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A Reevaluation of the Role of Anxiety: Self‐Efficacy, Anxiety, and Their Relation to Reading and Listening Proficiency
Author(s) -
Mills Nicole,
Pajares Frank,
Herron Carol
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
foreign language annals
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.258
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1944-9720
pISSN - 0015-718X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1944-9720.2006.tb02266.x
Subject(s) - active listening , psychology , reading (process) , anxiety , self efficacy , developmental psychology , relation (database) , language proficiency , cognition , social psychology , mathematics education , linguistics , psychotherapist , philosophy , database , psychiatry , computer science , neuroscience
Research findings from several academic domains have demonstrated that students' judgments of their own academic capabilities, or self‐efficacy beliefs, influ ence their academic behaviors and performances. Absent from this body of research are studies assessing self‐efficacy beliefs and their relation to foreign language proficiency. Informed by the tenets of Bandura's (1986) social cognitive theory, the purpose ofthis study was to examine the relationship between self‐efficacy, anxiety, and French profi ciency in reading and listening. Students' reading self‐efficacy in French was positively related to reading proficiency, whereas reading anxiety was not related. Listening self‐efficacy was positively associated with listening proficiency only for the female participants, and listening anxiety was positively related to the listening proficiency of both males and females. lrnplications for researchers and educators are discussed.