Developing a Questionnaire for Assessing Iranian English Learners'/Teachers' World Englishes Conceptualization-Guilan Universities

Abstract

The unprecedented growth of the number of World Englishes and needs of communication among experts calls for English language teaching programs to take into consideration the place and relevance of teachers' and learners' conceptualization of paradigm of WEs. The present research studies the global status of WEs and its conceptualization among Iranian English teachers and learners. It is presenting a thematic instrument to examine the extent to which Iranian EFL and ELIC-SP teachers' and learners' conceptualization of WEs can be effective in the fields of global communication, research, development and science. In the first phase of the present study a theoretical framework and its components were developed through reviewing the literature and conducting interviews with ELT experts and EFL and ESP learners. In the second phase, a questionnaire was developed and piloted with 300 participants who were available and willing to participate in the study. The 46 items of the newly-developed ‘WEs Con.' scale were subjected to principal component analysis which revealed the presence of four components, relevance of WEs Con. To EFL, ESP, Culture, Ownership of English and Standard English. These phases led to the development of a questionnaire with four components and 46 items.