Social justice or injustice in efl: A comparatıve analysıs of differences between private and state secondary schools

Abstract

The objective of this study is to investigate the potential social injustices in English as a foreign language learning (EFL) classrooms resulting from inequalities in access to EFL learning resources arising from secondary school learners’ socioeconomic background differences. Employing a qualitative research method, the study conducted two sequential data collection phases. The data was gathered through naturalistic observations and semi structured interviews. Observational studies were performed on 120 participants in state school and 80 participants in private school. The differences and similarities in EFL learning opportunities between state and private schools and learners’ overall willingness to engage in EFL learning activities were observed during three consecutive weeks. Following that, two semi-structured interviews titled “Learning Opportunities in EFL Context” with 11 open ended questions and “Motivation in Language Learning and Willingness to Participate in Language Classrooms” with 7 open-ended questions were utilized with 5 participants from the state school and 5 participants from the private school. Content and descriptive analyses were applied in order to obtain rich and comprehensive results. Findings of the study underscored the presence of social injustice in accessing high quality EFL learning opportunities, both in and outside of school, between state school and private school learners. Learners from lower socioeconomic backgrounds at state schools have evidently limited access to additional and supportive EFL learning opportunities compared to their counterparts of higher SES at private schools. Remarkable disparities among secondary school learners of different SES were revealed regarding EFL course hours, quality of EFL course materials, diversity of extracurricular activities and parental support. The findings also highlighted that this inequality in the distribution of learning recourses resulted in fluctuation in learners’ motivation to study EFL, especially in terms of integrative motivation. The results revealed that learners at private schools displayed a higher level of integrative motivation to participate in EFL studies. State school learners possess lower integrative motivation since they did not have international aims such as studying or living abroad. However both types of school learners demonstrated instrumental motivation to some extent. Findings of interview studies also highlighted the significance of instructor-learner relationship on learners’ EFL learning motivation. Both private and state school learners mentioned that negative attitude demonstrated by their instructors during the classes dropped their motivation to engage in the classroom activities. In conclusion, the findings of this research hold significant implications for both policymakers and educators in the field of EFL education, especially in the framework of critical pedagogy (CP). This study also underlines the need for educational reforms referring this social injustice in the field of EFL education by providing higher quality of learning opportunities and learning environments for socioeconomically disadvantaged learners.