The Factors Affecting Moral Competency of Iranian Undergraduate Students Majoring in English Language and Literature: Investigating the Role of Applied ELT in Iranian Collectivist Culture

Abstract

In a broad dichotomy, cultures are divided into collectivists and individualists. This difference between cultures is manifested in educational settings and the way students and teachers approach educational tasks and activities (Hofstede, 1986). This study investigated the way the dominant culture can affect the cognitive and affective load of classrooms and eventually account for the development of students’ moral judgment. To this end, 400 Iranian university students majoring in English language and literature were asked to complete FAMC test (Javadimehr et al., 2015a). This test measures the role of four factors of “focus, sharing, challenge and support” in the development of moral competency. The results revealed that there was a growth in the pattern of affective and cognitive factors from the first to the last year of studying in this major. The results also indicated that “challenge” was the least attended cognitive factor but “support” was always the most prevalent factor in all academic years. The findings are then discussed by taking into account the findings of other related studies conducted in individualist and collectivist societies.

Keywords

• collectivist cultures
• cognitive and affective factors
• individualist cultures
• moral competence