Second Language System of Motivational Selves and English Language Skills: The Role of Socio-Economic Status among Iranian Language Learners

Learning English in Iran is quite popular, yet not all are successful at this task. To shed light on this dilemma and its root causes, the roles of socio-economic status and motivational selves among Iranian English learners are explored in this research. A total of 892 participants in this research sampled through proportional sampling from among high school and university students. Measures used are questionnaires on motivational selves and socio-economic status, and a standard test in English language skills. Analysis of the collected data shows that the ideal and ought-to selves, next to attitude towards learning English, explain the variance in English language skills. Furthermore, it is the attitude in the learning environment, rather than other people’s expectation through ought-to self, that informs motivation. Also the SES mediates the effect of the ideal self on second language learning, i.e. those with high SES who have a better ideal self, learn language skills better than those with low SES because the former do not benefit from a high ideal self.