Development of Future English Language Teachers’ Self-Efficacy Levels: Blended Learning Versus Face-to-Face Instruction

Abstract

In the era of digitalization and informatization of the world community blended learning is becoming more and more prominent in improving professional training of students in various specialties as it enables to provide efficient learning, achieve learning goals and, what is more, to build their confidence. The aim of the research is to investigate the influence of blended learning incorporated into the professional training of students doing a BA degree in Teaching English as a Second Language on the increase of their general self-efficacy. To establish the relationship between the students’ general self-efficacy and blended learning we used a questionnaire. 133 students were selected to take part in a quantitative study which was conducted at three Ukrainian universities in 2019/2020 academic year. A non-random sampling technique basing on the fact that all 133 respondents studied the same disciplines was used to select the research sample. All the respondents were divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group was represented by 65 undergraduate students and the control group was represented by 68 undergraduate students. The disciplines selected for training all the respondents in the experimental and control groups were “Contrastive Grammar of the English and Ukrainian languages”, “Practical Grammar of the English Language”, “The Practical Course of the English Language”. The experimental group was to be taught through incorporating blended learning courses on the selected disciplines using the Moodle platform and the control group was to be taught through providing a face-to-face instruction on the selected disciplines. To draw firm conclusions we used methods of mathematical statistics and computer data processing. Obtained results revealed a positive and significant relationship between the incorporation of blended learning into the professional training of students doing a BA degree in Teaching English as a Second language and the increase in their levels of general self-efficacy.