On the Development of a Model of Cultural Identity and Language Achievement among Iranian Advanced EFL Learners

The aim of the study was designing a model of Iranian cultural identity. The initial pool of theparticipants was 300 language learners at the advanced level. To make sure about the true levelof the participants, they needed to take TOEFL. Based on the descriptive statistics includingmean and standard deviations, those participants whose scores lay within the range of +/- onestandard deviation were selected as the actual participants of the study. Thus, 180 learners werechosen. The cultural identity model was designed by the use of interviews and extensiveliterature review to come up with main components of cultural identity. Afterwards, participantswere interviewed about their identity and four components comprising Iranian cultural identitywere identified. The results of the factors analysis showed that raw data converged to a patternwith four components which fit the hypothesized model of cultural identity. Then, the culturalidentity questionnaire was given to participants. The total score of the participants was calculatedand the achievement scores of the participants were the numerical data obtained from the finalexam scores. The results of statistical analyses indicated that there was a significant negativerelationship between cultural identity and language achievement of the participants.