Bilingualism and social identity

Language and identity are two integral elements which establish infrastructures of societies. National and ethnic identities are counted as the most important forms of the collective identity. The target of this research is the study of effect of language on the sense of identity among the university students. Since، the University of Tabriz admits the most number of non regional students from various ethnicities annually، so، it can be an appropriate field to study such topic. Survey methods applied for this research، data was collected by questionnaire. All students of either sex studying in different majors with a sample content of 376 students، whom chosen by utilizing multi step cluster sampling was studied. Results of the research show that there is a positive and direct correlation between rate of national identity and rate of ethnic identity of the students. Also، there is a correlation between year of education and rate of individual identity. On the contrary، when education level increases، other identities which have collective aspects، decreases. In this research، there isn’t meaningful correlation between ethnic identity with gender and field of study. The final result is that bilingualism has a positive impact on the acquisition of national identity.