A Study Of The Structure Of MTI Students' Interpreting Learning Self-Efficacy

Self-efficacy,put forward by Bandura,is an important concept in social cognitive theory.His research indicates that self-efficacy is a critical predictor of human behaviour.In many areas,such as school education and second language acquisition,self-efficacy serves as an important predictor of academic performance.As the acquisition of interpreting competence is a long and arduous process,it still needs further research to explore the role of perceived self-efficacy in the process of interpreting learning.In interpreting studies,self-efficacy is still an under-explored area with the existing self-efficacy-related interpreting research mostly focusing on the role of self-efficacy in interpreting tasks instead of interpreting learning.Besides,in the current self-efficacy-related interpreting research,the measurement tools widely used are general self-efficacy scales and some self-developed interpreting self-efficacy scales or questionnaires without being validated.Furthermore,there are not any interpreting-related self-efficacy scales developed in Chinese.Against the research background,this study is designed to explore the structure of interpreting learning self-efficacy and compile an interpreting learning self-efficacy scale taking consecutive interpreting(hereinafter referred to as CI)learning as an example.To achieve the research objectives,three research questions are put forward:(1)What are the dimensions and parameters under the construct of Consecutive Interpreting Learning Self-efficacy?(2)What items should be included in the Consecutive Interpreting Learning Self-efficacy Scale for MTI students based on the construct?(3)What is the structure of Consecutive Interpreting Learning Self-efficacy?In order to answer the research questions,the author first carried out literature analyses and interviews to conduct conceptual analysis of consecutive interpreting learning and explore all possible difficulties that MTI students have confronted in the process of CI learning.Then combined with the Academic Self-efficacy Structure put forward by Bian Yufang,the construct of CI Learning Self-efficacy was developed.On the basis of the CI Learning Self-efficacy construct and in accordance with DeVellis's(2012)scale compilation procedures,this thesis compiled the first draft of Consecutive Interpreting Learning Self-efficacy Scale through a series of procedures including building an item pool,expert assessment,focus group interview and pilot test.Next the thesis sent out questionnaires to collect MTI students'response of the scale.Then the exploratory factor analysis was made to explore the structure of CI Learning Self-efficacy Scale.Seven factors were identified and renamed.Besides,the scale was revised accordingly,forming a new draft of the CI Learning Self-efficacy Scale with 36 items.At last,the new draft of the scale was administered to another group of MTI students,based on which the confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to validate the previously-explored structure.The evidence that indexes including X~2/df(2.337)and RMSEA(0.068)are all at the acceptable level confirms the structure validity of the CI Learning Self-efficacy Scale,thus the structure of CI Learning Self-efficacy has been devised.Furthermore,a reliability analysis of the CI Learning Self-efficacy Scale has been done,which shows that the Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the scale is 0.94,confirming the internal reliability of the scale.At the end of the research,a 36-item Consecutive Interpreting Learning Self-efficacy Scale with confirmed content validity,structure validity and reliability has been compiled in Chinese.Besides,the study develops the structure of Consecutive Interpreting Learning Self-efficacy with 7 dimensions.Thus this study lays foundation and provides measurement tool for future research on interpreting learning self-efficacy.