Novitas-ROYAL, 2007, Vol.: 1 (2), 98-111.[i]
SELF-EFFICACY IN ENGLISH AND IRANIAN SENIOR HIGH
SCHOOL STUDENTS MAJORING IN HUMANITIES
Abstract: Observing the low English achievements of
Iranian senior high school students majoring in humanities as compared with
those of the other majors motivated the researcher to set out this study. The reseracher
investigated the humanities students English self-efficacy beliefs, and
examined the contributions they make to their EFL achievements. A total of 80 senior high school
students and 20 high school English teachers participated in the study.
The methodology underlying the study was both
qualitative (teacher interviews, classroom observations, and student diaries)
and quantitative (through the
implementation of a structured questionnaire and a measure of EFL achievement).
The approach was both exploratory and confirmatory in
design for the qualitative data, while the quantitative data were analyzed
using a chi-square test and a set of correlational analysis. The results
revealed that the students majoring in humanities had a very weak English
self-efficacy and held certain negative beliefs about their academic ability as
foreign language learners. A strong positive correlation was found between
their EFL achievements and self-efficacy. The qualtitative data provided very
rich and invaluable information regarding the sources of their low
self-efficacy and its negative consequences. The implications suggested in the
study seem to be helpful to teachers, who proved to have a great role in
shaping the students self-perceptions of their academic abilitiy.
Key words: general self-efficacy, English self-efficacy, learners beliefs,
EFL achievement
Özet: Bu çalışmaya,
İranda sosyal bilimler alanında eğitim gören lise son
sınıf öğrencilerinin başarı ortalamasının
diğer alanlardaki öğrencilere kıyasla düşük olduğu
gözlemlendiği için başlanılmıştır. Çalışmada, sosyal
bilimler öğrencilerinin özyeterlik inancını ve bu inancın
İngilizceyi yabancı dil olarak öğrenme sürecine olan etkilerini
araştırmak amaçlanmıştır. Katılımcılar, 80 son
sınıf öğrencisi ve lisede görev yapan 20 İngilizce
öğretmenidir. Araştırma yöntemi (öğretmen görüşmeleri,
sınıf içi gözlemler ve öğrenci günlükleri ile) hem nitel, hem de
(yapılandırılmış anket uygulaması ve yabancı
dil olarak İngilizce öğreniminde başarı ölçümlemesi ile)
nicel özelliklere sahiptir. Nicel veri analizinde açıklayıcı ve
doğrulayıcı yaklaşım kullanılmış, nitel
veri analizinde ise kikare testi ve korelasyon analizi tercih edilmiştir.
Sonuçlar göstermiştir ki, sosyal bilimler öğrencilerinin
İngilizce öğrenmede özyeterlikleri düşüktür ve yabancı dil
öğrencisi olarak sahip oldukları akademik yeterliğe dair
inançları oldukça olumsuzdur. İngilizce öğrenmedeki
başarı ile özyeterlik arasında güçlü bir olumlu korelasyon
olduğu belirlenmiştir. Nitel veriler, öğrencilerin özyeterliklerinin
neden düşük olduğunu ve bunun ne gibi olumsuz sonuçlar
doğurduğunu açıklayan önemli bulgular
sağlamıştır. Bu çalışmadaki bulguların,
öğrencilerin akademik beceri konusunda algılarını
şekillendirmede önemli bir rolü bulunan öğretmenlere faydalı
olacağı düşünülmektedir.
Anahtar Sözcükler: genel özyeterlik,
İngilizce özyeterliği, öğrenci inanışı,
yabancı dil olarak İngilizce başarısı
1. INTRODUCTION
A
simple glance at the present status of the English achievements of Iranian
senior high school students from the three majors of mathematics, science, and
humanities clearly indicates that most of the students majoring in humanities
experience failure or have a very low achievement when compared to those
studying math or science. While it may be difficult to measure objectively, it
is also observed by many Iranian teachers that majors like math and science
have better English skills than the humanities. Those who have the experience
of teaching English to the three majors frequently complain how hard, tiring,
and time-consuming it is to work with the humanities, and how disappointing the
results of their teaching efforts seem to be.
