Impact of Ethnic Background on Iranian EFL University Students’ Intercultural Sensitivity Level

Investigation of FL learners’ intercultural sensitivity as the prerequisite for intercultural competence and its relationship with their ethnicity can throw new light on second language education given the dramatic increase in the amount of communication among individuals enjoying diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds and the rapidly growing trend of globalization. Using survey method of data collection, this study aimed to investigate the effect of ethnic background on Iranian EFL learners’ intercultural sensitivity. To this end, 382 female and male students belonging to Azeri, Farsi, Kurdish, Lori and Baluchi ethnic groups and studying in different universities located in seven provinces across the country were randomly selected. Chen and Starosta's (2000) Intercultural Sensitivity Scale was employed for data collection. The results of the Chi-square indicated a strong relationship between intercultural sensitivity and ethnic background. The results of the layered Chi-square and Phi coefficient demonstrated that the relationship between the two proved the strongest in Kurdish and the weakest in Azeri ethnic groups. The findings of this study can encourage all educational stakeholders to give due weight to FL learners’ intercultural competence and ethnic background as crucial components of modern language education. Finally, suggestions as to the application potential of novel approaches are provided hoping to help applied linguistics a step forward.