TY - JOUR

T1 - Longitudinal effects of task performance and self-concept on preadolescent EFL learners’ causal attributions of grammar success and failure

AU - Faber, Günter

N1 - Funding information: This work was supported by National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program) under Grant No. 2015AA042603, the 111 Project under Grant No. B07014, and Nanchang Institute for Microtechnology of Tianjin University.

PY - 2019/12/11

Y1 - 2019/12/11

N2 - Learners’ academic self-concepts and attributions have been widely evidenced to substantially regulate their educational development. Develop-mentally, they will not only operate in a mutually reinforcing manner. Rather, self-concepts will directly affect learners’ outcome attributions in a particular academic setting. Current research in the English as a foreign language (EFL) context has increasingly analyzed learners’ attributions and self-concepts on a task-specific construct level. Nevertheless, there still exist certain research gaps in the field, particularly concerning learners’ grammar self-concept and attributions. Therefore, the present study aimed at analyzing longitudinal relations of prior performance and self-concept with subsequent attributions of grammar success and failure in a sample of preadolescent EFL learners. Findings demonstrated that attributional patterns mostly but not entirely depended on learners’ grammar self-concept. Poor performing learners holding a low self-concept displayed a maladaptive attribution pattern for explaining both grammar success and failure. Though not with respect to all causal factors, these findings largely confirm the crucial role of task-specific self-concept in longitudinally explaining related control beliefs in the EFL context.

AB - Learners’ academic self-concepts and attributions have been widely evidenced to substantially regulate their educational development. Develop-mentally, they will not only operate in a mutually reinforcing manner. Rather, self-concepts will directly affect learners’ outcome attributions in a particular academic setting. Current research in the English as a foreign language (EFL) context has increasingly analyzed learners’ attributions and self-concepts on a task-specific construct level. Nevertheless, there still exist certain research gaps in the field, particularly concerning learners’ grammar self-concept and attributions. Therefore, the present study aimed at analyzing longitudinal relations of prior performance and self-concept with subsequent attributions of grammar success and failure in a sample of preadolescent EFL learners. Findings demonstrated that attributional patterns mostly but not entirely depended on learners’ grammar self-concept. Poor performing learners holding a low self-concept displayed a maladaptive attribution pattern for explaining both grammar success and failure. Though not with respect to all causal factors, these findings largely confirm the crucial role of task-specific self-concept in longitudinally explaining related control beliefs in the EFL context.

KW - Causal attributions

KW - Gender

KW - Grade level

KW - Grammar performance

KW - Self-concept

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85078237150&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.14746/ssllt.2019.9.4.4

DO - 10.14746/ssllt.2019.9.4.4

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85078237150

VL - 9

SP - 633

EP - 656

JO - Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching

JF - Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching

SN - 2083-5205

IS - 4

ER -