Research On The Self-efficacy Of Overseas Chinese Learners Visiting China

Academic self-efficacy is one of learners’emotional factors, which refers to the belief in one’s capabilities to gain certain academic achievements. The previous studies have shown that academic self-efficacy affects learners’ learning strategies, learning anxiety, learning motivations, self-regulation behaviors, etc.. However, learners’self-efficacy in learning Chinese as a foreign language is rarely discussed. This research reports on a study of overseas students’ self-efficacy in learning Chinese.Under the guidance of Bandura’s self-efficacy theory, this research investigated about150students with a Chinese Self-efficacy Questionnaire and thirteen interview questions. SPSS19.0and AMOS17.0is used to sort out data. The analysis probes into the general distribution, the individual differences of learners’self-efficacy and its four main sources. The influences of learners’ gender, age, nationality, language level and language partners are all analyzed.The result shows that:(1) Learners’ general Chinese self-efficacy is of medium level, of which the sense of control is stronger than the sense of basic capability.(2) Learners’ self-efficacy in learning Chinese characters ranks the lowest among all the self-efficacy in language skills.(3) Learners’ gender, age and language level makes no significant influence in their Chinese self-efficacy.(4) The general Chinese self-efficacy of learners from Japan and South Korean is significantly lower than students from southeastern Asia, America and Europe. However, Japanese and South Korean learners’self-efficacy in learning Chinese characters is significantly higher than learners from America and Europe.(5) Learners with higher self-efficacy have more various self-efficacy sources than learners with lower self-efficacy.(6) The main sources of Japanese and South Korean learners are verbal persuasion and vicarious experience; the southeastern Asian learners are verbal persuasion and mastery experience; the American and European learners are verbal persuasion and emotional arousal.Based on the results, this research suggests that learners’individual differences and various self-efficacy sources should be taken into consideration when promoting their self-efficacy.