The Relationship between Culture Shock and Sociolinguistic Shock: A Case Study of Non-Persian Speaking Learners

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between culture shock and Persian, as a foreign language, sociolinguistic shock. It has illuminated the experiences of six non-Persian speakers as foreign Persian of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in Iran from different countries. In order to achieve culture shock scale, Mumford questionnaire (1998) was used. Then, interviews were established to gather the experiences of these in relation to sociolinguistic shocks. Their responses were analyzed using Thematic Analysis (TA). Three themes were identified in the analysis: Felt experience, Cognitive experience, and Linguistics politeness experience. The findings further indicated that the learners scores of culture shock scale are positively related to their experiences of sociolinguistic shock. The participants obtained higher scores in culture shock questionnaire faced more problems of controlling sociolinguistic shocks in their interactions with Persian native speakers and vice versa. This paper has also highlighted some factors influencing this matter which lead to individual differences on expe- rience of sociolinguistic shock like nationality and religious beliefs.