A preliminary investigation into English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ speaking self-efficacy, satisfaction and speaking performance in the blended teaching environment in a Chinese university: a quantitative study

Abstract

With the acceleration of educational informatization, the blended teaching mode has developed rapidly. In this context, grounded in Bandura's self-efficacy theory, this study investigated the relationship among students’ satisfaction with blended teaching mode of EFL class, speaking self-efficacy and speaking achievement by means of factor analysis, correlation analysis and regression analysis. The results showed that, first there was a significant positive correlation between the three variables of satisfaction with blended teaching mode, speaking self-efficacy and final speaking performance. Speaking self-efficacy was highly correlated with final speaking achievement while students’ satisfaction with blended teaching mode of EFL class was low correlated with speaking self-efficacy and final speaking achievement. Second, speaking self-efficacy and students’ satisfaction with blended teaching mode of EFL class can explain 56.4% of the variation of final speaking performance, with the former being stronger. Based on this, this study provided suggestions for future studies so as to improve students' English-speaking proficiency.