Research On The Correlation Between Middle School Students’ Self-efficacy In English Learning And English Academic Achievements

Self-efficacy was first put forward by American social psychologist Bandura in his social learning theory (1977). Self-efficacy means individual’s belief in his/her ability to implement actions to obtain expected outcomes. Among current researches, there were relatively few of them exploring the correlation between different aspects of self-efficacy in English learning and academic achievements of four basic skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing). Based on the Social Cognitive Theory, this thesis explored the correlation between Chinese junior middle school students’ English academic achievements in listening, speaking, reading and writing and their sense of self-efficacy in these four aspects of English learning. Theoretically it enriched the current researches in self-efficacy and in practice provided some practical pedagogical methods for English teachers to increase student’s self-efficacy.The research questions were listed as follows:1) What is the current status of Chinese junior middle school students’ sense of self-efficacy of English learning? Is gender related with students’ sense of self-efficacy? Is English academic proficiency of high-achievers, middle-achievers and low-achievers related with their sense of self-efficacy? 2) Is there a significant correlation between Chinese middle school students’ sense of self-efficacy in English learning and their English academic achievements? 3) Does Chinese junior middle school students’ sense of self-efficacy in English learning have predictive influence on their English academic achievements?The research design was composed of three parts. Firstly, participants were from four junior middle schools in Dafeng District, Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province.406 students participated in answering the questionnaire. However, for some reasons, only 400 valid questionnaires were finally collected, thus the return rate of the questionnaire was 98.52 percent. Secondly, two instruments including a questionnaire and the results of a final examination were used. The questionnaire was borrowed from Liu Xin’s master thesis and adapted to suit the purpose of the current study. The scores of the final English examination were collected, which was organized by the local Education Bureau of Dafeng District at the end of the second semester of academic year 2014-2015. Finally the data of the questionnaire of junior middle school students’ self-efficacy and their English final examination scores were put into database of SPSS 17.0 for windows to synthesize and analyze.There were three major findings:Firstly, the overall Chinese junior middle school students’ sense of self-efficacy was relatively low, There was significant difference between male and female students in different aspects of self-efficacy in English learning and that male students’ sense of self-efficacy in listening, speaking, reading and writing respectively was lower than female students especially in terms of general sense of self-efficacy. And English academic proficiency of high-achievers, middle-achievers and low-achievers is related with their sense of self-efficacy. High proficiency students possessed significantly higher degree of self-efficacy than low proficiency students, and medium proficiency students possessed higher degree of self-efficacy than low proficiency students. In terms of such two dimensions as General sense of self-efficacy and Self-efficacy in English listening, high proficiency students possessed significantly higher degree of self-efficacy than medium proficiency students and in the rest three dimensions there were no significant differences between high proficiency and medium proficiency students. Secondly, Chinese junior middle school students’self-efficacy in English learning had significantly positive correlation with their English academic achievements. The correlation coefficient ranges from 0.325 to 0.659. What’s more, students’sense of self-efficacy in listening, speaking, reading and writing was also strongly correlated with their corresponding English academic achievements. The correlation coefficient between students’writing self-efficacy and English writing achievements was 0.659, which was the highest. And the correlation coefficient between their speaking self-efficacy and English writing achievements was 0.325, which was the lowest. Thirdly, Chinese junior middles students’self-efficacy in English listening, speaking, reading and writing could positively predict students’academic achievements respectively. Students’self-efficacy in English writing had the strongest predictive influence on their English writing achievements, next came the general sense of self-efficacy on students’overall English academic achievements. And students’self-efficacy in English listening had the least predictive influence on their listening achievements.Pedagogical implications are listed as follows:Firstly teachers should help students set appropriate learning goals suitable for their capability; Secondly, teachers should set up role models for students to follow; Thirdly, teachers should give positive comments to students and guide them to positively evaluate themselves; Last but not least, teachers should help students cultivate good psychological quality.There were some limitations of this study:Firstly, with the limited sample numbers of 400 students from Grade Eight, the results might not be representative for all the junior middle school students. Secondly, the researcher did not conduct a follow-up study for further findings. Thirdly, the researcher only selected the scores of one final English examination, which might not mirror their actual English proficiency. Here are some further suggestions:Firstly, the total number of subjects should be expanded; Secondly, follow-up studies should be done to evaluate pedagogical methods listed in this research; Thirdly, further studies need to be done to probe into other influential factors on self-efficacy such as attribution, motivation etc.