Teacher Candidates’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs Related to Four Basic Skills in English

Abstract

The aim of the study is to explore the pre-service teachers' self-efficacy beliefs related to foreign language (English) skills within various variables. The "Self-Efficacy Scale for English Language Skills" developed by Sağlam and Arslan (2018) was used as a main data collection tool. Within the scope of this study, the relations between self-efficacy beliefs of senior teacher candidates and other variables such as gender and study programs were focused on. Based on the findings, it was seen that, almost all (90.8%) of the pre-service teachers did not allocate any time for self –study in English and more than half of them (56.1%) stated that they learned English only to pass the course. Additionally, in the analysis, it was observed that the English language skills self-efficacy belief levels of the senior teacher candidates were low. According to the independent sample t-Test results, no statistically significant difference was found between gender and self-efficacy beliefs in English language skills, except for listening skills. Related to the findings of the One-Way ANOVA Test, there was no statistically significant difference between study programs and English self-efficacy beliefs. Lastly, according to the chi-square test, no statistically significant relationship was found between the six study programs and the self- study time. Key words: Self-efficacy beliefs, Language skills, Teacher education, English language proficiency, Student teachers