The Predicting Power of Self-Efficacy on Students’ Argumentative Writing Quality

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the relationships among the aspects of writing self-efficacy and students’ writing quality in the argumentative writing domain. Multiple linear regression analysis is applied to reveal how writing self-efficacy, in the aspect of ideation, convention and self-regulation, predicts the students’ argumentative writing performance. The participants in this study are the fourth semester students of English language teaching department in Mahasaraswati University Denpasar enrolled in argumentative writing class (N = 135; 4 classes). The results indicate that convention self-efficacy made the largest significant contribution to students’ writing quality, followed by self-regulation self-efficacy. Nonetheless, the ideation self-efficacy gives the lowest insignificant contribution to students’ writing quality, although its items have been already adjusted to argumentative writing. These findings suggest that the students’ perception on their ability to express ideas in an appropriate rule of written expression would best reflect their written product quality. Therefore, EFL teachers should still consider providing intensive assistance on writing conventions for their students, because students would rely more on the rules of written expression to be able to produce a high-quality writing. Besides, other researches are required to corroborate these findings in another writing domains to extend the body of knowledge of writing and writing self-efficacy.