Oral English Learning Environment And Its Associations With Students’ Speaking Self-Efficacy In College English Classrooms

Grounded in learning environment research literature and Bandura’s(1977) self-efficacy theory, this study is conducted to examine students’perceptions of oral English learning environment in college English classrooms and to investigate their associations with speaking self-efficacy through a sample survey. Two questionnaires were designed based on three research questions. Five freshman non-English-major classes were selected from a public university in Zhejiang province (n=141).The major findings include:(1)Overall,students perceived their oral English learning environments positively, except Teacher support and Involvement.(2) There were gender-level, proficiency-level and class-level significant differences in students’perceptions of oral English learning environments.(3)Student cohesiveness, Leadership, Teacher feedback, Task orientation and Involvement were positively correlated with speaking self-efficacy. Involvement and Student cohesiveness were two predictors, accounting for21.2%and4.4%variance respectively.Based on these results, several suggestions on constructing a positive oral English learning environment and improving speaking self-efficacy are put forward:(1)Gender differences should be considered in task choices.(2)Appropriate feedback should be provided to encourage students to speak English.(3)Concerns should be given to student cohesiveness.(4) More efforts should be made to get students engaged in class...