It is believed by many teachers and school authorities believe that the low English achievements of the humanities students is basically related to their low aptitudes. That is, they think that these learners have much lower ability to learn English in comparison to the math or science students. Such claims seem to be made mainly because of the way Iranian students choose their major at senior high school level. The choice is primarily based on the overall averages they get when finishing their junior high school. That is, the students with higher averages tend and are even persuaded to choose either mathematics or science, whereas the pupils with lower general means select or, better to say, are made to choose humanities as the major to be studied in senior high school. This may explain why they are viewed as learners with lower academic abilities.
While
the researcher does not deny the role of intellectual abilities in learning
foreign language, the notion that aptitude plays a predominant role seems to be
controversial. In fact, the relevant literature (Bandura, 1986; Brown, 2000;
Dörney, 1994; Gardner and Lambert, 1972; MacIntyre, Noels, & Clement, 1997,
and Pajares, 2002) supports that variation in foreign language
learning can be explained by aptitude only to a certain extent. As Chastain
(1988) posits, in addition to linguistic aptitude, there must be another equally
important variable determining
whether or not a student learns a foreign language.
Among
the determining factors suggested by different theories, learners
self-efficacy has proved to be a much more consistent predicator of behavior than any of
the other closely related variables (Bandura, 1986). To quote
Bandura, many students have difficulty in school not because they are
incapable of performing successfully, but because they are incapable of
believing that they can perform successfully, that they have learned to see
themselves as incapable of handling academic skills (p. 390). This view is supported by Graham and Weiner (1996) who
observed that the acquisition of new skills and the performance of previously
learned skills have been related to efficacy beliefs at a level not found in
any of the other expectancy constructs.
Chamot (1993)
reports that one of the basic needs of language learners is having a high level
of confidence in successfully completing a task. Students confident in their
academic skills expect high marks on related exams and papers. Conversely,
students who doubt their academic ability see a low grade on their paper even
before they begin their exams. This would lead one to infer that research on
achievement, on why students achieve or fail to achieve, or on why they do
things they do in school naturally must focus, at least in great part, on
students' self-efficacy beliefs.
This motivated the
researcher to set out the present study in order to investigate the humanities
perspectives about their ability to learn English (their English self-efficacy
beliefs) and to examine whether
their low English achievements could be explained by their self-efficacy
beliefs.
2. RELEVANT LITERATURE
Nearly two decades have passed since Bandura (1986)
introduced self-efficacy as one of the components of Social Cognitive Theory. He defines it
as beliefs in one's
capability to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage
prospective situations" (p. 392). His key
point as regards the role of self-efficacy beliefs in human functioning is that
people's level of motivation, affective states, and actions are based more on
what they believe than on what is objectively true (ibid). To him, self-efficacy is a type of
self-reflective thought that affects one's behavior. He states that people
develop expectations about their own abilities and characteristics that
subsequently regulate their behavior by determining what a person tries to
achieve and how much effort they will put into their performance. He proposes that there must be some internal
processes within the individual which acts heavily on perceiving and
interpreting his behavior, on initiating or guiding behavior based on its
perceived consequences. In other words,
peoples' behavior is regulated
in terms of the expectations they
develop about themselves, their environment, and the result of their
actions (Crozier, 1997).
Baron
(2004) introduces three types of self efficacy: self-regulatory self-efficacy (ability to resist
peer pressure, avoid high-risk activities); social self-efficacy (ability to
form and maintain relationships, be assertive, engage in leisure time
activities); and academic self-efficacy (ability to do course work, regulate
learning activities, meet expectations). As Siegle (2000) indicates, self-efficacy is specific to the task
being attempted. That is, it reflects how confident students are about
performing specific tasks. For example, high self-efficacy in mathematics
does not necessarily accompany high self efficacy in spelling.
