| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 英語學系在職進修碩士班 === 100 === Since Bendura’s (1977) study, “Self-efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavior Change”, the tenets of self-efficacy have been examined in diverse disciplines and settings. The importance of self-efficacy beliefs has received support from a massive body of findings (Pajares, 1996; Garcia & Maria de Caso, 2006; Bouffard-Bouchard, 2001; Hunk & Zimmerman, 2007; Bendura, 1986, 1933, 1977). These studies have focused on academic achievement (e.g., L2 language acquisition, science and mathematics), motivation (e.g. attribution, goal setting), affect (e.g. motivation, anxiety and depression), cognitive processes (e.g., memory performance, learning strategies use), and clinical problems (e.g., addiction to smoking, drugs and alcohol, phobias, and metabolic control in diabetes). Although several studies have been conducted to assess the influence of individual factors like age, gender and socio-cultural factors such as ethnic identity and socio-economic status (Ellis, 2004), in-depth studies conducted to assess the possible influence of gender on the self-efficacy of learners for second language (L2) vocabulary have been sparse. This is perhaps because of the existing belief that social and cultural factors are the major underlying forces leading to gender differences in academic performance (Jovanovic and Dreves, 1996; Gallagher, 2001).
The purpose of the present study is to investigate the influence of gender on self-efficacy change for L2 vocabulary learning by adolescents in Taiwan. The longitudinal research was conducted on 601 first year senior high school students in a suburban public school in Taipei city, from September 2007 to June 2008. The researcher adopted a mixed method research, inclusive of a quantitative phase and a qualitative phase in the overall research study. In the first phase, a quantitative assessment of the year ten high school students' vocabulary self-efficacy beliefs was applied by conducting mixed designs to determine gender-based differences in those beliefs over six time points prior to the mid-term examinations. The major findings of the current study showed that learners held similar self-efficacy beliefs at the initial stage in English vocabulary learning and on average, the total males' self-efficacy levels were higher than those of females' through time. Both genders showed regular self-efficacy change patterns through six different time points. In the second phase, a follow-up semi-structured focus group interview was scheduled at the end of the two semesters with the same small-group of randomly chosen six students ( 3 males and 3 females, from one of the senior high schools ) involved, to explore if there were any possible factors that influence learners' self- efficacy change through time. A total of six themes (past learning experience, goal setting, attribution, social support, teachers' expectation and feedback and peer pressure) were identified to be related to self-efficacy change through time. The pedagogical implication of gender differences in self-efficacy were then examined in light of the existing literature with a view to adopting strategies applicable in the L2 vocabulary learning context. Finally, some suggestions and plans were provided as reference for the development of curricula, school faculty and educational authority to promote both female and male learners the opportunity and maximize their full potential in the L2 classroom learning context.
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