A correlation study between self efficacy belief and oral performance of first year english majors at hoa sen university

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

---------------

A CORRELATION STUDY BETWEEN SELFEFFICACY BELIEF AND ORAL
PERFORMANCE OF FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH
MAJORS AT HOA SEN UNIVERSITY
Submitted to the
Faculty of English Language
in partial fullfillment of the Master’s degree in English Language
Course code: 1641900
By
DAM KIM THAN
Supervised by
NGUYEN THI KIEU THU, Ph.D

HO CHI MINH CITY, JUNE 2018


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CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
I certify my authorship of the Master’s Thesis submitted today entitled:
A CORRELATION STUDY BETWEEN SELF-EFFICACY BELIEF AND
ORAL PERFORMANCE OF FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT HOA
SEN UNIVERSITY
In terms of the statement of requirements for Theses in Master’s Programs issued
by the Higher Degree Committee of Faculty of English Linguistics, Ho Chi Minh
City University of Technology.

Ho Chi Minh City, July 2018

DAM KIM THAN


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RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS
I hereby state that I, DAM KIM THAN, being a candidate for the degree of Master
of Art (English Linguistics), accept the requirements of the University relating to
the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposit in the Library.
In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my Master Thesis
deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in
accordance with the normal conditions established by the Librarian for the care,
loan and reproduction for theses.

Ho Chi Minh City, July 2018

Signature:…………………………………..

DAM KIM THAN


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish to extend my sincere appreciation and gratitude to the following
personalities, whose helped me for the completion of this Master Thesis.
Foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Nguyen Thi
Kieu Thu, my thesis advisor, who shared her profound knowledge which was

vitally important in this study and provided me with guidance, encouragement and
patience throughout the duration of this thesis.
I would also like to show gratitude to Dr. Nguyen Thu Huong, Head of the
Department of English-American Language and Culture, for offering me an
opportunity to conduct the survey at Hoa Sen University and recommending other
teachers to assist me during the survey process.
I’d like to acknowledge the assistance of Dr. Tran Ngoc Tien and Dr. Lu
Van Tuan for arranging their busy time to give value comments on my research
questionnaire.
I am especially grateful to thank Mr. Nicolas for all his willing and
enthusiasms to help me conduct the survey in his five classes of Listening and
speaking 1 in the 17.1A semester.
My sincere thanks also go to all the students for their participation in the
survey.
I very much appreciate to my colleagues for supporting me in my work
during my research.
To all my friends and family members, I am appreciated for taking care of
me and encouraging me during my research.
Finally, to whom I failed to mention, my deepest thanks and gratitude to all
of you.


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ABSTRACT
Self-efficacy is known as a person's belief in his or her ability to successfully
perform a particular task (Bandura, 1997). It affects feelings and thoughts, tasks
choice, goals setting, how to cope with challenges, effort, and persistence
(Bandura, 1997). Learners' with high self-efficacy may attain better learning
outcomes.

In English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context, the relationship between
self-efficacy belief and academic performance has been studied widely with
various results. The study, therefore, aimed to examine the self- efficacy belief of
first-year English majors at Hoa Sen University and the relationship between
students' belief of their ability in speaking skill and their actual speaking
performance.
The target students of this study were 116 first-year students at the
Department of English-American Language and Culture, Faculty of Social
Sciences and Humanities, Hoa Sen University in the 17.1A semester, the school
year 2017- 2018. A survey with the questionnaire was used to gather data on
students’ speaking self-efficacy belief while the final speaking test results of the
17.1A semester, the school year 2017- 2018 was applied to measure the students’
oral performance.
The findings showed that the speaking self-efficacy beliefs of first-year
English majors at Hoa Sen University were at moderate level. A positive
relationship between students' self-efficacy and their speaking performance was
found at a weak level. Besides, the results also indicated that there was no
difference in gender of the students’ self-efficacy beliefs. Then, some
recommendations or implications were suggested in other to help students improve
their academic performance.
Keywords: self-efficacy belief, ability, speaking task, speaking performance, oral
performance, gender difference, EFL context


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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY .......................................................................... i
RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS.............................................................. ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................... iii

ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................v
LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................. viii
LIST OF FIGURES................................................................................................... ix
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS .......................................................x
CHAPTER 1................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................1
1.1. Background to the study ...................................................................................1
1.2. Rationale of the study.......................................................................................3
1.3. Objectives of the study .....................................................................................4
1.4. Research question .............................................................................................5
1.5. Scope of the study ............................................................................................5
1.6. Significance of the study ..................................................................................5
1.7. Definitions of the key terms .............................................................................6
1.8. Organization of the thesis: ...............................................................................7
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................8
2.1. Conceptions of self-efficacy ............................................................................8
2.1.1. Historical overview of self-efficacy..........................................................8
2.1.2. Definitions of self-efficacy .....................................................................10
2.1.3. Similar constructs ....................................................................................12
2.1.4. Factors that influence Self-efficacy ........................................................14
2.1.5. Measuring Self-efficacy in academic settings ........................................16
2.2. Previous studies on self-efficacy ....................................................................18
2.2.1. Self-efficacy and gender .........................................................................18
2.2.2. Self-efficacy and learning achievement in EFL context .........................20


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2.3. Conceptions of speaking ................................................................................24

2.3.1. Definition of speaking .............................................................................24
2.3.2. Functions of speaking .............................................................................25
2.3.3. Factors affect performance in speaking skill of EFL students ................26
2.3.4. Communicative competence & performance ..........................................27
2.3.5. Assessment of speaking skill ..................................................................29
2.4. Conceptual framework ...................................................................................30
CHAPTER 3..............................................................................................................32
METHODOLOGY ....................................................................................................32
3.1. Research Design .............................................................................................32
3.2. Research location ...........................................................................................33
3.3. Research Population .......................................................................................33
3.4. Research Instruments .....................................................................................36
3.4.1. Speaking Self-efficacy Questionnaire .....................................................36
3.4.2. Reliability and Validity of the Questionnaire .........................................38
3.4.3. Final oral exam score ..............................................................................39
3.5. Data Collection Procedures ............................................................................41
3.6. Data analysis procedures ................................................................................42
CHAPTER 4..............................................................................................................43
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS .............................................................................43
4.1. Introduction ....................................................................................................43
4.2. Results ............................................................................................................43
4.2.1. Students’ belief of their self-efficacy at speaking skill ...........................43
4.2.2. Students’ actual oral performance...........................................................55
4.2.3. Gender differences in the students’ self-efficacy beliefs ........................57
4.2.4. Relationship between self-efficacy belief and oral performance ............58
4.3. Discussion ......................................................................................................64
4.3.1 Students’ self-efficacy beliefs in speaking skill .......................................65
4.3.2. Gender difference in students’ self-efficacy beliefs ...............................69

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4.3.3. The relationship between students’ self-efficacy beliefs and their
speaking performance .......................................................................................70
4.4. Summary .......................................................................................................73
CHAPTER 5..............................................................................................................74
CONCLUSION .........................................................................................................74
5.1 Conclusion ......................................................................................................74
5.2 Implications ....................................................................................................75
5.3 Limitation of the research ..............................................................................77
5.4 Recommendations for further research ..........................................................77
REFERENCES ..........................................................................................................79
APPENDICES...........................................................................................................91
APPENDIX A: LETTER REQUEST FOR THE SCHOOL PRINCIPALS ............91
APPENDIX B: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE (ENGLISH VERSION) .................93
APPENDIX C: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE (VIETNAMESE VERSION) ........95
APPENDIX D: FINAL SPEAKING TEST RESULTS ...........................................97


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LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1 Gender of participants ...............................................................................34
Table 3.2 Level of participants..................................................................................35
Table 4.1 Students’ General Feelings of the Speaking subject .................................44
Table 4.2 Students’ beliefs on their choices for handling challenges .......................45
Table 4.3 Students’ beliefs in their choices for setting goals ...................................46
Table 4.4 Students’ beliefs in their efforts in a speaking task ..................................47
Table 4.5 Students’ beliefs in their persistence in a speaking task ...........................48
Table 4.6 Students’ beliefs in their ability to make presentation ..............................49