Throughout her article,
Barnhardt (1997) describes the features of self-efficacious learners as
follows: Self-efficacious learners feel confident about solving a problem
because they have developed an approach to problem solving that has worked in
the past. They attribute their success mainly to their own efforts and
strategies, believe that their own abilities will improve as they learn more,
and recognize that errors are part of learning. Students with low self-efficacy,
believing themselves to have inherent low ability, choose less demanding tasks
and do not try hard because they believe that any effort will reveal their own
lack of ability. (p.3)
To account for the variance of self-efficacy belifes
among learners, it is useful to examine their source. Bandura (1986) explores
four sources from which efficacy beliefs are developed: Mastery experience (success raises
self-efficacy and failure lowers it), vicarious experience ( if he can do it,
so can I method of developing a self-belief ), persuasions (what other people
tell us and what we read or see on TV), and physiological states (stress,
arousal, fear reactions, fatigue, and pains while performing a behavior).
How self-beliefs affect behavior is described by Bandura
(1986) as follows: First, they
influence the choice of behavior: individuals are likely to engage in tasks in
which they feel competent and confident and avoid those in which they do
not. Second, self-beliefs help determine
how much effort people will expend on an activity and how long they will
persevere: low self-efficacy in a student, for example, creates a self-doubt
that may keep him away from trying. The third way that self-beliefs influence
human agency is by affecting an individual's thought patterns and emotional
reactions: people with low efficacy may
think that things are tougher than they really are; Such a feeling creats great
stress and anxiety in them. Learners' self-efficacy is also associated with the
goals they set for learning the language. That is, learners with high
self-efficacy set higher goals and higher personal standards, while the low
self-efficacious students set easily acheivable and short-term goals (Tremblay
& Gardner, 1995, p.507).
Learners'
self-efficacy has been researched from a variety of positions. Testing the
concept of self-efficacy in relation to academic performance (Bandura, 1997; Cotterall, 1999; Ergul, 2004; Mills, 2004; Wen & Johnson, 1997), academic motivation (Graham &
Weiner, 1996), self-regulation (Pintrich & Schunk, 1996), cognitive
strategy use (Edmond, 2005; Pintrich
& De Groot, 1990), and language anxiety (Cheng, 2001) has been at the center of many self-efficacy
studies done so far.
While there are ample reasons to view the
learners English self-efficacy as powerful enough to predict EFL performance, it seems that the area has not received the due attention
in
1. What are the English self-efficacy beliefs
of Iranian senior high school students majoring
in humanities?
2. Is there any relationship between the
humanities English self-efficacy
and their EFL
achievements?
3.
METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY
3.1
Participants
A total of 80 senior
high school students of 2 classes from the humanities major and 20 high school
English teachers participated in the study. All the students were female who
had studied English for 5 years as a part of their official school curriculums.
3.2 Survey Instrumentation
In this
research, both qualitative (teachers interviews, student diaries, classroom
observations) and quantitative data (student questionnaire and an English
achievement test) were used in order to provide the necessary triangulation. The
qualitative stage preceded the quantitative phase of the study.
3.3
Procedures
3.3.1
Qualitative Stage
A number of 20
English teachers were interviewed with the expectation to understand how they
thought and felt about the topic of the study. The insights gained from the
interview notes were used both to develop the student questionnaire and to
interpret the findings of the study as a supplementary source of data. The
interviews were based around a protocole (see Appendix A) and lasted between half
an hour and forty-five minutes. Some of the protocole items were adapted from
the BALLI (Horwitz, 1988), which has extensively been used to examine teachers'
beliefs and attitudes, while the others were developed by the researcher for
the purpose of the study.
The students were asked to keep diaries in which they reflected on
their feelings and perceptions towards their own abilities as EFL learners.
Their analyses provided the researcher with invaluable data to complement the results of the research.
Furthermore, the whole autumn semester constituted the period of observation
during which the two classes were
observed and notes were made by the researcher, who was the subjects English
teacher at the same time.
