Assessing the English Speaking Self-Efficacy of Translation-Major Undergraduates: A Current Perspective

Abstract

Self-efficacy is a vital determinant of students’ future accomplishments or setbacks and has been recognized as a significant influencer of their motivation to learn, intimately linked with academic achievement. Nonetheless, English learners often grapple with a lack of self-efficacy in their speaking skills. In order to investigate the current state of undergraduate translation students’ English speaking self-efficacy, a quantitative research design, coupled with a survey strategy, was employed. This investigation involved data gathered from 163 undergraduate translation students across three universities located in Guangxi, China. The findings reveal that translation-major undergraduates possess a moderate level of English speaking self-efficacy. Intriguingly, there were no noticeable differences in speaking self-efficacy and its three dimensions based on the academic year, indicating consistency in speaking self-efficacy across different academic levels. The gender-based comparison also yielded interesting results. There was no significant disparity in English speaking self-efficacy between male and female students. However, when it came to self-regulated self-efficacy—a crucial aspect of autonomous learning—female students significantly outperformed their male counterparts. Drawing from these research outcomes, this paper proposes targeted recommendations to enhance English speaking self-efficacy among undergraduate translation students.