Abstract

This study explored the relationship between social and cultural capital and school achievement by developing, administering and validating a 35-statement questionnaire to 403 undergraduate and graduate students majoring in Teaching English as a foreign language and Persian Language and Literature and correlating their extracted factors with the grade point average of their high school diploma. The application of the Principle Axis Factoring to the participants’ responses and rotating the extracted factors revealed ten latent variables, i.e., literacy, parental consultation, family-school interaction, family support, extracurricular activities, family relationship, parent-school encouragement and facility, cultural activities, peer interaction and religious activities. Between the two logically developed subscales comprising the social and cultural capital questionnaire (SCCQ) only the social capital showed significant relationship with the GPA (.19, p <.001). Similarly, among the ten factors, parent-school encouragement and facility (.33), parental consultation (.22), family relationship (.20), and family support (.18), correlated significantly, i.e., p <.001, with the GPA. The implications of the results are discussed within a foreign/first language context and suggestions are made for future research.

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