Table 4.7 Students’ belief in their ability to ask questions .......................................50
Table 4.8 Students’ belief in their ability to answer questions .................................51
Table 4.9 Students’ beliefs on their final examination score ....................................52
Table 4.10 Summary of the students’ speaking self-efficacy beliefs .......................54
Table 4.11 Scores of the final examination ...............................................................56
Table 4.12 ANOVA analysis for Gender differences in self-efficacy beliefs ..........57
Table 4.13 Correlations between self-efficacy beliefs and performance of making
presentation ...............................................................................................................58
Table 4.14 Correlations between self-efficacy beliefs and performance of asking
questions ....................................................................................................................59
Table 4.15 Correlations between self-efficacy beliefs and performance of answering
to questions................................................................................................................59
Table 4.16 Correlations between self-efficacy beliefs and the final score ...............60
Table 4.17 Correlations between self-efficacy beliefs and oral performance of the
final exam ..................................................................................................................60
Table 4.18 Consistent correlation between the variables ..........................................63
Table 4.19 Inconsistent correlation between the variables .......................................64


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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1: Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory (1986) ..............................................9
Figure 2.2: Sources of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1999) ...............................................16
Figure 2.3: Conceptual framework of the study .......................................................31
Figure 3. 1 Gender of participants.............................................................................34
Figure 3. 2 Level of participants ...............................................................................35
Figure 4.1 Students’ General Feelings of the Speaking subject ...............................44
Figure 4.2 Students’ beliefs in their choices for handling challenges ......................45
Figure 4.3 Students’ beliefs in their choices for setting goals ..................................46

Figure 4.4 Students’ beliefs in their efforts in a speaking task .................................47
Figure 4.5 Students’ beliefs in their persistence in a speaking task ..........................48
Figure 4.6 Students’ belief in their ability to make presentation ..............................49
Figure 4.7 Students’ belief in their ability to ask questions ......................................50
Figure 4.8 Students’ belief in their ability to answer questions ................................51
Figure 4.9 Students’ beliefs on their final examination score ..................................52
Figure 4.10 Level of the students’ speaking self-efficacy beliefs ............................55
Figure 4.11 Scores of the final examination .............................................................56


x

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS

ESL

English as a Second Language

EFL

English as a Foreign Language


CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background to the study
The phenomenon of early school leaving students recently increases in
Vietnam. There is a significant number of students in higher education who have
dropped out of school or have not graduated on time. This is considered to be a
great concern of the school administrators and teachers. According to the internal

report of the English Language Department at Hoa Sen University at a conference
in 2017, the average dropout rate compared to the beginning of the course was
20.8 percent. Nearly 3.5 percent of students dropped out after their first year and it
tended to increase over the next four years. Meanwhile, the average rate of on-time
graduation was only at 32.6%. The poor academic performance was believed one
of the most important reasons for breaking off their studies early, the report said.
For first-year students, especially English major students, this issue deserves
more attention due to the fact that after high school, students mostly have not
achieved the level of English communication and then they are not qualified to use
English in the university environment. English language education in Vietnam has
previously focused on reading, grammar, and vocabulary rather than developed the
communication skills. Therefore, students' English proficiency does not meet the
requirements of communication. Despite the government's efforts in implementing
the National Foreign Language project in the period of 2008 to 2020 which is
about the complete reform of the teaching and learning of foreign languages in
every level of education in Vietnam with the purpose up to 2020 most of English
learners have the ability to use English language fluently, up to now, this project
has not met the initial target. Students’ English proficiency is still low and they do
not always have positive attitudes in learning (Phan Thi Tuyet Nga, 2015).
At the university level, students are taught more about English speaking and
listening skills. At Hoa Sen University, the English programs in the first year of

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study specifically focus on the training of integrated oral skills in the subjects of
Listening and Speaking, Basic Writing, and Reading. The purpose is to provide
students with comprehensive English language skills before entering academic
subjects in the next semesters. The Listening and Speaking 1 course is designed to
develop students’ listening and speaking skills so that they can communicate in the

