The Relationship between Students' Academic Self-Efficacy and Language Learning Motivation: A Study of 8th Graders

Abstract

Self-efficacy is defined as the belief in one's capabilities to carry out, organize and perform a task successfully. Motivation consists of the internal and external factors that stimulate the desire to attain a goal. Both are the driving forces that make people pursue a goal and overcome obstacles because people with higher self-efficacy and motivation do their best and do not easily give up when confronted with difficulties. This quantitative study aims to investigate the relationship between the academic self-efficacy levels and language learning motivations of 8th graders. In Turkey, the 8th grade is important as it is the year when the students take exams that determine the high school they are to enroll. Therefore, it is a year when academic concerns are high. To this end, Morgan-Jinks Student Efficacy Scale and Language Learning Orientations Scale by Noels et al. were applied to 257 participants from several different secondary schools. It was found that there is a low-level negative correlation between English language learning motivation and self-efficacy beliefs of students in Grade 8. The results are also evaluated in terms of demographic features of the participants such as their gender and parental education level. It revealed that language learning motivations of the students show a significant difference that favors girls. However, there is no statistically significant difference in the students' academic self-efficacy beliefs in terms of gender. The results about language learning motivations of the students in terms of the education level of the parents indicate a significant difference in students whose parents are more educated with those of less educated. On the contrary, the students whose parents are university graduates have the lowest means whereas those whose parents are primary school and secondary school graduates have much higher self-efficacy. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.