This study investigates the social cultural backgrounds htat presumably influence high school students' performance as they study English as foreign language (EFL) subject in school. Social cultural background in this context were measured through the social economic status of parents, parental influence scale adapted from Gardner (1985), family influence scale and social orientation scale (Clement & Kruidenier,1983). 149 students from two different high schools participated in the self-reported questionnaire. The high school were purposely chosen in order to cover different range of socio economic status. Result showed that the social cultural background, in general, did not directly influence student's academic achievment in english subject. however, students admitted that to some extent,socio economic status and parents' influence played a significant role to be succesful in Learning English