A conference paper presented at GlobELT 2015: An International Conference on Teaching and Learning English as an Additional Language (16 – 19 April 2015)

1. The Role of Writing and Reading
Self-efficacy in
First-Year Preservice EFL Teachers’
Writing Performance
Res. Assist. Seray TANYER (PhD Student)
Anadolu University, Eskisehir, TURKEY
seraytanyer@gmail.com
GlobELT 2015: An International Conference on Teaching and
Learning English as an Additional Language (16 – 19 April 2015)

2. Background to the study
Writing is one of the fundamental channels to transmit
existing knowledge in most academic fields of undergraduate
education.
 College composition or first-year writing classes of undergraduate
programs represent the first step to academic writing.
 Getting professionalized in writing skill is quite substantial and
challenging for first-year students and their trainers.

3. Background to the study
Self efficacy is a basal notion proposed by Bandura (1977)
as a part of social-cognitive framework, and perceived self-efficacy
can be defined as the belief in individuals’ own potential to
accomplish a specific task (Bandura, 1993).
 For example: In higher education, this may be writing an essay or
quoting from the target source
 Individuals with same abilities may do the required task distinctively
because of their efficacy beliefs (Bandura, 1977, 1986, 1997).

4. Background to the Study
The relationship between self-efficacy beliefs and the
behavior is bidirectional.
 While self-efficacy beliefs influence individuals’ behavior, their
performance (behavior) can affect their future efficacy beliefs, as well
(Chapman & Tunmer, 2003; Williams & Williams, 2010, as cited in Prat-
Sala & Redford, 2012).
 Current study: the focused point was writing performance of first-year
university students.
 Self-efficacy can play role while performing the writing skill in higher
education (e.g. Meier et. al., 1984; Pajares & Johnson, 1994; Prat-Sala &
Redford, 2012; Shell et. al., 1989).

5. Aim of the Study
 RQ 1. How does self-efficacy beliefs in
reading (SER) relate to self-efficacy
beliefs in writing (SEW)?
 RQ 2. How do self-efficacy beliefs in
reading and writing relate and
contribute to writing performance?
to identify first-year preservice
English teachers’ perceived self-
efficacy beliefs in reading
academic texts and writing
essays in foreign language.
to investigate whether these two
task-specific self-efficacy beliefs
affect the writing performance of
preservice teachers or not

6. Methodology
Participants and Research Context
116 first-year preservice
EFL teachers
Enrolling the Program in
English Language
Teaching at a state
university in Turkey.
A language proficiency
exam and, if
necessary, attend
the Language Preparatory
Program
All students were required
to attend some skill-
based compulsory
courses during their first
semesters
Two of these courses:
Academic Reading and
Written Communication

7. Methodology
Participants and Research Context
 Academic Reading: examining academic essays
 Reading assigned texts before coming to classroom
 Specific points such as the purpose, the content, and writers’ points of view
are discussed
 Written Communication: paragraph writing, essay writing
 Opinion / Comparison & Contrast Essays
 Assigning their first drafts and get written and spoken feedback
 Course evaluation: a midterm exam, take-home assignments, a final exam

8. Instruments
 Self-efficacy in Reading (SER) scale: describes perceived self-efficacy beliefs
in reading and understanding the content of academic texts
 Self-efficacy in Writing (SEW) scale: identifies perceived self-efficacy beliefs in
essay writing
 12 items in each Likert-type scale, and the subjects responded to items from
1 (not well at all) to 7 (very well)
 Reading and writing self-efficacy scores were composed by calculating the
mean of each twelve items
 Lastly, alpha coefficients were determined as .885 for SER and .928 for SEW in
the current study.
 Why SER and SEW? (Prat-Sala, 2010): They can evaluate the key skills that
undergraduates are supposed to accomplish while reading academic texts
and writing essays better as compared to already existed ones designed for
undergraduate students (i.e. Meier et al., 1984; Shell et al, 1989; Yavuz-Erkan,
2004).

