Influence Of Psychological Suggestion On College Students' English Learning Self-Efficacy

Since Bandura's(1977) proposition,a large body of research on self-efficacy has been generated in various disciplines and settings and it has got support from a growing body of findings from diverse fields.Moreover,in recent years,researchers have attached more and more attention to the study of self-efficacy in educational area and plenty of achievements have been got(Lent,Brown & Larkin,1984;Zimmerman,Bandura & Martinez-Pons,1992;Zimmerman,2000;Schunk & Pajares,2002;Zhou Yong & Dong Qi, 1994;Wang Kairong,Xin Tao & Li Qiong,1999;Hu Guiying & Xu Baihua,2002,2003; Zhang Risheng & Yuan Limin,2004).However,many researches,especially those in China,are limited to investigating the correlation between learners' self-efficacy and achievements,motivation,attribution,goal setting,and learning strategies.Moreover,there are plenty of studies on psychological suggestion in educational field (Rosenthal & Jacobson,1968;Lozanov,1982;Babad,1993;Spitz,1999).Although it has been realized that self-efficacy is a critical factor to influence learners' achievements, meanwhile,psychological suggestion facilitates teaching and learning,few researchers connect them together and do some research on it.It is believed that the study on whether psychological suggestion is effective to enhance college students' English learning self-efficacy and thereby their achievements in English is of great theoretical and practical significance.It is hypothesized that psychological suggestion influences college students' English learning self-efficacy in this study.Aim to prove the hypothesis,an experiment was conducted.Based on Bandura' self-efficacy theory and researches on psychological suggestion,126 sophomores,who were majoring in communication engineering, Chongqing Communications Institute,were selected to be the subjects,and they were divided into experimental and controlled class.In the process of teaching,the author,their English teacher applied psychological suggestion to students in the experimental class. The collected data of students' English learning self-efficacy scales and their scores in pre-test and post-test were analyzed,with the purpose of exploring the influence of psychological suggestion on college students' English learning self-efficacy.The major findings of the study are:1.From the comparative analysis of data collected in the experimental and controlled class,it is found that the psychological suggestion does enhance college students' English learning self-efficacy.Furthermore,their enhanced English learning self-efficacy promotes their achievements in English.2.There is no significant difference between the male and female college students' English learning self-efficacy and their suggestibility as well.3.An analysis of why psychological suggestion enhances college students' English learning self-efficacy indicates that,among others,positive psychological suggestion from the perspective of teacher and students as well as the environment,is the most effective way to enhance college students' English learning self-efficacy.Therefore,this study proves the positive influence of psychological suggestion on college students' English learning self-efficacy,and the positive influence of increased English learning self-efficacy on their achievements in English.However,there are some limitations of this study,such as the not big enough size of sample,the deficiency of processing and analyzing of the data,etc.Therefore,further studies are hoped to lead to more overall results.