Abstract
<p class="apa">The aim of the current study was investigating the role of achievement in learning English as a foreign language in EFL learners’ cheating attitudes and cheating behaviors. Eight hundred junior high-school students were selected based on random cluster sampling and participated in the study. Their attitudes towards academic dishonesty and their cheating behaviors in language classes were examined by two questionnaires. The result of data analysis revealed significant correlations between achievement in learning English and cheating attitudes and behaviors. Further, the result of regression revealed that achievement in learning English had weak power to predict cheating attitudes (.7%). However, the power of achievement in learning English to predict cheating behaviors of language learners in language classes was five times stronger (3.5%).</p>
Highlights
Academic dishonesty has become a major issue in education over the past decades and is obviously overspreading among different groups of students with an increasing rate
The current study examines the relationship between EFL students’ achievement and their cheating attitudes towards cheating as well as their cheating behaviors in language class
This result indicates that those students who get higher scores in English, agree with the fact that the instances mentioned in the scale are dishonest behaviors or cheating
Summary
Academic dishonesty has become a major issue in education over the past decades and is obviously overspreading among different groups of students with an increasing rate. To cheat or not to cheat is considered as one of the most basic ethical decisions students face (McCabe, Trevino, & Butterfield, 2001). Academic dishonesty is what students do to present academic work of others as their own (Jensen et al, 2002). Due to their epidemic nature in the educational settings, dishonest behaviors are changing academic ethics and culture and have become an acceptable means to an end especially when students face circumstances like intense competition for scholarships or job offers. Cheating on exams and assignments are reported to be among the most common types of academic dishonesty. While many scholars talk about how to detect and deter cheating, instances of cheating are not reported by many teachers or faculty members due to professional and personal reasons (Allen et al, 1998)
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