Self-Efficacy Perceptions of Secondary School Students regarding Speaking Skills

Abstract

The current study aims to investigate the self-efficacy perceptions of secondary school students regarding speaking skills according to various variables. The study was designed in the survey model, one of the quantitative research methods. The study group consisted of 434 students, 212 females and 222 males, studying at the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades of Bartın Borsa İstanbul Secondary School. The self-perceptions of secondary school students regarding speaking skills were examined according to gender, grade level, success in Turkish lessons, number of siblings, and educational status of parents. To this end, "Personal Information Form" and the "Speaking Self-Efficacy Scale" developed by Hasırcı Aksoy, Arıcı and Kan (2021) were employed for data collection. The data of the study was analyzed via SPSS 21.0. As the data was distributed normally, parametric tests were employed in the analyses. Independent groups t-test was applied for two variables and one-way analysis of variance was applied for more than two variables. According to the research findings, secondary school students have high level of self-efficacy perceptions towards speaking; there is no significance in these perceptions in terms of gender, grade level, number of siblings and mother's education level; yet there is a significance in terms of the success in the Turkish lesson and the educational status of the father. Accordingly, it was found that as the course achievement of the participants and the father's education level increased, self-efficacy perceptions towards speaking increased.