ISSN 1799-2591 Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 2, No. 7, pp. 1403-1414, July 2012 © 2012 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland. doi:10.4304/tpls.2.7.1403-1414 © 2012 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Positive Change in Self-esteem through Linguistic and Psychological Training among Iranian Kurdish University Students  Tahereh Ahmadipour Language and Linguistics Department, Vali-e-Asr University, Rafsanjan, Iran Email: ahmadipour@vru.ac.ir Somayeh Hadad Ranjbar Psychological Department, Vali-e-Asr University, Rafsanjan, Iran Email: s.hadad@vru.ac.ir Abstract—This paper reports an action research into how teaching and researching program for Iranian Kurdish students could positively change the state of their self-esteem. The study aimed to implement and evaluate the teaching of two side-by-side courses: Persian pronunciation and life skill teaching programs, as well as to identify the benefits for the students. Data collected in different ways: reflective reports, focused interviews, diaries of the participants, and observation analysis of the researchers and the observers. Findings identified the success of the teaching program and revealed substantial benefits for the students. Although the project had, some limitations but the findings provided support for the hypothesis. It is suggested that the collaboration between psychological and phonological teaching courses offers a potential model for developing healthy self-esteem to similar students. Index Terms—action research, self-esteem, positive change, Kurdish students, Persian pronunciation teaching, life skills teaching I. INTRODUCTION Freshmen face a variety of challenges while they enter the academic environments. Among them, the ethnolinguistic minorities such as Kurdish students showed they involve even some more problems. In this new environment, because they are not so accurate or fluent in Persian, as the only official and national language, in class participation and some other social and personal relations, they show poor self-image and low confidence little by little. This could result in their social withdrawal, lack of social skills and self-confidence, less social conformity, treating themselves badly and so on that are the indicators of unhealthy self-esteem. Some psychologists (Allport, 1955, Maslow, 1987, Rogers, 1961) regard self-esteem as universal and essential need for human being. II. SELF-ESTEEM LITERATURE The benefits associated with having high self-esteem, as a part of self-concept has been the subject of hundreds of studies (Rosenberg, 1972, 1979). Researchers argued that high self-esteem because of positive outcomes would be beneficial for both individual and society as a whole (Porter & Washington, 1993). A large and growing body of literature have been produced from the time that Rosenberg and some other social learning theorists such as Branden (1960s) for the first times defined self-esteem as "... the experience of being competent to cope with the basic challenges of life and being worthy of happiness"(branden, 1969). Branden defined self-esteem as the sum of “self- confidence” (a feeling of personal capacity) and “self-respect” (a feeling of personal worth). For him the primary properties of self-esteem to see it as a basic human need, i.e., "...it makes an essential contribution to the life process". The levels of self-esteem also for Branden involves three main items as levels of : having a high self-esteem for him means to feel confidently capable for life; but not feeling ready for life or feeling wrong as a person is the symptoms of low self-esteem; and branden deemed to have a middle ground self-esteem that is identified as an item between the two. Many early theories suggested that self-esteem is a basic human need or motivation. American psychologist Maslow for example, included self-esteem in his hierarchy of needs and as two different forms of esteem: the need for respect from others and the need for self-respect, or inner self-esteem (1987). Some researchers (Bonet, 1997; Gill, 1980) suggested some characteristics as indicators for those who have positive or negative self-esteem. Those with positive and healthy self esteem show some features such as firmly believing in certain values and principles and defending for them as well as being able to modify them; trusting themselves and acting based on their own judgment with no guilty  The research reported in this article was supported by Vali-e-Asr University of Rafsanjan grant to Tahereh Ahmadipour.