Explore the Role of Self-efficacy and Anxiety in MFL Achievement at Public Universities in Malaysia

Abstract

Psychology plays a significant role in people’s everyday life. The success and failure people encounter every single day most rely on our daily psychological well-being. As such people might suffer from certain psychological issues, which on some occasions influence their everyday work. Mental variables such as self-efficacy and anxiety can cause problems for students to perform in their academic life as well. This study aims to investigate the effect of Mandarin foreign language (MFL) learners' self-efficacy and anxiety on their course achievement at public universities in Malaysia (N=590, ages ranging from 18-26 years). The data was collected through self-efficacy, anxiety scales, and the end-of-semester course grades. Language anxiety and self-efficacy were found to be positive and significant predictors of MFL course achievement in a multiple linear regression analysis. An independent simple t-test analysis revealed that there is no statistically significant difference of MFL self-efficacy and MFL anxiety based on gender. one-way ANOVA analysis revealed level three MFL learners have higher self-efficacy compared to level one learners. However, there is no significate difference in MFL anxiety among the three language proficiency levels. The study concluded that the psychological aspect of the learners plays the role in Mandarin foreign language learning.