The Correlational Study Of College Efl Students' Goal Orientations, Self-efficacy And Learning Achievement

Over the past two decades, researchers and educators have been increasingly interested in understanding students'motivation to find effective methods to improve their learning achievement. Among numerous motivational constructs which impact on students'achievement, goal orientations and self-efficacy have been considered significant elements to facilitate learning in education practice and emphasized by foreign language motivation researchers. Students'goal orientations, which refer to the purposes that they hold for completing an academic task, are applicable to interpreting students'learning achievement. Self-efficacy, which is defined as individuals'beliefs about their capabilities to complete a task successfully, also plays a determining role in motivation and learning in choosing actions, exerting effort, persisting, and achievement in a goal-directed task. However, these two constructs have rarely been discussed in the foreign language learning literature (e.g., English, in this study). And Schunk (1990) suggested that future research might investigate whether self-efficacy mediates the relationship between goal orientations and learning achievement. So this study tends to provide an extended understanding of the relationship between goal orientations, self-efficacy and college English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students'learning achievement by examining two motivational constructs (goal orientation and self-efficacy) from a social cognitive psychological perspective. It probes into the direct effects of goal orientations as well as self-efficacy on college EFL students'learning achievement, examines the relationship between goal orientations and self-efficacy, and explores the mediational effects of self-efficacy between goal orientations and learning achievement.Subjects in this study are 145 non-English major college students, sophomore, enrolled in an English course at a four-year public university in Hebei, China. Patterns of Adaptive Learning Strategies (PALS) Scale, Questionnaire of Self-efficacy in English Learning, and CET4 Scores are utilized as instruments to collect data in the present study. The PALS Scale was designed to assess subjects'goal orientations. The Questionnaire of Self-efficacy in English Learning was designed to elicit the subjects'actual level of self-efficacy in English learning. And CET4 Scores were used to measure the subjects'learning achievement in EFL context. All quantitative data were analyzed with SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) 17.0 software using descriptive and inferential statistics, including means and standard deviations, correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis.Study yields the following findings: Firstly, Pearson product-moment correlation analysis indicates that both mastery goal orientation and performance-approach goal orientation are positively related to EFL students'learning achievement. Secondly, Pearson product-moment correlation analysis also signifies that self-efficacy positively related to EFL students'learning achievement. Thirdly, Pearson product-moment correlation analysis reveals that there is a positive interrelation between self-efficacy and EFL students'adoption of mastery goals and performance-approach goals in EFL learning. Finally, in multiple regression analyses self-efficacy is found served as a mediator between mastery goal orientation and EFL learning achievement. Results were further discussed and pedagogical implications were suggested for English language instructors.To sum up, this study contributes to the understanding of college EFL students'goal orientations and self-efficacy in China and provides language educators with insights from social cognitive theory to help students adopt proper goal orientations as well as increase their self-efficacy in foreign language learning process, which will eventually contribute to their successful learning achievement.