English language confidently in real life. According to the Listening and speaking
1 course outline, a variety of teaching modes are designed to promote the
knowledge of declarations and procedures, student participation and collaboration
in a supportive learning environment which aims to provide a variety of input
procedures to achieve quality learning goals. However, the fact is that some
students are still passive, nervous in speaking in front of the class and therefore
performing poorly in their examinations. Although the entry level of first-year
English major students is from the Intermediate level, not all students can use
English at the same level, especially for listening and speaking skills which are
considered the most difficult skills for most of English learners in Vietnam. It is
said that EFL learners are mostly passive and less interactive in English-speaking
classrooms. This is because of their shyness, anxiety, and lack of self-confidence
(Hamouda, 2012). This leads to the condition that first-year students who do not
have expected academic grades in the first semester are unlikely to continue in the
next semester.
Studies have shown that students’ learning outcomes are not only dependent on
intellectual ability but also on their psychological factors. It is said that positive
emotions give a positive influence on academic performance (Pekrun, 2002). It can
be explained that positive thinking helps people believe in the good things ahead,
thanks to this, they have more motivation to devote their energies to work and will
be successful. There is a common phrase that if you think you can, you can. It
indicates that successful people always have belief in themselves and what they do.
The more confidence people have in themselves, the greater their chances of
success. The center of the whole learning process is the learner's belief in his or her

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ability to accomplish learning goals (Atsuta, 2003). According to psychologist
Albert Bandura (1977), the path to success and the way a person interprets success

and failure is greatly influenced by their self-efficacy belief. He said that when a
person believes in his or her ability, he or she will consider difficult tasks as a
challenge rather than a threat to be avoided. These people will quickly restore their
self-esteem after failure or ineffective work. In other words, how a person
perceives his or her value in solving a problem will affect his or her actions and
results. This shows that self-efficacy make an essential contribution to one's
success or failure. Thanks to this, the school can understand their students in
psychological aspects to provide instructional strategies that help to improve
students’ learning outcomes, thereby reducing the dropout rate and increasing the
on-time graduation rate.
1.2. Rationale of the study
Self-efficacy has been studied in complementary in many fields all around the
world including philosophy, psychology, health, business administration, and
education. Studies have proven that people with high self-efficacy are more likely
to make efforts to complete a task, and to persist longer in those efforts, than those
with low self-efficacy (Schunk, 2010). Regarding the relationship between selfefficacy and academic performance, some studies have found that there is a
positive correlation between these two variables (Pajares, 2007; Rahimi & Abedini,
2009; Ghonsooly & Elahi, 2010; Liu, 2013; Mills, et al, 2007; Martin, 2001;
Farjami & Amerian, 2013; Swanson,2012,2014; Honicke & Broadbent, 2016; Shi,
Lihong, 2016), while some other studies argue that there is no significant
relationship between self-efficacy and language achievement (Erkan and
Saban,2011; Tsai, 2013; Anaydubalu, 2010; Ghonsooly and Elahi, 2010; Mills et
al., 2006; Cheng, 2001; MacIntyre et al., 1997). In addition, some studies have
found the differences in the gender of students’ self-efficacy beliefs (Pajares, 2002;
Pajares & Valiante, 2001; Idrus and Rohani, 2008; Khatiba, 2014) which implies
gender need to be considered in studying learner’s self-efficacy belief. Although

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these studies have been conducted widely in ESL setting, very few studies have
been conducted in EFL learning of higher education. In addition, due to cultural
differences, the results of these studies may not reflect the real situations in
Vietnam. So far, only some studies have examined teachers’ self-efficacy in
Vietnamese context, no research has been found on students’ self-efficacy which is
believed to help schools and teachers better understand the learning psychology of
English learners, then providing appropriate training strategies to increase their
learning effectiveness. It is, therefore, necessary to adjust the psychology of the
learner in which self-efficacy is a definitely important element. The researcher
expected that the study of self-efficacy belief on the subject of Vietnamese
students would be helpful in contributing to the results of research in this field.
Besides, in the acquisition of a foreign language, speaking is considered a key
skill to master and becomes a criterion in judging linguistic performances. At the
English-American Language and Culture department of Hoa Sen University,
speaking is a subject on the curriculum during the first two years which made firstyear English majors struggle with their study. In addition, since language
proficiency of higher education students is one of the important variables related to
students’ self –confidence, therefore, there is a need to examine their perceptions
of self-efficacy in terms of personal capabilities to learn a foreign language and
their perceived and actual English language proficiency level. Hence, the present
study aims to fill in the gap of self-efficacy in EFL learning in Vietnamese context
by exploring the self-efficacy beliefs among undergraduate freshmen English
majors in relation to their oral performance at Hoa Sen university.
1.3. Objectives of the study
The present study aims to examine the self- efficacy belief of first-year English
majors at Hoa Sen University and the relationship between students' belief of their
ability in speaking skill and their actual speaking performance. In addition, the
study also explores the difference in gender of the students’ self-efficacy belief.
Then some recommendations or implications were suggested in other to help

