Locus of Control, religious orientation, and L2 achievement

Locus of control is believed to affect learners' academic achievement. This effect has scarcely been researched in a General English context. This study is concerned with examining the differences in General English (GE) achievement in the university entrance exam among students of humanities, sciences, and engineering and the effect of locus of control (LOC) on GE achievement in the entrance exam among these three groups of students. In addition, this study investigates the association between students' LOC and their religious orientation. One hundred and forty four students at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad participated in this study. The results of the study indicate that: 1) There is a significantly positive relationship between student's LOC and their GE achievement in the entrance exam, 2) There are significant differences in GE achievement in the university entrance exam across the three groups of students, and 3) There is a significant positive association between LOC and religious orientation. The findings of this study indicate that encouraging students, especially nonreligious students, to improve their self-efficacy can be quite helpful for them to achieve higher scores in the GE section of the entrance exam. Adapted from the source document