World Englishes and identity construction: a case of EFL graduates Iranian students

This study set out to investigate the EFL learners’ L2 identity construction with particular reference to World Englishes (WE) in the Iranian academic context. To do so, 35 EFL learners at graduate level participated in this study. This study employed several instruments to gather the data in question including a 25-item questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, opinion survey and the participants reflections on two journal articles. The collected data were then analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively through descriptive statistics and content analysis, respectively. The results of the data indicated that although most of the participants welcomed the idea of (WE), they found it difficult to apply as their institutional experience as well as their teachers guidance led them as such. Thus, they were inclined to native speaker norms and took an identity as English speakers, though they appreciated the WE concept. However, the analysis of the participants’ reflections on the two articles revealed that such sources of reflections …would be a great help to change their attitude toward British or American accent that are neither the only or the best ones in today s globalized world, though little.