Investigating the Relationship between Iranian EFL Learners’ Self-Esteem and Productive Skills across Genders

The current study was conducted to discover the possible relationship between self-esteem and the productive skills of EFL learners in Iran across genders. The design of the study was ex post facto or correlational design. Three instruments were used for data collection in the present study. A language proficiency test (Oxford Placement Test (OPT)) to measure the participants’ proficiency level, Cooper smith Self-Esteem Inventory and finally two tests of speaking and writing adopted from Preliminary English Test (PET). To begin the study, with the purpose of clearing the language proficiency level of the learners, the researchers gave all learners a language proficiency test in Payame Noor University in Tabriz. After the test, 52 candidates whose test scores were between one SD below and above the mean finally were selected as the homogeneous sample for further data collection. Then some parts of the data were collected by Copper smith's self-esteem questionnaire to find out the participants’ self-esteem. Finally the last part of the data which was the participants’ productive skills was gathered by two tests of speaking and writing adopted from PET. To test all the research hypotheses in the current study, the researchers run Pearson correlation analysis as the chief statistical analysis. The results indicated that, there was significant relationship between the self-esteem and productive skills of the learners in both genders. feelings of competence, confidence and good directedness influence learners’ performance. It means that, self-esteem could have a significant impact on the learners’ learning processes.