On the Relation of Locus of Control, Social and Cultural Capital and Oral Proficiency Achievement of EFL Students: A case of Iranians in Mashhad

Two areas of difficulty that almost all students might face while learning a second language are speaking and listening skills.  Individuals’ perceptions about the underlying main causes of their lives’ events which is called Locus of Control (LOC), has a great role in their activities as well as the interactions between individuals and sociocultural environments. This study aims at investigating the relationship between social cultural capital, LOC and oral proficiency (listening and speaking) of Iranian EFL learners.  It also aims at examining the relationship between social cultural capital and LOC (internal and external). To meet this end, Social Cultural Capital Questionnaire (Pishghadam, Noghani & Zabihi, 2011) and the Persian version of  LOC questionnaire (Ghonsooly & Elahi, 2010) were administered to a sample of 100 upper intermediate EFL students from some language institutes in Mashhad, Iran. Both male (N=46) and female (N=54) students filled in two questionnaires. The participants’ Grand Point Averages (GPA) of their FL Listening and Speaking exams also served as an index of their oral proficiency achievement. The results of the statistical analyses revealed a positive correlation between social cultural capital, LOC, and students’ oral proficiency. The findings also demonstrated a significant relationship between social cultural capital and LOC.