Iraqi EFL Learners’ Conceptions of Strokes With Respect to Teachers’ Age

Abstract

This article describes how the transactional analysis concept of strokes can contribute to our understanding of educational psychology and the dynamics in educational settings between teachers and students. Teachers’ stroking behavior may be influenced by several factors, including gender, age, and culture. The study described here investigates the differences among Iraqi English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ conceptions of types of strokes based on the age of their teachers. Five hundred Iraqi teenage learners responded to a 32-item scale. The results of repeated measures ANOVA manifested that there was not a significant difference in the students’ perceptions of overall kinds of strokes given by young and older teachers. However, two subscales of strokes—verbal conditional positive and verbal conditional negative strokes—were perceived significantly differently between older and younger teachers. Finally, and importantly, verbal conditional negative strokes turned out to be less unpleasant than unconditional ones regardless of the teacher’s age, denoting that if the teacher is to give negative strokes, students prefer conditional ones.