A Study Of The Correlation Between Junior Middle School Students’ Self-efficacy And Their Self-regulated English Learning

Due to the rapid development of the social science and technology,the cultivation of students’ self-regulation has become one of the most important teaching aims.Holec(1981)proposes that self-regulation refers to a capability to take charge of one’s learning.And Schunk(1994)regards self-regulation as a process in which students activate and sustain cognitions,behaviors and affects their achieving the goals.Learners with self-regulation are more likely to set goals,choose learning content and strategies,monitor the learning process and evaluate the learning result(Dickinson,1993).And self-efficacy is considered as a key internal factor.Bandura(1986)thinks that learners’ self-efficacy is a belief in one’s ability to learn and perform.It has an effect on learners’ choice of learning tasks,persistence,effort and skills(Schunk,2004),which has a positive link with their motivation and academic achievements.Based on the study that self-efficacy can stimulate and improve self-regulation,this research tries to find out the current state of junior middle school students’ self-efficacy and their self-regulated English learning.And then the study explains their correlation to put forward the specific ways to improve them with the goal of improving English teaching in such kind of schools.This research chooses 153 subjects to carry on quantitative study,who are from Banqiao Middle school which is a junior middle school in Da Banqiao town Guandu District,involving 49 students in Grade Seven,55 in Grade Eight and 49 in Grade Nine.The instruments are two questionnaires on students’ self-efficacy in English and their self-regulated English learning.And then SPSS 17.0 is used to conduct the data.The analysis of the data of this research shows: 1)The overall state of junior middle school students’ self-efficacy and their self-regulated English learning are both at a mediate level;2)Junior middle school students’ self-efficacy and their self-regulated English learning differ in genders,grades and learning achievements:female students have better self-efficacy and self-regulation than male students;self-efficacy and self-regulation of lower grades show a decreasing tendency;self-efficacy and self-regulation with higher learning achievements have a rising tendency;3)Junior middle school students’ self-efficacy has a significant relationship with their self-regulated English learning;4)junior middle school students’ learning achievements have a positive correlation with self-efficacy and their self-regulated English learning;5)English learning strategies,English learning resources,vicarious experience and evaluation methods and previous successful English learning experience and verbal persuasion are the main resources on enforce students’ self-efficacy.With the help of findings in this study,it shows that both self-efficacy and self-regulation make a great contribution to language teaching and learning.The specific and practical pedagogical suggestions are put forward respectedly to arouse junior middle school students’ self-efficacy and improve their self-regulated English learning,which can help students become more self-efficacious and competent self-regulated English learners.