Sources of self-efficacy of English language learners with individual differences

Abstract

Introduction. Since self-efficacy is a belief about one’s capability in doing something successfully or unsuccessfully and it relates to academic achievements directly and indirectly. The understanding the sources of one’s self-efficacy could assist that person to achieve a better result in learning or doing something, or, at least, to minimize a reflection from negative sources that could decrease his/her self-efficacy. This study investigated the sources of selfefficacy of English language learners with different genders, nationalities, types of study program, and fields of study.Method. This study used stratified random sampling to draw 480 first-year students at a university to complete a questionnaire. Then, the data was analyzed by descriptive statistics, ttest, and One-Way ANOVA.Results. The result showed slight differences in sources of self-efficacy between learners with different nationality and types of program. Findings revealed that vicarious experience became the highest ranked source for positive self-efficacy while mastery experience was the highest for the negative self-efficacy. Social persuasion was the least influential source regardless of their differences.Discussion and Conclusion. The implications are that teachers and administrators could use the results of this study to develop the strategies to implant positive self-efficacy that results greatly in students’ learning process, and to lead their students with those individual differences to be autonomous learners.