3.3.2
Quantitative Stage
The Persian-language student questionnaire
included 10 5-point Liker-type items targeting the English self-efficacy
beliefs of the humanities, and one ranking item requiring the respondents to rank
seven factors according to how important they judged them for their success in
EFL learning (for
the English-language version see the Appendix B). The same item was also used in
the teacher interview protocole in order to see whether their views match with
each other and with the results of the study.
To develop the instrument, a pool of 22
items were first generated from the existing instruments including BALLI
(Horwitz, 1988), and the Persian Adaptation of the General Self-efficacy Scale
developed by Nezami et al., (1996), as well as with the items which the researcher developed based on
the research directions and the insights gained from the teachers interviews.
Since some of the items were in English, they were translated into Persian to
make them more usable and understandable for the subjects.
Ensuring the accuracy of translations was
a great concern. Accordingly, the
translated items were evaluated and judged by three experts; the whole items
(22) were then validated through panel analysis. It resulted in eliminating
some overlapping items, revising the wording of some other items, dropping the
items irrelevant to the context of
Following the validation panel, the
instrument was piloted to 35 volunteer senior highschool students as a check
for reliability. Cronbach Alpha Coefficient calculated for the scale (.82) was
considered to be satisfactory. Thus, the instrument was ready to be
administered. The students final exam scores were used as the measure of their
EFL achievements.
4.
RESULTS
To
answer the first research question, the teachers interviews, the students
diaries, and the researchers observation notes were first analyzed. Due to
their qualitative nature, a content analysis for recurring themes was
conducted. The data were approached with some predetermined categories based on
the research directions (confirmatory analysis), but new patterns and
commonalities were looked for too (exploratory analysis). For the sake of
validating the findings and increasing the reliability of final results, the
emerged categories from one source of data, diaries for example, were sought in
other sources too. In order to avoid possible
subjectivity associated with data interpretation, the data was read and
evaluated by two experts in the field. A high degree of agreement was achieved
between their analyses and those of the researcher on the categories.
The
significant point revealed from the qualitative analyses was that the
humnaities had a very low English self-fficacy. A few samples of the emerged
categories indicating the weak efficacy of the humanities are presented in the
discussion section of the paper. The same finding was clearly supported when
the scores obtained from the student qestionnaires were quantitatively analyzed
using a chi-square test. The test was employed to compare the frequency of
positive and negative efficacy beliefs realised as strongly agree/agree and
strongly disagree/disagree in responses to the questionnaire items. Comapring
the chi-square value obtained (X2= 112.90) with the critical value of X2 (9.48)
with 4 df for the .05 level showed that the subjects had a very low percetion
of their ability to learn English.
In order to
probe the second research question dealing with the relationship between the
English self-efficacy of the humanities and their EFL achievemnets,
Pearson-product correlation coefficient
was calculated. The correlation coefficient ( .84) was significant at
the level 0.01 (2-tailed), so the hypothesis was strongly repudiated. That is,
there was a significant positive relationaship between the subjects
self-efficacy and their English achievment.
5.
DISCUSSION
Many features
of low self-efficacious learners described by Bandura (1986), Barnhardt (1997),
and Pajares (2002) emerged while sifting through the qulaititive data. However,
due to the limited scope of this paper, only the more relevant and illuminating
points made by the participants are summerized in this section. It is worthy
mentioning that their views originally expressed in Persian language are
presented in English to make them usable and understandable for the readers.
The finding
that many humanities students start off with a low perception of their ability
to learn English successfully was clearly evident in their dairies. Negative
self-talks like I ll never get this, it cant be done, I always
make mistakes, I dont know what to do, I m not made to learn English, English
words do not stick in my mind, and I have no talent for learning English
were frequently repeated in their writings. Not having confidence in their
ability had apparently caused them to attribute their failure mainly to their
lack of innate talent. For instance, a
student wrote: I know that I' m not good at learning English so why should
I spend so much energy and time to learn something for which I do not have any
talent Another student claimed: I think that one must be very
intelligent for being successful in learning English. Unfortunately, I am not
so talented; and this is why I usually
get a low mark in English exams.
