Influential Factors of Presentation Self-Efficacy in Chinese High School Students

Abstract

Most of Chinese students in international high school face the task of presenting an oral presentation in Chinese and English. Their presentation performances have implications on their academic achievements, especially for those who plan to study abroad in the future. In order to enhance the ability in presentation, it is important to understand students' self-efficacy in presentation. This study adopted a mixed-method approach. Questionnaire survey was conducted with 74 Chinese students (39 boys and 35 girls, Mean age:15.6) to measure their self-efficacy in both Chinese and English presentation. The result showed students' self-efficacy in English presentation is significantly lower than that of Chinese presentation but there is no significant gender difference in the self-efficacy of both Chinese and English presentations. Meanwhile, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six participants (3 boys and 3 girls) to carry out an in-depth investigation into the influential factors to their self-efficacy. The findings showed that in contrast to Bandura's theory of self-efficacy sources, watching models' performances or receiving other's encouragement and persuasion is not enough to improve self-efficacy in presentations. Beyond Bandura's sources, many other influential factors including students' personalities and contextual factors also affect students' self-efficacy. Moreover, from the interview, it showed that all the participates hold a growth mindset, which is important for the development of self-efficacy in learning in Chinese students. These findings contribute to future research on the development of presentation self-efficacy in Chinese students.