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Relations between gender stereotyping and foreign language attainment: The mediating role of language learners’ anxiety and self‐efficacy
Author(s) -
Kutuk Gulsah,
Putwain David W.,
Kaye Linda K.,
Garrett Bethan
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
british journal of educational psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.557
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 2044-8279
pISSN - 0007-0998
DOI - 10.1111/bjep.12446
Subject(s) - psychology , turkish , structural equation modeling , foreign language , self efficacy , educational attainment , anxiety , language acquisition , disadvantage , perception , developmental psychology , affect (linguistics) , social psychology , mathematics education , linguistics , philosophy , statistics , mathematics , neuroscience , psychiatry , political science , law , economics , economic growth , communication
Background Gender stereotyping of academic domains has long been a major issue in education. However, previous research has mainly focused on male‐dominated fields and women’s disadvantage in such fields. Little attention has been paid to the fields of study, such as foreign language learning, which are typically stereotyped as female domains. Aims This study aimed to investigate whether relations between (1) learners’ gender stereotypes about English as a foreign language (EFL) learning and language attainment and (2) learner perceptions of teacher stereotypes of EFL learning and language attainment were mediated by anxiety and self‐efficacy. Sample Data were collected from 701 university students ( M age = 19.7 years, 49.4% male) learning EFL in three Turkish universities. Method Data were collected over three waves. Multi‐group structural equation modelling approach was used to analyse the data. Results Results showed the relations between learners’ gender stereotypes about EFL learning, and language attainment were mediated by self‐efficacy. Self‐efficacy also mediated the relationship between learner perceptions of teacher stereotypes of EFL learning and language attainment, but only for women. Language anxiety was not a mediator between gender stereotypes and attainment in either model tested. Conclusions Findings show that gender stereotypes about EFL learning might affect learners’ language attainment by altering their self‐efficacy. Helping learners to maximise their self‐efficacy will therefore be beneficial for their language attainment.