A Study Of Vocational College Students' English Learning Self-efficacy

The concept of self-efficacy was proposed by Albert Bandura, a cognitive psychologist in 1977.With the publication of Social Foundations of Thought and Action, Bandura(1986)proposed a view of human functioning that emphasized the role of self-referent beliefs. Self-efficacy beliefs affect the choices people make, the effort people expend on activities, the perseverance and resilience people show in the face of adversity. Students' perceived abilities in English learning or performing are referred as English self-efficacy. For a long time, we have been paying more attention to the content of English instruction than the psychology of students. In fact, students'psychology, for example, self-efficacy has great influence on the students'English learning in College. The study of language self-efficacy is of practical and theoretical importance in China.The thesis focused on the study of English self-efficacy level of vocational college students and the factors that influenced self-efficacy. This study applied both qualitative and quantitative research methods,using questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. 237 university students at Grade One of English and non-English major from Jiangxi Bluesky University attended the questionnaire survey, among which 26 were invited to attend in the interview afterwards. Data from the valid 190 questionnaires were processed by Microsoft Excel and SPSS statistical software. The results of the data analysis showed that the vocational college students had low self-efficacy beliefs about English learning. Even though most students held positive views about their capabilities in English learning, they were not so confident in the learning outcomes they produced. The level of English self-efficacy varied significantly not in different gender but in different major. English self-efficacy of English major students was higher than that of non-English major students. Meanwhile, it was shown that the previous success and students'confidence were the most two influential factors of English self-efficacy. This study is composed of five parts: Chapter One is an introduction, which briefly introduces the general background of the study and emphasizes the significance and necessity to do this research. The layout of the whole thesis is also introduced in this part. Chapter 2 is the literature review of self-efficacy, which introduces Bandura's self-efficacy theory, the theoretical basis of self-efficacy, and the related research on self-efficacy. Chapter 3 makes a general introduction to the objects, subjects, instruments and procedures of the paper. Chapter 4 is the analysis of the results and discussion, which is the main part in the thesis. The last chapter includes the major findings of the research, and the pedagogical implications, which are some suggestions for English teaching and learning. In the end, limitations of the study and suggestions for future study are provided.