The Impact of EFL Teachers ’ Years of Experience on Their Cultural Identity

Abstract—The issue of cultural tension is a problem with which most of Asian countries are faced. In fact, it can be the result of the entrance of western culture into a country’s national borders and can stem from both globalization and the use of English language as the international medium of communication. Iran is one of those Asian countries whose people are at risk of an emerging new identity that tries to replace Iranian socio-cultural and religious identity with a new western one. Specially, English language teachers and learners are more in danger of getting into such a foreign identity as they are always directly facing with western culture. Some factors like one’s age, socio-cultural and ethnical background, gender, and residency in another country as well as length of exposure to a foreign culture may have impact on one’s identity. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate the impact of EFL teachers ’ length of experience in language teaching on their cultural identity. The data was collected through using a questionnaire which was administered to 100 EFL Iranian teachers. The results are discussed and some suggestions for further research are given. Index Terms—cultural identity, EFL teachers, teaching experience I