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students improve their academic performance, this was believed to help decrease
the dropout rate as well as increase the on-time graduation rate at Hoa Sen
University.
1.4. Research question
Regarding the lack of study on EFL students’ self-efficacy in the Vietnamese
context, the present study is interested in knowing the English speaking selfefficacy belief of the first year English majors at Hoa Sen university by the
following research questions:
1. What are the beliefs of self-efficacy in speaking skill of the first-year
English majors at Hoa Sen university?
2. Do the self-efficacy beliefs of first-year English majors at Hoa Sen
university show a difference according to gender?
3. Is there any correlation between the students’ beliefs of their self-efficacy
and their actual English oral performance in the context of Hoa Sen
university?
1.5. Scope of the study
The study focuses on understanding self-efficacy belief of first-year English
majors at the Social Sciences and Humanities Department, Hoa Sen University in
the 17.1A semester, the academic year 2017-2018. The study only sought for the
students’ level of speaking self-efficacy beliefs, the relationship between the
students’ speaking self-efficacy belief and their oral performance which collected
from the final exam score of the 17.1A semester, and the difference of self-efficacy
beliefs between male and female. However, the thesis did not aim at finding
students' problems in speaking learning or providing strategies to help students
increase their speaking self-efficacy beliefs.
1.6. Significance of the study
The results of this study confirm the relationship between learners’ belief in
their ability which is self-efficacy belief, and their English performance. The

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finding would help raise an awareness of how students’ beliefs about self- efficacy
contribute to their academic success, which fosters their confidence in English
language learning. Besides, teachers can determine which beliefs are influencing
their students’ motivation in learning English in order to enhance their
instructional practices. In addition, the finding would provide information to Hoa
Sen University to review their methods of training in order to improve students’
academic performance as well as reduce the dropout rate and increase the on-time
graduation rate.
1.7. Definitions of the key terms
The study uses a number of key terms and concepts which are defined as the
followings:
Self-efficacy is defined as a person believes in his or her ability in a specific
task or specific situation (Bandura, 1995)
High self-efficacy is about the confidence of a person in his or her ability to
perform a task (Earley and Lituchy, 1991). People with high self-efficacy tend to
target higher goals, put more effort and persistence to achieve the goals they set.
(Bandura, 2006).
Low self-efficacy is about the feeling unsure of his or her ability to perform a
task (Earley and Lituchy, 1991). These students view difficulty as obstacles rather
than challenges and easy to give up (Bandura, 2006)
Speaking self-efficacy belief refers to students personal judgment in their
capacity to perform in speaking skill.
Speaking is communication by means of spoken language. It concerns the
ability of students to speak proficiently in the English language.
Speaking performance or oral performance is the way the speakers convey
their ideas to the audience where their oral performance will show their
competence. In this study, the oral performance of students is performed in their

final speaking exam in form of oral presentation.

