Self-efficacy in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language in Australian Schools

Abstract

Participating in a research-oriented teacher education program, 20 university graduates from China were invited to teach Chinese as a foreign language in western Sydney schools and conducted teacher research for one and half years. By analysing their research on their own teaching through a qualitative approach, this study attempted to identify the factors that influenced their self-efficacy in teaching Chinese as a foreign language in an English-speaking school system. Influential factors identified in this research include teacher factors, student factors and contextual factors. Findings of this research have implications for foreign language teacher education.