Iranian EFL learners’ identity construction in a critical reflective course: a case of an online course

ABSTRACT

The present mixed-methods research examined the identity and attitude of Iranian English language learners as a result of their participation in an online critical reflective course. The participants were 38 English language students who attended ten online sessions within a five-month English language course. Their online posts underwent inductive qualitative content analysis and subsequently five themes were extracted. In addition, the content of the first and last two sessions were analysed quantitatively. A validated questionnaire was also administered and 18 participants were interviewed. Qualitative and quantitative content analyses of the data revealed eight finalised codes. The analysis of the findings showed that although the participants’ identity and attitudes did not undergo material changes, their awareness of the intercultural and interlingual issues, between Persian and English language and culture, was sharpened. In addition, their online identities proved to be not set off from their offline identities nor identical to them but interrelated.

KEYWORDS:

• Attitude
• critical reflective course
• culture
• identity
• online course

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Saeed Rezaei

Saeed Rezaei is an Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics at the Languages and Linguistics Center, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran. His publications have mainly focused on social issues especially the role of culture and identity in language education. His most recent publications have appeared in TESOL Quarterly, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, Asian Englishes, Multilingua, Teaching and Teacher Education, New Writing, and Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research.

Homepage: http://sharif.edu/~srezaei

Ashkan Latifi

Ashkan Latifi received his MA in TEFL from Sharif University of Technology. He has mainly worked on social and psychological dimensions of language education. He is now doing a second Masters in Sociology at Bu-Ali Sina University in Hamedan. His most recent paper appeared in Russian Journal of Linguistics. ї