TY - CHAP

T1 - The Mediating Role of the Foreign Language Self-Concept

T2 - Predicting Preadolescent EFL Learners’ Causal Attributions of Grammar Success and Failure

AU - Faber, Günter

PY - 2017/11

Y1 - 2017/11

N2 - Academic self-beliefs substantially regulate learners' educational performance. In particular, the learners' individual competence and control beliefs must be considered as cognitive-motivational core variables. Competence beliefs are essentially represented in the learners' academic self-concepts, control beliefs in their academic attributions of own success and failure. Developmentally, both constructs will not only operatein a mutually reinforcing manner. Rather, the self-concept will directly affect the learners' success and failure attributions in a certain academic setting. As empirical findings in the field could demonstrate, interindividually existing differences in causal attributions appeared to be substantially affected by the learners' self-concept. According to the multidimensional feature of cognitive-motivational constructs, these relationships are assumed to be domain-, subject- or even task-specific in nature. Therefore, in order to clarify the relations among academically relevant self-concept and attribution variables, their domain- or subjectspecific representations should be investigated. The present study aimed at analyzing the relations of their self-concepts with their subjective explanations of grammar success and failure in a sample of preadolescent EFL learners from fifth- and sixth-grade classrooms. Additionally, the role of grade level and gender was examined. The results of this study, first of all, could not show any significant grade level and gender effects in the attribution variables. Moreover, multivariate SEM analyses of construct relations could partially substantiate the mediating role of the self-concept variable. In some but not all cases, the learners' causal attributions of grammar success and failure to master a grammar task could be significantly explained by their grammar self-concept which, in turn, reflected their foreign language achievement. Direct achievement effects onto the learners' attributional responses were found only to a minor extent. Furthermore, additionally conducted analyses of variance could demonstrate corresponding attributional patterns mostly depending on the students' grammar self-concept. However, for the learners' ability attributions of grammar success a gender-dependent difference in the high self-concept group occurred. Taken altogether, though not with respect to all causal factors under consideration, the findings of the present study partially confirm the mediating role of the task-specific self-concept with respect to the explanation of related control beliefs in the EFL context.

AB - Academic self-beliefs substantially regulate learners' educational performance. In particular, the learners' individual competence and control beliefs must be considered as cognitive-motivational core variables. Competence beliefs are essentially represented in the learners' academic self-concepts, control beliefs in their academic attributions of own success and failure. Developmentally, both constructs will not only operatein a mutually reinforcing manner. Rather, the self-concept will directly affect the learners' success and failure attributions in a certain academic setting. As empirical findings in the field could demonstrate, interindividually existing differences in causal attributions appeared to be substantially affected by the learners' self-concept. According to the multidimensional feature of cognitive-motivational constructs, these relationships are assumed to be domain-, subject- or even task-specific in nature. Therefore, in order to clarify the relations among academically relevant self-concept and attribution variables, their domain- or subjectspecific representations should be investigated. The present study aimed at analyzing the relations of their self-concepts with their subjective explanations of grammar success and failure in a sample of preadolescent EFL learners from fifth- and sixth-grade classrooms. Additionally, the role of grade level and gender was examined. The results of this study, first of all, could not show any significant grade level and gender effects in the attribution variables. Moreover, multivariate SEM analyses of construct relations could partially substantiate the mediating role of the self-concept variable. In some but not all cases, the learners' causal attributions of grammar success and failure to master a grammar task could be significantly explained by their grammar self-concept which, in turn, reflected their foreign language achievement. Direct achievement effects onto the learners' attributional responses were found only to a minor extent. Furthermore, additionally conducted analyses of variance could demonstrate corresponding attributional patterns mostly depending on the students' grammar self-concept. However, for the learners' ability attributions of grammar success a gender-dependent difference in the high self-concept group occurred. Taken altogether, though not with respect to all causal factors under consideration, the findings of the present study partially confirm the mediating role of the task-specific self-concept with respect to the explanation of related control beliefs in the EFL context.

KW - Attribution patterns

KW - Causal attributions

KW - Gender

KW - Mediating effects

KW - Self-concept

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85044289651&partnerID=8YFLogxK

M3 - Contribution to book/anthology

AN - SCOPUS:85044289651

SN - 9781536126914

T3 - Psychology of Emotions, Motivations and Actions

SP - 1

EP - 81

BT - Self-Perception

A2 - Sørensen, Jacob A.

A2 - Schultz, Nikolaj S.

ER -