In addition to
the ability variable, luck and methodology were two other factors to which a
majority of humanities students attributed their low English achievements: Last
year, I could not get a high mark in English because of my teacher's
methodology. If she had not spoken English in class all the time, I could have
got a better mark. Another subject
stated: I' m not lucky at all. Last year, most of the questions in our
final English exam were exactly from those sections of the book which I had not
studied.
Not expending
the least amount of effort and perseverance on learning English came out to be
a negative consequence of not having a feeling of control over learning
outcomes and attributing failure to
factors not within the control. A
student confessed: I spend less than one hour a week studying English. I
think it would be useless even if I spent the whole semester practiciting
English. I'm not made to learn the
language.
The content
analysis of the teachers' responses to the item 8 of their interviews resulted
in the same finding. A majority of the teachers (84%) emphasized that the
students did not put forth much effort and energy for achieving well. This view
is reflected in Bandura's (1986) notion that "a belief in one's ability to
do a task could be the key to maintaining effort in the learning process. Thus, the higher the sense of
efficacy, the greater the effort, with greater likelihood of success" (p.
394).
A whole
semester of the researchers observations also indicated that the humanities
students did not expend enough effort and persistence for achieving well on
learning English. A tendency to retreat from doing their homework, no active
participation in the class, no interest to do the extra activities suggested by
the teachers, no motivation to do group work, and giving up trying immediately
when facing a problem were the most common behaviours observed in the two
classes.
A plausible
explanation for the lack of effort on the humanities' part might be that they
viewed learning English tougher than it really was (a feature of low
self-efficacious students). Consequently, they approached English learning task
as a threat to be avoided rather than as challenges to be mastered so they did
not sustain their efforts in the face of failure: Learning English is a
very diffcult task. How can I learn a
language that is completely different from my own language? Another
student wrote: I wish English was easier than it is. For me, acquiring the grammar rules and the
new words takes too much time and energy. Their diaries also revealted
that the perceived difficulty of English learning had made many of them decide
to discontinue their English studies upon completing the school requirement.
Another
consequence of the humanities' low English self-efficacy reflected in their diaries
and the teachers' opinions was the emotional tension or anxiety that they
experienced in the process of the language learning: I am always nervous
when doing English homework because I am usually unable to do it properly. Some of the exercises are too difficult, so I
have to leave them undone. Another
student expressed her fear of sitting in the English class by calling it a
terrible nightmare. This finding is reflected in Pajaras' (2002) view that
efficacy influences the amount of stress, depression, and anxiety individuals
experience as they engage in a task.
Two main
sources of the low self-efficacy beliefs of the humanities were emerged from
the students diaries and the teachersperceptions: Fear of past failure was frequently expressed
in their diaries as follows: I have always got poor grades on English
tests; I dont remember any good grades in this bloody subject; thinking about
English exam makes me disgusted; I hate experiencing failure again; or I do not
want to be ridiculed or blamed by others any more. These feelings are
congruent with Bandura's (1986) view that low test results and poor
performances may make learners approach the area with apprehension. As a
result, they are likely to develop a weak sense of confidence in their
abilities.
Another source
of their low self-efficacy revealed in their diaries was what nearly all the
humanities complained about the negative attitudes that the society in general
and teachers in particular had towards them. They felt that no one appreciated
or valued them, and they were treated differently from the students of the
other two majors due to their low academic ability: Math and science
students are very lucky. Both the
manager and the teachers like them very much.
Teachers choose their classes out of their will. But I know they wouldn't come to our classes
if they didn't have to, or my sister is studying mathematics and I can
clearly see how differently she is treated from me both at home and at
school. while the students of the other
two majors are usually labled as polite, disciplined, talented, and active, we
are usually called lazy, weak, and impolite pupils. Another humanities student seemed to get
doubtful about her choice just because of the judgement of significant
others: I have decided to study in
this major just because I like to become a lawyer in the future. But my teachers and my family are trying to
convince me to choose science as my major. They believe that, considering my great
talent and high average in junior high school, I could be more successful in
the science major. What do you think,
teacher? Have I made a wrong choice? Is
there any chance for me to chane my
major?
