Iranian Language Learners’ Attitudes towards Teaching/Learning English: The Role of University Major, Gender, and Age

Attitudes towards learning and teaching a subject play a major role in determining individuals success or failure in any educational programme. Hence, this paper delves into the attitudes of university and non-university students towards teaching/ learning English in Iran. To this end, thirteen MA and forty-three BA students majoring in English, twenty-nine non-university students attending language institutes, and twenty-nine university students majoring in a field other than English were recruited to participate in the study. they were both male and female and were requested to complete a-five point Likert-scale attitudes towards teaching/ learning English questionnaire. The analysis of elicited data indicated that overall students had positive attitudes towards teaching/ learning English. t-test analyses revealed no significant difference neither between males and females nor among different age groups and nor between non-English majors and other groups in terms of their attitudes towards teaching/ learning English. The paper concludes that paying attention to students‟ attitudes towards the subject being taught/learnt is of utmost importance. It also highlights the usefulness of such research for every teaching/learning context. The results can be used in a wide range of contexts from the very stage of designing to the final evaluation stage of programme design and implementation. Further findings and implications are discussed in the paper.