Understanding Sources Chinese Students Used to Build Self-Efficacy in Learning English in an American Institution

• In Event: Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: Understanding the Roles of Identity, Motivation, and Self-Efficacy in Second, Foreign, and Heritage Language Learning

Abstract

This collective case study aims to investigate how Chinese students develop their self-efficacy beliefs learning English in American institutions. Self-efficacy plays a significant role in Chinese students’ process learning English in a socially and culturally different environment. This study revealed that initiative to learn, persistence in performing tasks, self-awareness of English proficiency, diverse learning strategies adopted, and self-monitoring as common characteristics of self-efficacious students. Various sources are linked to the development of participants’ self-efficacy beliefs: psychological and affective states. Past English learning performance in China no longer serves as an important source. Parents’ influence in social persuasion was no longer a significant source either in the United States as these students no longer consider their parents as an “authority”.

Authors

• Huifang Zuo, University of Chicago

• Chuang Wang, University of North Carolina - Charlotte