Kim Hyang-Il, Cha Kyung-Ae
College of Liberal Arts, Gangneung-Wonju National University, Gangneung, Korea.
Department of English Education, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, Korea.
Psychol Rep. 2017 Aug;120(4):670-694. doi: 10.1177/0033294117697088. Epub 2017 Apr 4.
Experience abroad has been recognized as one of the best investments for second or foreign language learning. A lot of research has examined its impact on language learning from linguistic as well as non-linguistic perspectives. Nonetheless, literature on the relationships between and among experience abroad, language proficiency, and self-efficacy beliefs in language learning seems to still be cursory and thus the present study chose to focus on these aspects in more detail. To do so, 259 Korean English as a foreign language students answered the Questionnaire of English Self-Efficacy as well as completed a background questionnaire. Statistical analyses identified two underlying factors of self-efficacy beliefs-production and comprehension-that helped analyze the data from a new perspective. Using this two-factor structure of self-efficacy, it was found that the combination of experience abroad and English proficiency were indeed related to these self-efficacy factors. In addition, the results indicate that students may have benefitted most in self-efficacy formation in production and comprehension aspects when they have four to six months of experience abroad.
国外经历已被公认为是第二语言或外语学习的最佳投资之一。许多研究从语言学和非语言学角度考察了其对语言学习的影响。尽管如此，关于国外经历、语言 proficiency（此处疑为“熟练度”）和语言学习自我效能信念之间关系的文献似乎仍然粗略，因此本研究选择更详细地关注这些方面。为此，259 名韩国英语外语学生回答了英语自我效能量表，并完成了一份背景问卷。统计分析确定了自我效能信念的两个潜在因素——产出和理解——这有助于从新的角度分析数据。利用这种自我效能的两因素结构，发现国外经历和英语熟练度的结合确实与这些自我效能因素相关。此外，结果表明，当学生有四到六个月的国外经历时，他们在产出和理解方面的自我效能形成可能受益最大。
