A Survey of Relationship between the Learning Self—efficacy and Interest in English Study of Students in Chinese Primary School

闫捷++张小荣++武朵朵++张潮

Abstract：This study analyzed the relationship between Self-efficacy and interest in English learning of primary school students on the basis of interior and foreign literature， combined with actual situation of primary English teaching， through method of questionnaire research. The results prove that interest is an initial factor for students to improve learning self-efficiency and the learning effect.

Key words：Self-efficacy； learning interest； primary English teaching

中图分类号：G62 文献标识码：A 文章编号：1671-2064（2017）05-0250-02

1 Introduction

Self-efficacy which was come up with by psychologist Albert Bandura in 1977 is the concept affecting students psychological development. Self-efficacy beliefs affect peoples mode of thinking， behavioral performance， and resilience people show when confronting adversity （Wu Shu， 2014）.

Recently， some researchers take more attention to the factors influencing Self-efficacy. The factors include gender， physical condition， parenting style， teachers feedback and so on. One research from Pajares （1996） showed that girls Self-efficacy is lower than boys with the same performance. Another research （李亚娟， 2008） concluded the same conclusion when studying with postgraduates.

Interest is another important concept of English education. It is an important motivation to promote people to learn things， to explore truth. Also， it is based upon the need of understanding or exploring something. It is the most active motivation factors in the students' learning process （李洪玉，何一粟， 2004）. Pi Liansheng （2004） argues that one's learning interest is closely connected with one's ability all the time.

Lots of researches have revealed what may influence ones interest. While the students grow up， they may be less interested in English learning （沃建中，张璟，李琪，2003）. As for genders， girls study English with higher level of interest than boys in the primary school（王超，2005）. Research from David A. Bergin. （1999） shows that factors that effect interest in non-native language education include the sense of belonging， mood， ability， background intellectual and so on. The research in survey of primary school students of higher grades from Chen Yufang （1984） shows that the students academic performance and learning self-confidence are connected with their learning interest.

There have been researches showing that high level of learning interest and Self-efficacy is helpful for students to learn well （黃祎， 2014； 唐英， 2008）. Paul J. Silvia （2003） s research showed that Self-efficacy can affect interest. The main goals of this paper is to probe into primary school students interest and Self-efficacy in English leaning and the relationship between them.

2 Method

2.1 Research tools

“Questionnaire of English learning Self-efficacy” and“Questionnaire of English learning interest of primary school students” were applied.

2.2 Research participants

Primary students of high grades are chosen as the participants， which is learning at Xing Yaun Experimental Primary School in Xinzhou city， Shanxi province.

2.3 Research Process

First， research workers maintained discipline to ask children to be quiet and sit on their own seats neatly. The experimenters began to tell students what they need to do next and explain the use of questionnaires. Then， two questionnaires were sent to students at the same time. Students were asked to fill out them according to their real situation. After they finishing the task， the questionnaires were called in. At last， 210 students were tested grading from five to six totally. After deleting the invalid data， 194 students data was left， including 104 students of grade 5 and 90 students of grade 6. 100 male students and 94 female students are included in the 194 students.

3 Result

The valid data was disposed with the software of SPSS.

Two questionnaires results are of negative correlation significantly as above. So the positive correlation of English Self-efficacy and learning interest is significant.

The difference between grade 5 and grade 6 is showed in Table2. The Self-efficacy of students in grade 5 is a little higher than students in grade 6. But it is not significant. Because higher score means lower level of learning interest， the result reflects that students in grade 5 is more interested in English learning than students in grade 6 significantly.

Table 3 reflects that in terms of Self-efficacy and interest， there is nearly no discrepancy between genders， since the number of p is greater than 0.05 approaching1.

4 Discussion

This study is carried out choosing primary school students of grade5 and grade 6. The current status of English learning Self-efficacy and interest is investigated. The English learning interest of students in grade 5 is higher than those in grade 6. This is same as other researches results （沃建中，張璟，李琪，2003）. Several reasons may be provided to illustrate this phenomenon. Students of grade 6 are faced with the pressure of entering junior high school. Teachers pay special attention to teaching knowledge from textbook， ignoring to set students interest during their learning. That leads to the lost of interest.

The Self-efficacy difference between students of two grades is small. Their Self-efficacy is intermediate level， which proves that students are less confident to themselves in English learning. This phenomenon may be related to the teachers provide little encouragement for students in the teaching steps. Students are difficult to get a sense of achievement when learning.

The results show that Self-efficacy and interest is in the relationship of positive correlation， which means that high Self-efficacy is accompanied by high interest. This is consistent with the predecessors' research results （Paul J. Silvia， 2003； 丁永祥， 2012）， which confirmed the phenomenon that people prefer to do something that can offer them a sense of susses or something they have the faith to do very well.

5 Conclusion

During the English learning process， students Self-efficacy is closely related to their interest. Higher level of English learning interest is usually accompanied by the higher level of Self-efficacy.

References

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