Department of Linguistics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
PLoS One. 2024 Jan 29;19(1):e0297517. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0297517. eCollection 2024.
Speaking is not a compulsory language skill assessed in the English subject of the National College Entrance Examination in China. This explains why, in elementary and secondary schools, less focus has been placed on the development of English-speaking abilities among Chinese students, resulting in their unbalanced mastery of language skills. Although self-efficacy is a crucial factor influencing students' language performance, our understanding of speaking self-efficacy is insufficient in terms of its construct, its sources, and the relationships between the two. We, therefore, constructed psychometrically sound instruments to measure speaking self-efficacy, including the EFL Speaking Self-Efficacy Scale (EFL-SSES) and the EFL Sources of Speaking Self-Efficacy Scale (EFL-SSSES), in accordance with Bandura's 1986 self-efficacy theory. Additionally, we performed path analysis to figure out the relationship between the construct and the sources of speaking self-efficacy. The results revealed the key role of physiological and emotional states and marginal importance of vicarious experience for speaking self-efficacy, advancing our grasp of self-efficacy theory in the speaking domain. Our research sheds valuable light on how to assist researchers and educators in identifying and enhancing students' speaking self-efficacy via a variety of sources.
口语不是中国高考英语科目考查的必修语言技能。这就解释了为什么在中小学阶段，中国学生的英语口语能力发展没有得到足够重视，导致他们的语言技能发展不平衡。虽然自我效能感是影响学生语言表现的关键因素，但我们对口语自我效能感的结构、来源及其二者之间的关系的理解还不够充分。因此，我们根据班杜拉 1986 年的自我效能理论，构建了具有良好心理测量学特性的口语自我效能感测量工具，包括《英语口语自我效能感量表》（EFL-SSES）和《英语口语自我效能感来源量表》（EFL-SSSES）。此外，我们还进行了路径分析，以确定口语自我效能感的结构和来源之间的关系。结果表明，生理和情绪状态对口语自我效能感的影响至关重要，而替代经验的影响则较为边缘化，这进一步丰富了我们对口语领域自我效能感理论的理解。本研究为如何通过多种来源帮助研究人员和教育工作者识别和增强学生的口语自我效能感提供了有价值的参考。
