The Impact of Cross-cultural Sensitivity and Attitudes towards Teachers on Reducing Persian Learner's Foreign Language Anxiety

The non-Persian learners’ appreciation of the social-cultural issues in Iran, cultural differences between learners and their teachers, and their attitudes towards teachers may have various impacts on learners’ anxiety in Persian classrooms. The present research aims to explore the relationships among learners’ anxiety in learning Persian, their attitudes towards teachers’ personality, and cross-cultural sensitivity levels. In addition, it examines to what extent these factors can predict the learning in Persian learners. Moreover, the study will investigate the differences between learners in three variables with regard to proficiency level and nationality. A total number of 68 international students (including both genders) at basic and intermediate levels were recruited in Fall 2009. The results showed that there was significant and considerable relationship among Persian learners’ level of anxiety, cross-cultural sensitivity and their attitudes towards teachers. Furthermore, ‘attitude’ could significantly predict the variance of ‘anxiety’. Moreover, while experiencing more anxiety, the learners at the basic level attributed more personality attitudes to their teachers. Significant differences were also found between the European, Arab, and non-Arab Asian learners with respect to attitude and cross-cultural sensitivity.