?徐鑫

Self-efficacy in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning

?徐鑫

This paper mainly discusses students’ self-efficacy and its educational value in foreign language teaching and learning. By referring to the theory of self-efficacy and the research in this field and examining my own experience in foreign language learning， this paper seeks to discover the educational values of self-efficacy theory and what teachers can do to make full use of it in order to better facilitate students in their learning of foreign languages.

foreign language teaching；foreign language learningand learning；self-efficacy

一、Introduction

According to Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory， the social and cognitive factors， as well as behavior play important roles in learning.(Santrock， 2008：243) Self-efficacy is one of the cognitive factors that have been emphasized most in recent years by its main theoretical architect. The concept of self-efficacy， its effect and factors that may influence its formation have aroused great attention in the educational field and a better understanding of it may benefit the foreign language learning and teaching.

二、Self-efficacy and Its Effects

1.Self-efficacy In Bandura’s learning model， self-efficacy is an important cognitive factor which means the belief that one can master a situation and produce positive outcomes and has a powerful influence over behavior.(Santrock， 2008：244) This concept can also be put in various other ways such as “the belief that one is capable of performing in a certain manner to attain certain goals， a belief that one has the capabilities to execute the courses of actions required to manage prospective situations， the sense of belief that one’s actions have an effect on the environment， a sense of a person’s competence within a specific framework， focusing on the person’s assessment of their abilities to perform specific tasks in relation to goals and standards rather than in comparison with others’ capabilities”. It is believed that our personalized ideas of self-efficacy affect our social interactions in almost every way.

2.The Effects of Self-efficacy Psychologist Albert Bandura has defined self-efficacy as one’s belief in one’s ability to succeed in specific situations. Students’ sense of their self-efficacy can have a crucial influence on their way of making choices， approaching goals and responding to difficulties， motivation， and emotions. Since all these factors may consequently have considerable impact on the foreign language learning process， self-efficacy can play a crucial role in the success of foreign language learning and teaching.

(1)Making Choices。Students are more likely to engage themselves in tasks where they think they have a high possibility to succeed. If a student believes that he is able to handle a situation or solve a problem， he will try to cope with it even if there may be difficulties ahead. However， when a student doesn’t think he can handle a certain problem， he will probably avoid getting himself involved in it， even if he does have the ability that is called for in order to handle it successfully.

(2)Motivations。When confronting challenging situations， students with higher self-efficacy tend to use more cognitive resources and handle the situation with higher degree of flexibility and effectiveness. (Carr， 2008：191) They tend to examine and plan their life from a long-term perspective. They are more likely to set challenging goals for themselves and anticipate that their efforts will bring about good outcomes， which helps these students to tackle challenging tasks and gain valuable experiences in the process. Because of the long-term perspective and their higher goals， students with higher self-efficacy are more likely to make more active effort in approaching their goals and they usually persist longer.

(3)Attribution Style。Self-efficacy also influence the way students perceive their failures. It is not failures that usually upset the students but the perception of the failures that affect their foreign language learning. Students with higher self-efficacy tend to attribute their failure to controllable factors such as inappropriate learning strategy， lack of effort and so on (Carr， 2008：191)， which means they believe that something can be done to improve the situation if they want to. However， students with low self-efficacy usually attribute failure to uncontrollable factors such as ones talent which is mainly determined by genes and this kind of attribution style will deprive them of the willingness to make further efforts since they believe that they have little control over the factors that have led and will continue to lead to failures. From the contrast we can see that， by affecting the attribution style， self-efficacy affect the amount of effort made by students considerably， especially when they are in difficulties and failures， thus self-efficacy is a crucial factor in learning since student effort is usually what makes successful foreign language learning possible.

