Does religious orientation relate to school and english language achievement in secondary education?

Abstract

This study attempted to explore whether religious orientation relates significantly to school and English language achievement at grade four in secondary education in Iran where educational objectives are defined in terms of religion To this end a Shia Ithna Ashari Religious Orientation Scale SIAROS was administered to pre university or grade four senior high school G SHS students and their responses were subjected to factor analysis The results showed that eight factors underlie the scale The students also took a schema based cloze multiple choice item test S Test which was developed on the reading passages of the English textbook they had covered during the school year Correlating the students rsquo GPAs as well as their scores on the S Test with the SIAROS associated the domain and its factors neither with the students rsquo school nor with English language achievement The students rsquo scores on Grade Three English Final Examination G FEE held nationally however correlated significantly but negatively with the domain and its Social Ceremonial and Sacrificial factors The Inquisitive and Charitable factors did though correlate significantly and positively with the G FEE The results are discussed and suggestions are made for future research