pre-university centers in Arak were randomly selected from among two groups of Turkish-Persian bilinguals and Persian monolinguals. A general English proficiency test, a questionnaire, and a syntactic structure test were administered to both groups. Statistical analyses including ANOVA, t-test, post-hoc Scheffe test, and descriptive statistics revealed the following outcomes: 1- Monolingual and bilingual learners did not differ in acquiring syntactic structure, 2- no significant difference was observed between gender of monolinguals and bilinguals’ performances in acquiring syntactic structure, 3-learners whose parents are in low educational level had significantly lower scores in syntactic structure compared to learners whose parents are in high educational level, 4- monolingual participants surpassed bilingual participants in general English proficiency, and 5- learners with high socioeconomic status (SES) had significantly higher scores in general English proficiency than learners from low SES.

 

Key words: General English proficiency, socio-economic status, bilingualism, gender and third language learning.