(4)Emotions。Self-efficacy helps people to perceive the potential threats as controllable challenges， which reduce the anxiety and other negative emotions towards the potential threats. (Carr， 2008：191)Negative emotions can affect students’ performance by affecting their way of thinking and acting. Researches show that anxiety has negative impact on language learners’ performance. Krashen believes that language acquisition is most effective in an environment where there is no anxiety.(王銀泉、萬(wàn)玉書(shū)，2001)In the Foreign language Classroom Anxiety Scale， Horwitz put anxiety in classroom foreign language learning into three types， which are communication apprehension， test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation. (王銀泉、萬(wàn)玉書(shū)，2001) High degree of anxiety and other kinds of negative emotions can be a great obstacle of foreign language learning， while fortunately self-efficacy can adjust students’ emotional experience and reduce its negative effect effectively.

三、The Affecting Factors of Self-efficacy and Teachers’ Function

1.Mastery Experience There is a saying that “failure is the mother of success”. However， according to Bandura’s theory， success can raise self-efficacy， which can lead to another success， while failure lowers self-efficacy and may consequently lower the possibility of success. Thus one of the things that teachers can do to help students build their self-efficacy is to create conditions for students to get mastery experience. To be specific， teachers should first of all have a teaching design which is suitable for the students， considering their need， level of knowledge and thinking， and other related factors. Tasks that were within the zone of proximal development (ZPD) can be accomplished by students with the assistance from a more experienced person， which will facilitate their growth and offer them valuable experience of success. Secondly， situations should be created for students to experiment and use what they have learned. With communication competence as the desired goal， communicative language teaching approach emphasizes the actual use of the language. By designing suitable activities and leading students to accomplish tasks where their knowledge and skills can be used， teachers may be able to create situations for students to experience success. Thirdly， teachers should be compassionate and sensitive when pointing out the mistakes made by students and correcting them. By doing this， teachers may give the students some guidance without frustrating them or hurting their feelings. Fourthly， the teacher can provide some learning strategies that may help students to optimize their learning process which may consequently make mastery experience easier to obtain.

2.Vicarious Experience If a student sees someone else succeed in doing something， his own self-efficacy will increase， especially when the “successful one” is similar to him in such aspects as ability. We teachers can make the most of this kind of modeling， by realizing that students can have great influence on each other’s learning experience and creating a helpful environment where positive peer influence can take place.

3.Social Persuasions Social persuasion relates to encouragement and discouragement. Though positive persuasion can increase self-efficacy and negative persuasion decrease it， the effect is also heavily influenced by the persuader’s status， expertise and other related factors. (曾榮俠，2003) If teachers want to use positive persuasion to raise students’ self-efficacy， they have to gain students’ trust， use concrete experience as supporting evidence of the persuasion and express persuasions in convincing ways.

4.Physiological and Emotional Factors Students in stressful situations may have a series of physiological and emotional responses such as shakes， pains， fatigue and fear. As is mentioned above， anxiety in foreign language classrooms is common and it affects the level of performance of the students， thus it will affect their perception and beliefs about their own capability. My personal experience is that every time my French teacher started to ask students to answer the question I would get nervous and sometimes I could hardly understand the question. Teachers should strive to create a comfortable environment where students can be free of the negative effect of stress and other negative emotions. For example， in order to reduce the anxiety of giving the wrong answer， free discussions among students and chorus response can be encouraged before a certain student is picked to answer the question individually. And of course， constructive guidance rather than criticism is preferred if teachers are to reduce students anxiety.

四、Conclusion

Self-efficacy plays an important role in foreign language learning. By analyzing its affecting factors teachers can make conscious effort on raising students’ self-efficacy in daily teaching activities which will benefit the students in their language study and also psychological health.

Bibliography：

[1]Carr，A.2008.鄭雪等譯校.積極心理學(xué).[M]中國(guó)輕工業(yè)出版社

[2]Richard，J.C.2000.Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching.[M]Beijing：Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press

[3]Santrock，J.W.2008.Educational Psychology[M].Dallas：McGraw-Hill Companies，Inc.

[4]王銀泉、萬(wàn)玉書(shū).外語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)焦慮及其對(duì)外語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)的影響[J].外語(yǔ)教學(xué)與研究.2001，(33)

[5]曾榮俠.論自我效能感理論及其教育價(jià)值[J].洛陽(yáng)師范學(xué)院學(xué)報(bào).2003，(3)

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