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1.8. Organization of the thesis:
The present thesis is organized in five main chapters:
Chapter 1 is the introduction of the study. It states the background information
of the study which including the dropout and not on-time graduation problems at
Hoa Sen University, the role of self-efficacy in one's success or failure, and
students learning situation. This chapter also indicates the rationale, aims, research
questions, scope, significance and definitions of the key terms of the study.
Chapter 2 displays literature review of the study with regard to the two main
iterms self-efficacy and speaking performance, including an over view of the terms,
factors influence them, and the relationship between the two variables. Besides,
gap for the present study and conceptual framework are also displayed in this
chapter.
Chapter 3 presents how the research has been conducted in order to answer
research questions. It involves the participants, place and time to conduct the
research, the instrument and procedure used for collecting data, and data analysis
procedures.
Chapter 4 reports results of the study such as the level of self-efficacy belief
of the students toward their speaking skill, the difference in gender of the students’
self-efficacy belief, the relationship between students’ speaking self-efficacy and
students’ speaking performance. Then, there comes a discussion on the findings
with regard to the previous studies. The research questions of the study are
answered in details and some recommendations for action are also indicated in this
chapter.
Chapter 5 shows the summary of the main findings from chaper 4 and gives
some specific implications on the issue. It also focus on limitation of the present

study as well as provides some recommendation for further research regarding
self-efficacy belief in Vietnames context.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter presents the literature and studies that relate to this study.
Particularly, it initially touches on an overview of some concepts, factors affecting
self-efficacy, the relationship between self-efficacy and academic success. It also
includes the conceptual framework of the study.
2.1. Conceptions of self-efficacy
2.1.1. Historical overview of self-efficacy
The background of this study is mostly based on the Social Cognitive Theory
from the famous psychologist Albert Bandura. It is considered one of the most
important theories that affect human learning and development. The history of this
theory, as well as the introduction of the term self-efficacy, will be stated in this
section.
The conceptual origin for the Social Cognitive Theory was explored in 1931 by
Holt and Brown which stated that “people learn by imitation” with the name of
Social Learning Theory (Holt & Brown, 1931; cited in Bigirimana, 2016). In 1941,
Miller and Dollard modified the theory by arguing that if a person has an incentive
to acquire a knowledge of a specific behavior, that behavior will be learned
through observation. By imitating the actions that they have observed, the
individual will continue to reinforce that action if it is rewarded (Miller et al.,
1941; cited in Bigirimana, 2016). In other words, a person's behavior will be
imitated depending on whether the model has received a positive or negative
response. Based on Miller and Dollard's views on the theory, Bandura along with
his students and colleagues undertook a series of studies, called the Bobo Doll
Experiment. A series of experiments were made to explore why and when the

children exhibited their aggressive behavior (Bandura, 1961, 1963, 1965). As a
result of these experiments, Bandura published his first book on how behavior was
imitated (Bandura, 1977). Bandura then published his second book in which he
extended the original theory and renamed it from Social Learning Theory to Social
Cognitive Theory (Bandura, 1986). According to social cognitive theory, the
8


learning process is the process of acquiring knowledge through the individual's
perception of the information (Bandura, 1986). According to Bandura (1989),
human activity is the result of interaction between the three elements: individual,
environment, and behavior. These three factors have a mutually interacting
relationship which illustrated as in Diagram 1.

Personal factors
(Self-efficacy judgements)

Behavioral factors
(performance)

Environmental factors
(Teacher feedback)

Figure 2.1: Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory (1986)
It is said that none of these factors is stronger or weaker and that all three
factors are not always present at one time, but the interaction between these three
factors varies depending on each individual, specific behavior, and the specific
situation where the behavior is taking place (Phan Thi Tuyet Nga, 2015).
According to Bandura (1997), environmental factors (such as teacher feedback),
personal factors (such as self-efficacy judgements), and behaviors (such as

performance) constantly influence each other.
The relationships of these factors can be explained as follows: for instance,
students believe that their performance (behavior factor) is poor because their
teachers do not have enough teaching knowledge (environment factor), or in other
words, the lacking of teaching knowledge of teacher (environment factor) affect
students’ poor academic performance (behavior factor). And when academic
achievement is poor (behavior factor), students do not feel confident about their
learning ability (personal factor), which results in worse learning outcomes or
learning performance (behavior factor) (Phan Thi Tuyet Nga, 2015). Thus,
9


Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory provides a holistic view of human activity,
whereby individuals are not passively receptive to environmental influences or
determined by inheritance, there is a continuous interaction between the three
elements of individual, environment, and behavior in the resolution of human
actions. From the theory, Bandura the first time introduce an important concept,
which is the core element of this theory - the individual's perception of selfefficacy. According to Bandura (1984), self-efficacy plays an important role in the
learning process. It can help learners to progress or impede their improvement
(Bandura, 1984). According to Woolfolk (1998), self-efficacy can help to explain
why despite the same capabilities, some people succeed while others fail.
2.1.2. Definitions of self-efficacy
Self-efficacy is defined by Bandura (1986) as "people's judgments of their
capabilities to organize and execute courses of action required to attain designated
types of performance" (p. 391) or by Schunk (1991) as "an individual's judgments
of his or her capabilities to perform given actions" (p. 207) . Agreeing with
Bandura and Schunk, Pintrich (2003b) said that self-efficacy is "students beliefs
about their ability to do the task" (p. 107) while Artino (2012) argued that selfefficacy refers to an individual believing in his or her capability which does not
need to match with his or her real capability in a specific task. Although research
results showed that most individuals often overestimate their academic ability

(Pajares, 1996; Bandura, 1997; cited in Artino, 2012), it was believed that the
slightly higher judgment of a person's actual ability could help to grow their effort
and persistence in hard times (Bandura, 1986).
Besides, Bandura stated that “self-efficacy involves students’ judgments of
their ability to perform a task within a specific domain” (Bandura, 1997). This
means a person can not have high confidence in all areas or every situation of life
(Bandura, 2006). For example, a learner can have high self-efficacy in speaking
skills but low self-efficacy in writing skills. Agreed with this view, some
researchers also said that self-efficacy depends on specific situations, external

10


conditions, and social background and environment (Schunk, Pintrich, & Meece,
2008).
Especially, it was said that “self-efficacy beliefs determine how people feel,
think, motivate themselves and behave” (Bandura, 1994). This means self-efficacy
belief influences the way people feel and think (positively or negatively), how they
choose to handle challenges and set goals, the amount of effort and the
perseverance for a specific task (Bandura, 2006). The higher self-efficacy of a
person, the more confident he or she is about success in a particular task domain.
People with “high assurance in their capabilities approach difficult tasks as
challenges to be mastered rather than as threats to be avoided” (Bandura,1994). In
the opposite, “people who doubt their capabilities shy away from difficult tasks
which they view as personal threats” (Bandura,1994). Woolfolk (1998, p.393) also
agreed that self-efficacy has an important role in determining how much effort to
join in a task and how long a person can keep it to complete the task. This can be
understood that people who believe in their ability to perform a particular task will
work harder and persist in achieving the goal while those who do not believe in
their abilities argue that hard working would not cause achievement, and they are

easy to quit the task.
Self-efficacy is normally mentioned in the degree of the learners’ belief which
are high self-efficacy and low self-efficacy. People with high self-efficacy are
likely to work harder whenever facing with challenging tasks and do not quit until
the end as they believe that it will succeed, while people with low self-efficacy do
not distribute much effort and easily abandon the task as they are not confident to
perform it successfully (Bandura, 1997). Regarding this point of view, it was
reported that high self-efficacy learners will recognize that they need to work
harder when the task is difficult but they will make less effort on the task that is
supposed to be easy (Sabmon, 1984).
In addition, the level of self-efficacy belief of people can affect their language
achievement in a negative or positive way (Rahimi & Abedini’s, 2009). The

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stronger the belief of self-efficacy the greater the persistence and the higher the
probability that the task will be succeeded (Bandura, 2006). Johnson (2016) argued
that although self-efficacy plays an important role in the learning process and
learning outcomes, it is not the only factor affecting one's behavior. This implies
that a person with high self-efficacy does not mean that they will have good
academic results if they do not have sufficient knowledge of the specific task or
situation.
In summary, Bandura's definition of self-efficacy shows that it is the
perception of one's own ability in specific situations or specific tasks. Self-efficacy
affects feelings and thoughts, tasks choice, goals setting, how to cope with
challenges, effort, and persistence. Therefore, self-efficacy is important for
predicting the level of personal success in performing tasks (Schunk & Parajes,
2005).
2.1.3. Similar constructs

