A Correlational Study Of University Students’ English Classroom Enjoyment And English Learning Self-Efficacy

Influenced by positive psychology in the field of Second Language Acquisition,the past decade witnesses fruitful research on positive emotions(e.g.,foreign language enjoyment)in English learning.However,domestic research in this area is still at the initial stage.Foreign language learning self-efficacy is the application and extension of Bandura’s self-efficacy theory in the field of Second Language Acquisition.In general,it is believed that the higher the self-efficacy,the stronger the learners’ self-confidence is in foreign language learning,and the better the foreign language learning performance is likely to be.However,there is no research on the correlation between foreign language enjoyment(a positive affective variable)and foreign language learning self-efficacy(a cognitive variable)at home and abroad.Therefore,this study attempts to explore the relationship between College students’ English classroom enjoyment and English learning self-efficacy by both quantitative and qualitative methods,in order to provide enlightenment for foreign language teaching and learning.The research questions are as follows:(1)What is the current status of College students’ English classroom enjoyment and self-efficacy in China?(2)What are the effects of gender,grade and major on English classroom enjoyment and self-efficacy?(3)What is the relationship between English classroom enjoyment and English learning self-efficacy?In order to explore the above questions,a total of 957 undergraduates from one local university in Shandong Province were investigated via questionnaire on English classroom enjoyment and English learning self-efficacy,and 12 undergraduates majored in humanities and social science,natural science,arts and sports were interviewed.SPSS 20.0 was used to analyze the survey data.Descriptive statistics were employed to show the current status of the subjects’ scores on the two instruments;independent samples T tests were employed to test the effects of gender and grade on English classroom enjoyment and English learning self-efficacy;one-way ANOVA was employed to test the major differences in English classroom enjoyment and English learning self-efficacy;Pearson correlation was employed to test the relationship between English classroom enjoyment and English learning self-efficacy.The major results of the study are as follows:(1)Both the results of the survey and the interview showed that college students have high English classroom enjoyment.To be more specific,the score of Teacher Support is the highest,followed by the score of Student Support and the score of English Learning the lowest.In addition,college students’ English learning self-efficacy is on a moderate level.Among the three dimensions,the highest score is learning behavior efficacy,the second language use efficacy,and the lowest negative coping efficacy.(2)Although there are no gender,grade and major differences in overall English classroom enjoyment,there are significant gender differences in Teacher Support and Student Support.That is,male students have significantly higher English classroom enjoyment than females in Teacher Support and Student Support.Moreover,the subscale of English learning differs significantly among three majors.As far as English leaning self-efficacy is concerned,except for major,there is no overall significant differences in gender and grade.Namely,Arts and sports scored higher than humanities and social science and natural science.Moreover,there are significant gender,grade and major differences in negative coping efficacy.To be more specific,negative coping efficacy of females was higher than that of males;negative coping efficacy of freshman was higher than that of sophomore.;negative coping efficacy of students majored in arts and sports was lower than humanities and social science.In terms of majors,in addition to negative coping efficacy,there were also significant differences in learning behavior efficacy,with arts and sports significantly higher than humanities and social science and natural science.(3)The correlation analysis shows significant positive relationship,namely,the higher the level of English classroom enjoyment,the higher the level of English learning self-efficacy is.English classroom enjoyment is a significant factor influencing English learning self-efficacy.Except for negative coping efficacy,overall English classroom enjoyment and three dimensions were positively correlated with English learning self-efficacy and its other two dimensions.That is,English classroom enjoyment had a significantly negative correlation with the dimension of negative coping efficacy.Based on the aforementioned findings,College English teachers are suggested to focus on cultivating students’ English classroom enjoyment in their teaching practices and adjust their teaching strategies according to students’ individual differences,so as to provide students more positive classroom atmosphere and achieve the purpose of developing students’ learning self-efficacy.In addition,universities are advised to provide quality physical environment and policy support for teachers to implement creative teaching practices.