The Role of Linguistic Knowledge in Determining Personal Identity of Language Learners in an L2 Context

Abstract

In the past decades, there has been an increasing interest in studying experiences of the “self†in different contexts so that identity has become a concept receiving considerable attention in recent research studies. Accordingly, the present study sought to explore the extent to which language knowledge might shape personal identity. It also aimed to investigate whether academic year had any impact on Iranian EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students’ identity development. To this end, from the population of male and female freshman and senior students studying TEFL (Teaching of English as a Foreign Language) at Najafabad Islamic Azad University, eighty students were randomly selected to fill out a questionnaire. Subsequently a number of participants attended a focus group interview. The items in the questionnaire addressed the different aspects of identity to see how they applied to the students. Participants were interviewed to provide them the opportunity to express their opinions in their own terms and so to have access to more deliberate and detailed information. The most obvious finding to emerge from this study is that as students complete more years at university their identities change and improve. The unpredicted outcome was that gender seemed to play no significant role in the construction of identity and its subcomponents except that male students proved to be more reluctant in taking up new identities projected by the educational setting they were located in. The results presented in this study suggest both educators and policy makers to develop policies which could improve students’ identity so that they can identify themselves as better citizens, and more efficient and respectful members of the educational system and the society.