Bandura (1997) has distinguished concepts that can be confused with selfefficacy such as self-concept, self-confidence, self-esteem, locus of control and
outcome expectations.
Self-esteem is the concept that normally confusing with self-efficacy.
According to Bandura (2003), self-efficacy is concerned to individual perceptions
of one's ability in specific tasks or situations, whereas self-esteem often involves
an individual's perception of his or her value in general (Lane & Kyprianou, 2004;
cited in Johnson, 2017). Therefore, individuals may claim that they are not capable
of performing tasks in a certain field, but this does not affect the perception of their
self-worth in general. In addition, self-efficacy influences the goals setting and
predicts performance while self-esteem is not predictive of personal goals,
performance or results. (Mone et al.,1995).
Self-concept refers to the whole attitude, opinion and perception of individuals
about their ability for all aspects of life (Mishra, 2016) or refers to perceptions that

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lead a person to build an attitude (good or bad) about himself, which can affect the
individual's self-awareness, decision, and life in general (Bandura, 1997; Pietsch,
Walker & Chapman, 2003; cited in Johnson, 2017) whereas self-efficacy is the
judgment in a particular context of an individual regarding his or her ability to
perform a particular task (Bandura, 1997). The common point between these two
concepts is that if a person is not able to accurately assess his or her ability, there
will be negative consequences and reduced motivation (Bandura, 1997; Gibson,
1996 Sargeant, Mann, Van der Vleuten, & Metsemakers, 2008; cited in Johnson,
2017)
Self-confidence is also different from self-efficacy. Self-confidence concerns
to a general sense of strong beliefs in one ability where there is no specific
situation or task, while “perceived self-efficacy refers to belief in one's agentive
capabilities, that one can produce given levels of attainment” (p. 382) (Bandura,

1997). Consequently, self -efficacy evaluation involves both the assertion of a
capacity level and belief strength. Confidence is considered “a catchword rather
than a construct embedded in a theoretical system” (p. 382) (Bandura, 1997).
Locus of control involves a general expectation that results are governed by
personal beliefs or by external factors (Rotter, 1966). “This dualistic view of
control suggests that an external locus of control promotes self-directed behavior,
whereas external locus of control inhibits one’s agentic abilities” (Zimmerman and
Cleary, 2006). However, these two concepts have similarities in relation to the
agentic approach of individual actions to environmental events. (Badura, 1986;
1997).
Outcome expectation is a judgment of the likely consequence such
performances will produce while self-efficacy is a judgment of one’s ability to
organize and execute given types of performances (Bandura (1977). Besides, selfefficacy beliefs predict action whereas outcome expectations relate to the
usefulness of the action (Bandura, 1997; Henry & Stone, 1995; cited in Johnson,
2017)

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2.1.4. Factors that influence Self-efficacy
Whether students have a starting point of self-efficacy beliefs at moderate, high
or low, there are ways to enhance the confidence in their ability to complete tasks
in speaking skills successfully for better academic results. According to Bandura
(1999), self-efficacy can be improved by four principal factors that influence selfefficacy as mastery experience, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion and
psychological arousal.
Mastery experience also called performance accomplishments is considered
the most potential for raising self-efficacy beliefs. The more successful people
have in the past, the more likely they are to enjoy success in the future. Successful
experiences help to build one’s self-efficacy belief while failure undermines it. If
only easy successes are experienced, people are likely to expect a quick result and

be frustrated when facing difficulties or failure. However, if success is achieved
through their effort and persistence, they can quickly recover self-efficacy belief
after failure.
Vicarious experiences or modeling is considered to be the second-factor
affecting self-efficacy beliefs. If self-efficacy, in the master experience, is formed
on the basis of the experience of one's own successes or failures, it is, in vicarious
experiences, formed through the individual's perception of success or failure of
other people around to create the experience for themselves. In particular, seeing
someone else who is similar to them succeeds because of persisting in their efforts
will help raise the perception of an individual that he or she can achieve such
success. On the other hand, observing others who have tried so hard but still failing
will reduce the perception of the individual's ability to achieve that goal.
According to Bandura (1995), the degree of resemblance between an individual
and the observed person is more convincing than the success and failure of patterns.
Therefore, if an individual believes that the person they observed has little or no
similarity with them, he or she is almost unaffected by the performance of the
model.

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