Self-regulated learning strategies and self-efficacy beliefs of children learning English as a second language

This is a qualitative case study to investigate elementary school children's self-efficacy beliefs and their use of self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies in the process of learning English as a second language. Drawing upon the social cognitive and sociocultural perspectives of self-regulation, recent studies of students' self-efficacy beliefs, and language learners' willingness to communicate, this study provides a "thick description" of four Chinese children's behaviors associated with self-efficacy beliefs and their strategy use across home-based and school-based contexts.; Data were gathered through: (a) participant observations of children at play and in the classroom; (b) on-going follow-up interviews with observations; (c) reading and writing tasks; (d) interviews with parents; (e) analyses of student documents such as students' work in reading and writing, students' report cards and their standardized achievement test reports; and (f) pre-interview at the beginning of the project and guided interview at the end of the project.; Participants reported self-efficacy beliefs across a variety of language-learning tasks in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. This study suggests that self-efficacy is a task-specific construct. Each child's self-efficacy varies across specific tasks and across home-based and school-based language-learning contexts. All participants in this study reported higher self-efficacy to complete listening and speaking language activities than reading and writing activities. Their self-efficacy to write a summary or a journal entry was the lowest among all language-learning activities, and this low self-efficacy was associated with their lack of interest and practice in writing.; Sources of the children's self-efficacy were also explored. All participants claimed limited English vocabulary and reported low self-efficacy for English reading tasks that demanded advanced vocabulary. In addition, the participants' self-efficacy beliefs were associated with their expertise in the content area, self-perceptions of English proficiency level, task difficulty level, social persuasion, physiological or emotional state, interest, attitude toward the English language and the English speaking community, and the social and cultural context.; These children's observed behavior was found to be associated with their self-efficacy. They showed persistence when they felt efficacious to accomplish the task and were likely to withdraw or give up when they felt less efficacious to do so. The children participated actively in the classroom interaction when they felt efficacious to answer the teacher's questions and were mostly silent when they were anxious because of low perceived competence to address the topic.; While some boys reported more SRL strategies than others, nearly all 14 classes of the SRL strategies developed by Zimmerman and Martinez-Pons (1986) were reported. Students reported more strategies in reading than writing. The most commonly used SRL strategies employed by all the participants were seeking social assistance, seeking information, reviewing records, and environmental structuring. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...