Investigating the Impact of Educational Aspirations, Study Habits, Parental Involvement, and Institutional Environment on Saudi EFL Learners’ Language Proficiency

The study assesses the impact of educational aspirations, study habits, parental involvement, and institutional environment on Saudi EFL learners’ language proficiency. It also examines if the demographic profiles of Saudi EFL learners differently shaped their worldviews and responses. As the study focuses on how certain independent variables (educational aspirations, study habits, parental involvement, and institutional environment) impacted the dependent variable (language proficiency), a descriptive quantitative approach was employed to collect data from respondents using a self-designed questionnaire with partial adoption of modified items. A simple random sample method was used to select 131 respondents (10% of the population) from the undergraduate population at the College of Science & Humanities and College of Business Administration, Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia. The findings revealed that educational aspirations followed by institutional environment, study habits, and parental engagement affected the language proficiency of Saudi EFL learners. One way ANOVA analysis showed that year/level of study causes significant differences in the means of the study respondents. However, no statistically significant difference was observed in the means of the responses based on the professional profiles of their parents. The findings of the study hold significance for both language instructors and policymakers for effective teaching and policy making.