Sosyo-kültürel etkenlerin öğrencinin aradili üzerine etkileri

People now live in an increasingly multi-sociocultural world where different sociocultural factors impose influence on their language behaviors. Awareness of these factors has now become an important part of foreign and second language learning. The use of language is an integral part of human being. Language always develops within a cultural and social setting, and it must be interpreted in the light of its social and cultural environment. An ability or inability to use language appropriately can affect someone's status in society, and may even alter their identities and future ways of lives. Second language learning becomes difficult when social context is involved, especially if the culture of the target language is different from the native one. The main focus of this PhD thesis is to determine how sociocultural factors may have effects on learner's interlanguage development. The study also aims to find possible relations between learner's interlanguage and different sociocultural variables such as social status, cultural identity, social distance, and so on. The study also tries to find out to what extend these factors may affect the learner's interlanguage. In this study, sociocultural factors affecting learner's interlanguage were categorized into three groups including social context of language learning such as the interlocutors, time and place of language use; social factors like social class, socioeconomic status, educational level, individual differences like age and gender; and ethnic and cultural factors with focus on individual and social identities. In this study, the data were collected through a questionnaire containing 29 items from 298 university students both females and males aging from 18 years upwards. All the participants were students of English Language Teaching and English Language and Literature from three different universities in Tabriz, Iran. The data obtained from the participants were analyzed through different statistical instruments. The findings of the data analysis were related to the questions of the study in order to reach a conclusion. The findings showed that there is a relationship between second and foreign language learning and sociocultural factors affecting language development. It was concluded that sociocultural factors around the language and social context of language learning have significant effects on learner's interlanguage development. The findings of this study have implications for the inclusion of social and cultural elements in the curriculum of language programs. Social and cultural components were proved to be vital elements of language teaching and learning as they offer a number of possibilities in relation to the development of sociocultural communicative competence, as well as other skills in the instruction of any language. Exposure to new social contexts and cultures with their features should be noticeable for educators, language curriculum planners as well as language learners. Key Words: Interlanguage, Sociocultural factors, Social context, Social factors, Identity