The relationship between Chinese English teachers' classroom instructional practices and students' self-efficacy in their English study

Abstract

The purposes of the study were: 1) to investigate what types of instructional practices were used most in EFL classrooms in Lijiang Teachers' College, 2) to investigate how college students perceived their English teachers' instructional practices, 3) to investigate students' self-efficacy in English study, and 4) to determine whether any relationship existed between English teachers' instructional practices and students' self-efficacy in English study. The population was 738 students and 53 English teachers at the English Department of Lijiang Teachers' College in Yunnan Province, China. The sample included 250 third-year students and three Chinese English teachers. They were selected by purposive sampling. The General Self-efficacy Scale, Self-efficacy Scale in English Study, and Survey of Students' Perception towards Teachers' Instructional Practices were used to collect quantitative data while semi-structured interviews and classroom observations were used to collect qualitative data. Quantitative data were analyzed by using statistical techniques such as percentage, mean, standard deviation, and Pearson correlation. ๐Qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis. The major results were as follows: 1) Two major types of instructional practices were identified, namely, grammar-translation-based instruction and communication-based instruction. 2) Most students favored communication-based instruction and believed that grammar should only be taught when necessary. 3) Students were more confident in dealing with problems in life than in English study. 4) Communication-based instruction was found to be positively correlated with both the students' general self-efficacy and the students' self-efficacy beliefs in studying English (r = .16, p = .03 and r = .17, p = .02, respectively). However, the grammarbased English instruction was not significantly correlated with students' self-efficacy beliefs.;