The Effects of Self-efficacy, Self-regulation, and Social Support on English Achievement

Abstract

This study explores how self-efficacy, self-regulation and social support affect Korean high school EFL learners’ English achievement. For the study, three hypotheses were established; 1) social support would be helpful to improve students’ self-efficacy; 2) students with high self-efficacy would use more self-regulation than students with low self-efficacy; 3) self-efficacy and selfregulation would have an impact on students’ English learning achievement. The results show that social support and self-efficacy are closely correlated, which support the first hypothesis. One thing to note here, however, is that if the sources of the social support, which are peers, parents and teachers are examined respectively, the relationship between parental support and selfefficacy turns out to be insignificant. For the second hypothesis, the correlation and regression analysis both confirm the hypothesis respectively. In addition, the third hypothesis is also accepted and multiple regression result shows that self-efficacy and self-regulation are both significantly effective predictors of language learning achievement. Based on the results, the study suggests that teachers and parents should give affective support and encourage learners to build up good peer relationship. The study also emphasizes the necessity of self-regulation strategy training and program development to improve EFL learners’ self-efficacy.