An Investigation Into The Correlation Between EFL M.Ed. Students’ Research Self-efficacy And Research Training Environment

Research self-efficacy,which is described as the degree to which an individual believed she or he had the ability to complete various research tasks,could influence one’s research interest,research involvement,and research productivity.Research training environment,which refers to the external forces in graduate training programs that reflect attitudes toward research,has aroused the attention of scholars at home and abroad for its significance in graduate students’ research training.Therefore,through a survey of EFL M.Ed.students,this paper aims at investigating the correlation between the EFL M.Ed.students’ research self-efficacy and their perceptions of the research training environment,as well as figuring out what factors in the research training environment that could influence the EFL M.Ed.students’ research self-efficacy.Through a questionnaire survey of 51 second-year EFL M.Ed.students of CCNU and a semi-structured interview of 6 EFL M.Ed.students,this research answers the following three questions:1.What is the status quo of the EFL M.Ed.students’ research self-efficacy and their perceptions of the research training environment?2.Is there a statistically significant relationship between the EFL M.Ed.students’research self-efficacy and their perceptions of the research training environment?3.What factors in the research training environment influence the EFL M.Ed.students’ research self-efficacy?Through the data analysis,it is found out that the EFL M.Ed.students’ evaluations on the research training environment are at a moderate level while their research self-efficacy is reported to be at a relatively low level.Moreover,the EFL M.Ed.students’ research self-efficacy has been proved to be moderately positively correlated with their overall perceptions of the research training environment.However,the investigation into the correlations between the sub-dimensions of the research training environment and the EFL M.Ed.students’ research self-efficacy has produced varied results.Among the eight sub-dimensions,"faculty modeling of appropriate scientific behavior","reinforcement of student research","teaching that all experiments are flawed and limited","facilitating students’ ’looking inward’ for research ideas",and "wedding of science and practice" are positively moderately correlated with the EFL M.Ed.students’research self-efficacy,while "early involvement in research" and "a concept of science as a partly social experience" are weakly correlated with the EFL M.Ed.students’ research self-efficacy.There is no significant relationship between "untying of statistics and research" and the EFL M.Ed.students’ research self-efficacy.Finally,based on the semi-structured interview data,five factors in the research training environment that could influence the EFL M.Ed.students’ research self-efficacy are concluded,including the supervisors’ guidance and support,peers and seniors’ role modeling of research behaviors,research atmosphere created by the department,research knowledge practicing in EFL M.Ed.courses,and research identity shaped in the program.Based on the research findings,suggestions are provided for the EFL M.Ed.training program and faculty on how to build a more supportive research training environment so as to enhance the EFL M.Ed.students’ research self-efficacy.