Purpose: The present research was conducted to discover the possible relationship between self-esteem and the receptive skills of EFL learners in Iran across genders.
Methodology: The design of the study was correlational or ex post facto design. The researchers used three instruments for data collection in the current study. A language proficiency test to measure the participants’ proficiency level, Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory and finally two tests of listening and reading adopted from Preliminary English Test. To begin the research, in order to clear the language proficiency level of the learners, the researchers gave all learners a language proficiency test in Payame Noor University in Tabriz. After the test, the researchers finally selected 52 candidates whose test scores were between one SD below and above the mean as the homogeneous sample for further data collection. Then they collected some parts of the data from Coopersmith's self-esteem questionnaire to find out the learners’ self-esteem. Finally, they gathered the last part of the data which was the learners’ receptive skills from two tests of listening and reading adopted from PET. With the intention of testing all the research hypotheses, the researchers ran Pearson correlation analysis as the chief statistical analysis.
Findings: The Results showed a significant correlation between the self-esteem and reading skill of the learners across genders. Also no relationship could be found between the self-esteem and listening skill of the learners across genders.
Conclusion: From the findings, self-esteem had deep-seated and improved positive possessions on reading performances of the learner. But when it comes to listening performance, not self-esteem, but most linguistic knowledge and strategy use, mark the failure or success of a learner. It seems that there are some other factors of which affect the process of listening comprehension
