EFL instructors' causal attributions of student success and failure and their relationship to classroom practices

Within the field of foreign language learning, the significance of Attribution Theory has been well documented by most of the language researchers. Its significant place in foreign language learning and teaching is due to the search for causality's being functional in that knowing why one has succeeded or failed at the stages of learning a foreign language may increase later chances of success by taking appropriate instrumental action. Thus, based upon the analyses teachers make about their own beliefs about students and why they succeed or fail in achivement contexts, teachers can make changes where necessary. In the light of such knowledge, they can change the way they interact with their students, the tasks they assign, the way they teach, the learning environments they create together, or even their students' beliefs about their success and failure (Dörnyei, 2001). In this study, it was aimed to gain insights about English Language instructors' causal attributions for their students' success and failure in English exams, and how instructors' perceptions regarding their students' success or failure and classroom practices are related. The data were collected through the questionnaire, classroom observations, and semi-structured interviews. The findings revealed that the instructors attributed their students' success and failure in English exams to multiple causes and the instructors' classroom practices were to some extent in consistent with their causal attributions. Keywords: Attribution, Attribution Theory, Teacher Factor