Relationships Between Self-Efficacy, Attribution And English Achievement Of Non-English Majors In Universities

Self-efficacy and attribution are two important factors that affect learners’academic achievement. There are many empirical studies on self-efficacy andattribution. However, few studies explored the relationship between students’self-efficacy, attribution and English achievement, especially for the non-Englishmajors in universities. Therefore, the present study is designed to explore therelationship between self-efficacy, attribution and English achievement ofnon-English majors in universities.Based on the theoretical foundation of Bandura’s self-efficacy theory andWeiner’s attribution theory, the present study adopts a quantitative approach toexplore the English self-efficacy and attribution by using a sample of208non-Englishmajors from two universities. The findings suggest that:(1) Most subjects of thisstudy have medium level of self-efficacy beliefs. There are significant differencesamong students with different levels of English achievement in all components ofself-efficacy beliefs.(2) All the subjects tend to attribute success and failure to theeffort factor. Besides effort factor, medium achievers are more likely to attribute theirsuccess to the luck factors, and medium achievers and low achievers are more likelyto attribute their failure to the context factors.(3) As for correlation betweenattribution and English achievement, effort-success and ability-success have positivecorrelation with English achievement. That shows high achievers tend to attributesuccess to the effort and ability factors. Luck-success has negative correlation withEnglish achievement. That is to say, low achievers are more likely to attribute successto the luck factor. Besides that, ability and context as attribution factors of failure inEnglish language learning are negatively related to English achievement. That is tosay, low achievers are more likely to attribute failure to the ability and context factor.(4) There is the correlation between self-efficacy and attribution beliefs. Effort andability, as two internal attribution factors of success have positive correlation withself-efficacy. That is to say, students with high level of self-efficacy are more likely to attribute success to the effort and ability factors. Ability-failure has negativecorrelation with self-efficacy. That shows the students with low levels of self-efficacytend to attribute failure to the ability factor.The study lends support to the view that self-efficacy and attribution playimportant roles in English learning. The study provides some recommendations toboth teachers and students. In teaching, teachers should lay emphasis on raisingstudents’ English self-efficacy, train students to make proper attribution, help studentshave a right attitude towards English learning, so that their English level can beimproved.