Investigating the Psychometric Properties of Aspects of Iranian EFL Students’ Identity Orientation Scale (AIESIOS)?

Purpose As a type of mixed methods research, the exploratory sequential design is employed when the aim is to interrogate a topic before collecting any quantitative data. The Aspect of Iranian EFL (English as a Foreign Language) Students’ Identity Orientation Scale (AIESIOS) is used to assess EFL students’ social identity. Student social identity encompasses six orientations: personal, relational, social, collective, cultural and religious identity. This resulted in a measurement scale consisting of 55 items. Design/methodology/approach The factorial design was inspected through the administration of AIESIOS to 518 EFL students. In phase 1, involving five experts, the most frequent themes were extracted through conducting open-ended questions in semi-structured interviews. In phase 2, a pilot study was conducted prior to scale distribution. In phase 3, cognitive interviews with 10 students from the sample were held to illuminate the conceptions that have been written. In phase 4, the scale was distributed among 418 students. The factorial design and construct validity, and reliability of the scale, were assessed by performing EFA (Exploratory Factor Analysis) and CFA (Confirmatory Factor Analysis). Findings The findings from the quantitative analyses of EFA, CFA, and the relevant analyses showed that the newly validated scale enjoyed adequate psychometric properties. The results obtained from the interviews (in the qualitative stage) were coded to ensure intra-subject reliability agreement. Accordingly, 50 codes have been extracted to complete the quantitative analyses. The findings also highlighted the significance of examining the six sub-constructs of identity as single factors, as opposed to sufficing a sum score of the six sub-constructs. Both the intercorrelations among the sub-scales and the significant differences among the typology classification groups were detected in separated hypotheses. The operationalization proposed in the scale validation permits the method of measuring six orientations of identity to become conforming to the full theoretical framework of social identity. Research limitations/implications The instrument may facilitate and extend understanding of EFL students’ identity development and serve as a tool to support the process of developing a safe and robust identity in EFL students. Practical implications The AIEIOS might be a practical instrument for researchers and practitioners in the ELT field. It can assist researchers in gathering data and differentiating between EFL learners and discovering longitudinal patterns in the development of social identity among EFL learners. Moreover, future research could centralize its aim on interrogating the relation between social identity of EFL learners and social identity tensions (Amini and Weisi, 2023b; Jones and Abes, 2013; Mili and Towers, 2024). Whereas researchers have recommended these relations, it has not yet been examined pellucidly (Amini and Weisi, 2023a, b; Rezaei et al., 2014). Interrogating these relations may result in a more illuminative understanding of how the development of social identity might occur during the process of becoming EFL learners. Originality/value The AIEIOS is particularly designed for Iranian EFL learners. Learner identity, conceptualized from an identity theory perspective, includes six sub-constructs. The instrument, which is psychometrically valid, can be employed for research and pedagogical objectives, by researchers and practitioners. Utilizing the AIEIOS can be used for broadening the ancillary horizons of the development of EFL learners’ social identity and further can assist instructors and professors to bulwark and strengthen the social identity of their students.