A Confirmatory Study on Self-Efficacy, Goal Setting, Attribution, and English Achievement in College Students: The Longitudinal Design

Abstract

本研究主要目的在於檢驗大專生成敗歸因對於英語自我效能的影響，以及自我效能、目標設定與英語成就的關係，共計335位二專新生參與持續一年的縱貫性研究。結果顯示對自身英語成就做出有利歸因者，自我效能高於做出不利的歸因者。自我效能越高者，在三次間隔半年的大專英語能力測驗表現越高，對後續測驗的目標設定水平亦越高。目標設定水平越高者，後續英語成就測驗的表現越高。縱貫性設計的研究發現指出提昇大專生英語成就的可能途徑在於訓練有利的歸因形態，提昇英語學習的自我效能，以及設定較高且合理的目標水平。

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of attribution on English self-efficacy and the relationships among self-efficacy, goal setting, and English achievement in college students. 335 freshmen in a two-year college were used as participants in this one-year longitudinal study. Results show that the beneficial attributers possessed higher self-efficacy than individuals with less beneficial attribution. Further, it was shown that college students with higher self-efficacy achieved better proficiency level during the consecutive English proficiency tests every half-year. Meanwhile, those with higher self-efficacy are likely to set higher goal level for the subsequent tests, and those with higher goal setting have performed better than those with lower goal setting. Together findings in this study show that the effective way to improve English performance in college students might lie in how to militate the beneficial attribution manners and increase the self-efficacy as well as set higher and reasonable goal level.