9. Writing Performance
in-class final
exam of Written
Communication
course
Exam scores
contributed 50%
towards the
overall grade
In-class exam: students were
supposed to write an Opinion /
Comparison & Contrast Essay
with its outline
They were free to
choice between two
genres and write about
the optional prompts
90 minutes to
complete their
written work
Before final exam: students got
feedback on their essays, hence it was
supposed that they could be clear
about the particular features of genres
Papers were graded by 3
experienced lecturers
with the same criteria
using analytic scoring

10. Data Collection Procedure
 The participants were invited to respond to Self-efficacy
in Reading and Writing scales at the end of fall
semester in 2012-2013 Academic Year
 Voluntarily participation in the research was valuable
(free to decline responding to the scales)
 They firstly filled in the SER survey, and secondly
responded to the SEW survey with one week interval.
 Collecting data at the end of the semester would give
the first year undergraduates some opportunity to get
experienced in reading and writing at higher
education.
WEEK
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
SER
SEW

11. Results
 Descriptive statistics: mean scores across all items of reading and writing self-
efficacy scales (SER and SER) were computed. As a result, those mean scores
and the writing scores provided the base for data analysis.
 The Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient was calculated for the two scales
(SER and SEW), and a quite high degree of internal consistency was found
Min = 1 / Max = 7
SER mean (SD) SEW mean (SD) SER SEW
4.57 (.789) 4.41 (.893) α = .885 α = .928

12. Results
 Pearson’s r correlation analyses: examining the relationship between
the self-efficacy in reading (SER) and self-efficacy in writing (SEW)
scales.
 (r = .65, n = 116, p < .01): SER and SEW significantly and positively
correlated
 To investigate whether self-efficacy in reading (SER) and in writing
(SEW) were related to writing performance, Pearson’s correlations
were conducted between self-efficacy scores and writing
performance.
 SEW (r = .351, n = 116, p < .01) and SER (r = .31, n = 116, p < .05) were
positively and significantly correlated with writing performance

13. Results
R2= .053 for Step 1; ΔR2= .070 for Step 2 (ps < .05) *p< .05; **p=.003
Independent Variable B SE B β
Step 1 Self-efficacy in Reading (SER) 3.16 1.25 .23*
Step 2 Self-efficacy in Reading (SER) 0.06 1.59 .00
Self-efficacy in Writing (SEW) 4.2 1.40 .35**
▬ As the last step, a hierarchical regression analysis was conducted with SER
entered on the first step followed by SEW as independent variables and
essay writing performance as the dependent variable.
▬ The results have demonstrated that SER accounted for 5.3% of the variance
(F(1,114) = 6.435, p < .05) and SEW significantly accounted for an additional
7% of the variance (F(2,113) = 7.947; p = .001) in essay writing scores.

14. Concluding Remarks
 The relationship between reading and writing is found, hence it
highlights the importance of emphasizing critical reading and writing
in higher education.
 Self-efficacy is related to writing performance.
 Implications (Prat-Sala & Redford, 2012)
 According to the social cognitive theory of academic self-regulation,
students regulate the motivational, affective, cognitive and social
determinants of their academic and intellectual output (Zimmerman,
1990, see also Zimmerman & Bandura, 1994).
 As teacher trainers: Make many factors interacted and contributed
towards students’ performance and achievement.

15. Concluding Remarks
 From a motivation point of view
 If a person’s self-efficacy is low, then it is more likely that that person
would put less effort or would give up in difficult or challenging situations
(e.g. Bandura, 1986, 1989).
 Given that reading and writing are core tasks in many undergraduate
degrees, increasing students self-efficacy in these two aspects might
have the additive effect of increasing their motivation and
perseverance in writing tasks.
 Low self-efficacy report higher levels of stress and anxiety than people
with high self-efficacy (Bandura, 1986, 1989)
 Rising students’ self-efficacy in reading and self-efficacy in writing might
have the additional benefit of lowering their stress and anxiety levels in
performing these tasks with the possible effect of increasing students’
enjoyment of their studies.

16. Concluding Remarks
 Perceived self-efficacy also affects the goal people set for
themselves.
 The higher the level of self-efficacy, the higher the goals they set
for themselves and more likely they would persevere and be
committed to these goals (Bandura, 1991).
 Given that we aspire for all the students to achieve their maximum
potential, increasing students’ self-efficacy in reading and self-
efficacy in writing might lead to them raising their goal aspirations.

17. Self-efficacy in Reading Scale
 How well can you identify all the key points when reading a journal article or academic book?
 After you have read a text, how wellcan you answer questions on it?
 ……….
Self-efficacy in Writing Scale
 How well can you demonstrate substantial subject knowledge in you essay?
 How well can you provide relevant evidence to support your argument?
 ………