Author: LI LU

Issue: 2023-2024

Abstract:

Writing in a foreign language is a difficult undertaking for Chinese university students. This activity is both cognitive and affective. Psychological factors affecting learners are receiving increasing attention due to the low level of English writing among Chinese EFL learners and their apparent fear of writing part in the examination. This is because there exists a vast amount of literature and research outcomes that support these claims. In 1977, the notion of self-efficacy, first presented by Bandura, has attracted the focus of numerous second-language researchers in recent years. However, research on what relationships exist between learners’ self-efficacy and other influential variables with writing proficiency is relatively rare.

Given the context of writing in a second language, this research explores the mediating role of writing self-regulated learning strategies between writing self-efficacy and writing motivation towards writing proficiency among EFL students. This paper adopts quantitative research method and SPSS software to analyze the data. A questionnaire including English Writing Self-Efficacy Scale, the Writing Self-regulated Learning Strategy Scale, the Writing Motivation Scale was distributed to 703 second-year college students in non-English major from two private universities in Henan, China. Their writing proficiency was measured by two scores in the writing section of College English Band Four (CET-4). The result showed that writing self-efficacy, writing self-regulated learning strategies, and writing motivation all contributed significantly to the prediction of students’ writing proficiency. what’s more, writing self-regulated learning strategies pays a mediating role between writing self-efficacy and writing proficiency and it also pays a mediating role between writing motivation and writing proficiency. The present research offers educators in the classroom valuable insights on integrating instruction in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) settings to enhance students’ writing achievements.

Keywords: English as a Foreign Language, learning strategies, student self efficacy