Motivating Japanese Junior High School Students in Learning English through Enhancing Goal-setting and Self-efficacy Theory
209M018 M. M.
The purpose of this study is to examine whether Junior High School (JHS) students' English performances can be improved if their self-efficacy is enhanced in their English lessons at school, with the help of setting concrete goals. It is vital for Japanese JHS students to be motivated to study English because the number of the students who do not like to study English has been increasing in Japan, according to a survey by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in 2002. Those students can be encouraged to learn the language by strengthening self-efficacy and by setting personal goals, despite the fact that they face a possible loss of losing their self-esteem or self-confidence whenever they look at their scores. English language teachers in JHSs need to have a firm belief that many students, even slower learners, can improve themselves through these strategies discussed here.
In Chapter 1, the concept of self-efficacy claimed by Bandura is examined. Self-efficacy means one’s firm belief in being able to succeed in their actions and one's expectation of being able to have good outcomes. The four elements of 'success experience', 'vicarious experience', 'verbal persuasion' and 'psychological burden' should be considered in order to enhance self-efficacy. Furthermore, the goal setting theory claimed by Locke and Latham is also examined. It is believed that setting appropriate goals promotes self-efficacy and helps learners improve their performances.
In Chapter 2, a pilot study is discussed. Its purpose was to examine whether students' performances can be improved or not after students' self-efficacy is taken care of by some approaches, before the main research. Students were divided into an experimental group and a control group. There were two tests, a pretest and a posttest, which included the eiken test, use of self-efficacy scales, and setting goals. The difference in the eiken scores between the pre- and posttest was examined. Both the average scores on the eiken and self-efficacy scale in the experimental group were better than those in the control group. In addition, the correlation coefficient between the eiken and goal scores was also stronger. According to these results, it was conducted that approaches for enhancing self-efficacy in lessons are likely to work efficiently.
In Chapter 3, the main research is described. Similar to the pilot study, the purpose was to examine whether or not students' performances improve after some approaches for strengthening their self-efficacy are applied. The students were not divided into two groups due to educational consideration. The correlation coefficient between the eiken scores and self-efficacy scales rose. The one between the eiken and goal scores was also raised. It can be said that students' performances were improved after measures to enhance their self-efficacy were used in lessons for 8 months.
In Chapter 4, how terms consisted of self-efficacy affect English performances is described. The 14 questions of the self-efficacy scale were classified into 5 categories in terms of conception of self-efficacy as follows: "causal attribution", "setting a higher goal", "visualizing success scenario", "perseverance" and "social model". Among them, "causal attribution" and "visualizing success scenario" were stronger in the posttest than in the pretest in terms of the correlation coefficient. Moreover, the average score of "social model" was also higher. According to these results, the three items should be considered when self-efficacy is enhanced in lessons and it can be said that self-efficacy is easily promoted in a short period.
Lastly, taking into consideration all that has been discussed in this paper, I summarize some significant points which include the difficult current situation and prospect for the future of Japanese English education.