Bandura
(1986), calling this source of low self-beliefs verbal persuation, views
teachers as persuaders that can cultivate EFL learners beliefs in their
capabilities. He then emphasizes that just as positive persuation may work to
encourage and empower, negative persuation may work to defeat and weaken
self-beliefs. Thus, teachers and parents should be reminded of the role that
their behaviours play in shaping the students' self-confidence and attitudes.
The researcher
was interested in finding out whether the feeling the humanities had about
their teachers negtaive attitudes towards them was really right or not. With this purpose in mind, the relevant items
1 to 7 included in teachers' interviews were analyzed. Their responses
supported the students interpretation to a great extent. About 88% of the
teachers believed that teaching English to the humanities is boring (item 3),
83% of the teachers judged trying to improve the humanities English
achievement as not worth exerting energy (item 2). Their explanation was that
they were not as interested, talented, and polite as the math or science
majors, so any effort on the part of the teacher would come to nothing. It is
really disappointing to see that all of them (100%) preferred to teach in the
math and the science classes (item 7), and none of them chose the humanities as
their options. 78% of them believed their colleagues as well as themselves
prefered working in math or science classes (item 6). 95% of teachers believed
that humanities tend to show more preference for the teacher-centered methods,
while communictaive methods work much better for the other two majors, (items 1
and 4 ).
A very
significant point emerged from analysing the diairies was that the students
were not interested enough in learning English. The relationship between
learners' self-beliefs and their attitudes towards learning English has been
recognized by many scholars including Cotterall (1999), Pajares (1997), and
Wenden (1999) who viewed learners' confidence in their ability to learn a
language successfuly as not only influencing actions but also as shaping
attitudes. However, whether the humnaities low self-efficacy has resulted in
their negative feelings about learning English or vice versa is a topic which
requires further investigation.
While the study provided convincing evidences to
believe the great part the humanities low self-efficacy plays in their
low English achievements, the results of analyzing the teacher and students'
responses to the ranking items revealed that they are not aware of the determining
role of the construct. That is, neither the teachers nor the students had given
a high ranking to self-efficacy beliefs, implying their views that other
factors play larger roles in learning English. For instance, the external
factor of teaching methodology was in the first ranking of the
humanities, where as self-efficacy had been given the sixth ranking. With
respect to the teachers' rankings, they tended to give the two highest rankings
to the attitude and effort variables, ignoring the point that
these two factors are determined to a great extent by the self-efficacy
beliefs. Accordingly, both teachers and students should be made aware of the
significant role the learners confidence in their ability can play in their
success.
6.
CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS
By demonstrating low English self-efficacy of Iranian
high school students majoring in humanities and the great
contribution it makes to their EFL achievements, the survey provided further
evidence to support the connection and justified the significant
role of positive self-efficacy as one of the major contributors to second or
foreign language success. Consequently, both teachers and students should be
made aware of the notion of self-efficacy, its origins and consequences, as
well as the strategies for developing high and positive self-beliefs.
Pajares (1997), emphasizing the
necessity of reexamining the ordinary practices of schooling with a view to the
contributions learners self-efficacy makes to their academic achievements,
views the teachers as significant persuaders who can improve learners beliefs
in their capabilities, while at the same time ensuring that success is
attainable by exploring more efforts. His view is consistent with Littlewood's
(1999) notion that learners should be encouraged to understand that innate
ability does not determine how much success a person can achieve; with effort
and self-discipline, everyone can achieve his or her goals, and failure can be
retrieved by making more effort.
Since the literature
has shown that learner's self-efficacy and goal-setting are interrelated,
teachers should guide the unmotivated students to identify challenging, yet
manageable goals related to their interests, and encourage them to work towards
their goals. Feeling that they can achieve these goals will likely result in
reducing their anxiety, increasing self-confidence, and giving them a sense of
success and achievement. Learners, who due to their past failures, have learnt
not to try should be taught to formulate realistic goals which are within their
grasp so that success in achieving them will bring the greater self-confidence
(Kondo, 1999).
