Cultural Foundations of the Society and Students' Ability for Establishing Efl Teaching in Iranian Primary Schools Publisher



Liaghatdar MJ¹ ; Yamani N² ; Mohseni F³ Show Affiliations
Source: Journal of Applied Sciences Published:2009

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the cultural context of the society in Iran and also learner's ability concerning learning English in primary school, in order to propose practical strategies for starting teaching English as a foreign language in its proper time in Iran. This descriptive study was performed on 314 high school teachers working in cities of Tehran, Esfahan, Shiraz and Kerman, who were selected by random sampling method. The data gathering tool was a researcher made questionnaire including 60 items based on 5 point likert scale ranging from completely disagree to completely agree. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by experts and its reliability was 0.89 by Cronbachs Alpha. The data was analyzed by SPSS software using t-test, ANOVA, Tukey and paired t-test. The response rate was almost 98%. The total mean score indicating the appropriate cultural context among teachers for establishing English language teaching in primary school was 3.58±56 out of 5. There was a significant difference between this mean and the assumed average score of 3 (p = 0.01). The mean score for children's ability as well as their tendency to start learning English language in primary school was 4.6±0.53 which had a significant difference with the average score of 3 (p = 0.001). According to the results, there is appropriate cultural context in Iran's society for starting teaching English language in primary school. Also, children encompass proper ability and tendency to start learning English language in primary school age. For establishing teaching English language in primary school, taking advantage of the experiences of other countries could be very useful. © 2009 Asian Network for Scientific Information.