Achievement Goal Orientation And English Achievement

As a major new direction in motivational research, achievement goal theory described individual’s competence from a social-cognitive approach. According to traditional classification, there are two goal orientations:mastery goal orientation and performance goal orientation. Later on, scholars adopted trichotomous framework of achievement goal orientation:mastery goal orientation, performance-approach goal orientation, performance-avoidance goal orientation. As the most stable framework, this research would adopt this classification. Achievement goal orientation which has close associations with academic achievement is one of the most important predictors of academic achievement. However, seldom researches have been carried out to investigate the relationship between achievement goal orientation and English achievement. Besides, there may be mediating effects in the relationship between achievement goal orientation and English achievement. Thus this research would analyze the potential mediating effects of English self-efficacy and language learning strategies in this relationship.This study explored the relationship between achievement goal orientation and English achievement; besides, the mediating effects of English self-efficacy and language learning strategies have also been tested.304participants in the study were all non-English freshmen, with279valid samples. The Achievement Goal Orientation of English Learning, Self-efficacy for English Learning, and Strategy Inventory for Language Learning questionnaires were administrated to collect relative information. English achievements used in this study were participants’English final examination scores. All the participants have not received any English self-efficacy and language learning strategies training in any form before they were investigated by this questionnaire. All these data were analyzed by PASW Statistics18.0.Results showed:(1) There existed significant gender differences in performance-avoidance goal orientation. Male were significantly more likely to be performance-avoidance oriented than female. (2) Mastery goal orientation and performance-approach goal orientation could significantly and positively predict English achievement. Performance-avoidance goal orientation could predict English achievement significantly and negatively. English self-efficacy and language learning strategies could positively predict English achievement.(3) The relationship between performance-approach goal orientation and English achievement together with the relationship between mastery goal orientation and English achievement were partially mediated by English self-efficacy. English self-efficacy also showed a complete mediation effect in the relationship between performance-avoidance goal orientation and English achievement.(4) Language learning strategies could not mediate the relationship between achievement goal orientation and English achievement. However, performance-approach goal orientation and mastery goal orientation, which had indirect effects on English self-efficacy through language learning strategies, could indirectly influence English achievement.