Furthermore, Iranian high school teachers should be
reminded of the role their negative attitudes might play in shaping their
students low self-perception. They should be encouraged to strive for changing
the negative attitudes the humanities hold about themselves, their major, or
EFL learning. The value and the significance of the humanities
major and the great relevance of learning English to their future life should
be clarified for them. Teachers should provide conditions which aid the
humanities, enhance their positive self-image and achieve their potentials.
Using humanistic activities, as those Moskowitz (1981, p.155) suggested, can
help students to accept and understand themselves, to enhance their attitudes
towards learning the target language, and to enhance the self-perceptions of students by combining the subjects matter to
be learned with the feelings, interests, experiences, and values of learners. Positive self-talk as an affective strategy for increasing
self-efficacy was also suggested by Barnhardt (1997), who defined the term as
making positive statements like ' I can do this ' to help oneself get through
challenging tasks. This strategy may increase students' motivation to continue
working at a difficult task rather than giving up.
Finally,
an important
methodological implication arose in relation to the research methods used in
this study. The researcher found qualitative approaches very helpful in getting
a much deeper understanding of various aspects
of the variable under the study. In
fact, the qualitative approach allowed the subjects to express freely their
real needs and feelings, which were not addressed in the questionnaire.
Reflecting on the value of self-efficacy as
supported in this paper creates the need to direct the researchers attention
to this construct which has apparently received the least attention, especially
from EFL programs. Investigating the interaction of learners English self-efficacy with variables
like cognitive styles, learning strategies, and motivational constructs, examining
gender and sex differences regarding the variable, and determining the extent
to which using humanistic and learner-centered curriculums may lead to a change
in learners self-efficacy are the areas on which the further research might
focus.
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Appendix I:
Interview
Protocol For Teachers
Date: ..
Background
Information
Name:
Years of experience: ..
Contact phone: .
Teacher views
1. Is your teaching methodology the same for the students of the three majors? (explain)
2. Are you satisfied with the results of your work with the three majors?
3. How different is your feeling while teaching to the three majors?
4. For which of the majors, Grammar Translation method works better? Why?
5. What was your own major when you were a high school student? Could you please tell me about your own experiences as a student?
6. How do you evaluate the attitudes of most English teachers towards teaching English to the students of the three fields of study?
7. Having a choice, which major would you prefer to teach to?
8. Based on your teaching experiences, what do you think the reasons for the low achievement of humanities learners in English are? What do you suggest for improving their English achievement?
9. Please rank the following factors based on their relative contribution to the success or failure of humanities student in learning English?
- Effort and perseverance
- Special talent for learning English
- Teaching methodology
- Interest and attitude
- Materials
- Self-efficacy
- Feeling need to learn it
Thank you very much!
Appendix II:
Dear student,
Below are beliefs and feelings that some people have about learning foreign languages. Read the statement and then decide if you:
(5) strongly agree, (4) agree, (3) neither agree nor disagree, (2) disagree , (1) strongly disagree. There are no right or wrong answers. Mark your ideas in the answer sheet.
1. I have got a special ability for learning English.
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
2. I believe I have the power to get my desired grade in English final exam.
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
3. I think that some day I will speak English very well.
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
4. I am sure I can solve any problems I face in learning English because Ive got the power to do it.
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
5. Personally, Im satisfied with my current level of English proficiency.
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1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6. Im definitely sure that I can improve my English by trying more.
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1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
7. If I do not do well in this lesson, it is only because I do not exert enough effort.
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
8. Generally speaking, my self confidence in English classes is high.
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
9. Learning English is a very easy task.
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
10. I try to study English to reach the highest level of ability in it.
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
11. Please rank the following factors based on their relative contribution to your success or
failure in learning English?
- Effort and perseverance
- Special talent for learning English
- Teaching methodology
- Interest and attitude
- Materials
- Self-efficacy
- Feeling need to learn it
Thank you very much!