The Impact of Linguistic Imperialism on Iranian EFL Learners’ Home Culture Detachment

This study attempts to investigate whether studying English as a major on one hand and the learners' gender on the other hand would affect the degree of learners' home culture detachment. To this end, two groups of subjects were chosen: EFL learners and non-EFL learners. A Home Culture Attachment Scale validated in the context of Iran was distributed among 266 participants. The data were analyzed by means of independent sample t-tests. The results revealed that due to familiarity with English language and culture, the EFL learners were more or less detached from their own culture; therefore, the assumption that familiarity with Western culture will diminish the influence of local culture was confirmed. The EFL learners showed some tendency toward the Western culture. The results also indicated that the participants' gender differences played no role in their Home Culture Detachment. The findings of this study can be helpful not only from the English language instruction standpoint, but also valuable from socio-cultural perspectives whose concern is human traits.