iranian language learners’ attitudes towards teaching/learning english: the role of university major, gender, and age

Attitudes towards learning and teaching a subject play a major role in determining individuals' success or failure in any educational programme. hence, this paper delves into the attitudes of university and non-university students towards teaching/ learning english in iran. to this end, thirteen ma and forty-three ba students majoring in english, twenty-nine non-university students attending language institutes, and twenty-nine university students majoring in a field other than english were recruited to participate in the study. they were both male and female and were requested to complete a-five point likert-scale attitudes towards teaching/ learning english questionnaire. the analysis of elicited data indicated that overall students had positive attitudes towards teaching/ learning english. t-test analyses revealed no significant difference neither between males and females nor among different age groups and nor between non-english majors and other groups in terms of their attitudes towards teaching/ learning english. the paper concludes that paying attention to students‟ attitudes towards the subject being taught/learnt is of utmost importance. it also highlights the usefulness of such research for every teaching/learning context. the results can be used in a wide range of contexts from the very stage of designing to the final evaluation stage of programme design and implementation. further findings and implications are discussed in the paper.