An Empirical Research Of Self-efficacy In English Writing Of College

Since the reform and opening-up policy, English teaching has become the longest and the widest curriculum for educational subjects, and it has been considered as a basic part of an individual's ability. Among the English skills, writing is a major part of English learning, but writing ability is difficult to improve. For a long time, researchers have been paying more attention to the content of English instruction than the students'psychology. In fact, students'psychology includes many factors, for example, self-efficacy has great influence on students' English learning in college. If students seldom use the effective writing methods and learning skills, they can not have much confidence in English learning. Therefore, both efficacy and skills are indispensable for students to succeed in the process of language learning.The concept of self-efficacy is proposed by Albert Bandura, a cognitive psychologist in 1977. He points out that self-efficacy is the belief in one's capability to learn or perform behavior at the designated level. In this thesis, self-efficacy refers to students'self-confidence in the ability of their English writing.The thesis focuses on the study of impact of self-efficacy on English writing of college. The study applies both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Questionnaire and in-depth interview are used in the study. This thesis chooses 80 college students at the age of 20-22 of Grade two from Shenyang Normal University. Four subjects are invited to attend in the interview for further research. Finally, the data is processed by Microsoft Excel and SPSS statistical software.By researching into data from the experiment, the higher self-efficacy is, the more students learn English actively, the better they get high marks. This study proves self-efficacy as an important mediating factor in students'learning of English writing and a predictor of students'achievements, and it has impact on students'persistence, effort, behavioral choices and emotional states. Therefore, as for students'writing abilities, self-efficacy is a basic motivation for their language learning. Finally, limitations of the present study and suggestions for the future study are provided. Suggestions are as follows:(1) Learners can acquire an effective way to enhance their English level;(2) The teacher should reinforce students'self-efficacy, cultivate them to master process-genre approach, and improve their basic ability of language.