Predicting self-efficacy in test preparation: Gender, value, anxiety, test performance, and strategies

ABSTRACT

Considerable evidence indicates that self-efficacy, task value, anxiety, and the use of language learning strategies are related. However, there is currently an insufficient understanding about their relations in high-stakes testing contexts. The author aimed to investigate how well social factors, test value, anxiety, test performance, and learning strategies predict high school students' self-efficacy in preparing for the English listening test as part of the University Entrance Examination in Taiwan. This research involved a large-scale questionnaire survey and a collection of students' English test scores. The participants were 636 students in Grade 12 of high school in Taiwan. A quantitative analysis of the questionnaire was conducted via hierarchical regression analysis. The results show that students' recent English test performance and test anxiety were two strong predictors of self-efficacy in preparing for the high-stakes test. In addition, resource management and metacognitive listening strategies had better predictive power over prior English level and test value.

KEYWORDS:

• Anxiety
• learning strategy
• self-efficacy
• test performance
• test preparation
• test value

Notes

1. Ellis (2008) differentiates second language (L2) from foreign language (FL) learning in terms of what is learned and how it is learned. In L2 learning, the language plays an institutional and social role in communication in the community. In contrast, FL learning occurs in environments where the language plays no major role in the community and is primarily learned as a school subject only in the classroom. In Taiwan, English is heavily classroom based and is officially considered an FL.

2. In 2014, the BCT was replaced by the large-scale, criterion-referenced Comprehensive Assessment Program for junior high school students, but the language skill and test format remain unchanged, except for the additional inclusion of an English listening test (Chou, 2017b).