Self-efficacy in L2: A research proposal

Abstract

Self-efficacy is one’s belief that they can accomplish a task or a set of tasks (Bandura 1997). The key role of such beliefs in human functioning is that “people’s level of motivation, affective states, and actions are based more on what they believe than on what is objectively true” (Bandura 1997: 2). They provide the foundation not only for human motivation, but also for personal accomplishment and well-being. Self-efficacy is rooted in four sources: mastery experience, the vicarious experience of observing others, social persuasion, and affective states. The first one refers to the positive assessment or interpretation of one’s own previous attainment in tasks related to the one at hand. The second permits individuals to learn a new behavior without experiencing the trial and error process of performing it. The third involves exposure to the verbal assessment that others provide, while the last-subjective perception and interpretation of emotions. It had been proved that people with high levels of self-efficacy exert more effort, persistence and attention; they also set more challenging goals, which leads to enhanced performance (Pajares 1996). The empirical research, though extremely scarce (e.g., Ghonsooly and Elahy 2010; Coronado-Aliegro 2008; or Anyadubalu 2010), show that self-efficacy in the foreign language process may be a critical variable meriting thorough investigation. It can be hypothesized that as self-efficacy has proven to be a reliable predictor of behavioral effects, also in the Polish educational context it may turn a significant variable explaining the foreign language student’s success or failure. It is believed that those who are convinced that they will be able to learn the foreign language are more likely to attain this goal in comparison to those who do not have faith in their linguistic abilities.