The Effects Of Socio-Cultural Factors And Socio-Economic Status On The Writing Performance Of Iranian Tertiary Learners
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Date
2016-09
Authors
Bijami, Maryam
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Abstract
This study examines the extent to which socio-cultural factors and socioeconomic status affect the writing performance of Iranian undergraduates majoring in English language translation and English language literature. The sociocultural factors in the present study comprise gender, parents' and siblings' involvement and feedback from teachers and peer. The aspects of socioeconomic status taken into consideration in this study include parents' education and occupation and family income. In order to fulfill the objectives of the study and the nature of research questions, a mixed-methods research design was adopted to triangulate both the qualitative and the quantitative data. The researcher used non-probability sampling (purposive type) in four universities namely Shahid Bahonar University, Vali-e-Asr University, Isfahan University and Shiraz University. Four hundred participants from these universities majoring in English language translation and English language literature participated in the present study on a voluntary basis. For the quantitative phase, data was obtained from the writing task and the questionnaire while qualitative data, was collected from the semi-structured interviews. The findings of the present study did not reveal any significant relationship between gender, parents' involvement, sibling's involvement, peer feedback and participants' writing performance. The only positive relationship was found between the teacher's feedback and the low SES class. Overall, this study provided significant information about the effects of the socio-cultural factors and the socioeconomic status on the writing performance of Iranian undergraduates majoring in English language translation and English language
literature. The findings of the present study provide excellent ideas for English writing teachers and the curriculum developers as regards to the importance of the writing skill in the students' language learning process. This study suggests that teachers use different kinds of strategies in their writing class (e.g. feedback). In addition, it is recommended that teachers incorporate revision group activity in the writing class to motivate students to work with their peers in a group scenario. This study also posits the view that teachers should encourage parents to communicate with the school authorities and the teaching staff regarding students' language learning in general with a particular and pointed emphasis on the English writing process. Finally, the present study suggests that curriculum developers should place emphasis on the writing task in the English writing process within the framework of the educational curriculum from high school till university.
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Socio-cultural factors and socioeconomic status affect the writing performance , of Iranian undergraduates majoring in English language translation and English language literature.