An Investigation Of Chinese Non-English Major Undergraduates' English Writing Self-efficacy

Self-efficacy, as a central concept in Bandura's social cognitive theory, refers to belief about one's ability to perform any given task or behavior. Self-efficacy influences and decides individual's selection of behavior and persistent in the behavior, for that more has an impact on one's thinking model and emotional reaction model, thus further influences the acquisition of new behavior. Affective components strongly influence all phases of the writing process, and self-efficacy mechanism influences individuals'writing naturally. Researches have proved that self-efficacy influence the writing performance in the efficacy field. English is a prominent course for all Chinese non-English major graduates, writing being one of the most important skills in English learning. Writing self-efficacy is the confidence which helps students could successfully perform specific writing skills and complete specific writing tasks. The strength of English writing self-efficacy determines students'writing motivation, interest and writing ability, further influencing their whole process of English study. For that more, researches show the strength of writing self-efficacy affects students'attitudes toward their work and life after they enter society in future. Consequently, English writing self-efficacy plays an indispensable role in English learning.In this study, two scales are administered, that is, one is about English writing self-efficacy, another is about the factors influencing writing self-efficacy. 148 sophomores of non-English majors from a university in Jiangxi participated in the study. In order to give some implications to teachers and students for the improvement of students'writing performances, the study investigated the status quo of Chinese non-English major undergraduates'writing self-efficacy, analyzed the gender difference of English writing self-efficacy, compared the differences of English writing self-efficacy between high-level students and low-level students, and investigated whether six factors influence English writing self-efficacy.By adopting methods of descriptive statistics, independent t-test and correlation analysis, the study comes to following findings:1) Chinese non-English major undergraduates'self-efficacy beliefs about English writing are not high, similarly writing skill efficacy and task efficacy beliefs. It indicates that the majority of undergraduates are not adequately confident in their writing performance. There is a significant correlation between writing performance and English writing self-efficacy.2) There is a significant gender difference of English writing self-efficacy between male and female students. Finding shows that female students report stronger confidence in writing capabilities than male students do.3) There is significant difference of English writing self-efficacy between high-level students and low-level. The higher students'English writing performances are, the higher English writing self-efficacy will be, or the vice versa.4) Among the listed six factors, results show that previous writing successes, peer comparison, teachers'feedback and personal physical state strengthen students'confidence in writing besides previous writing failure and writing anxiety. T-test result shows that writing internal attribution will increase students'writing self-efficacy, while writing external attribution will decrease students'English writing self-efficacy.5) Have an understand of English writing self-efficacy and analyze the impact of factors on English writing self-efficacy, it is obvious that writing self-efficacy play a positive role in improving students'writing performance. Consequently, teachers should try to enhance students'writing self-efficacy through three ways: 1) helping students experience writing successes; 2) providing regular and effective feedback to students about their writing; 3) creating a relaxed learning environment for students. At the same time, to improve writing performance, students should also try to foster and strengthen their own English writing self-efficacy beliefs through vicarious experiences by following their peers.