Motivational beliefs in language learning of secondary school students in Hong Kong: The relationships among socio-cultural influences, self-efficacy, self-concept, fear of failure and academic achievement

Enhancing students' academic achievement is essential in recent years due to the increasing demand for academic excellence. Thus, there is a need to conduct evidence-based research to examine the factors that may be associated with and predict academic achievement. Based on the Social Cognitive Theory of human functioning, the present study investigated whether and how socio-cultural influences (i.e., peer support, parental support, and teacher support) and students' personal self-beliefs (i.e., self-efficacy, self-concept and fear of failure) predicted students' behavioral outcomes (i.e., academic achievement in English language and Chinese language). The research adopted a quantitative approach in which 1,092 students (S2 to S5) from four Hong Kong secondary schools were asked to complete a questionnaire to report their perceived socio-cultural influences, their personal self-beliefs and academic achievement. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was used to establish the construct validity of the survey instruments used. Regression analyses were used to examine the relationships between the predictor and outcome variables. Results indicated that the five significant predictors for Chinese language achievement were self-efficacy in Chinese and English, self-concept in Chinese and English, and positive parental influences. English self-efficacy was a negative predictor in the analyses. In contrast, only two predictors were significant in predicting English language achievement, namely, English self-efficacy and English self-concept. The findings suggest that language self-concept is the most significant predictor in students' language learning in both Chinese and English and English self-concept is an important predictor of achievement in both languages. Gender difference was found in the present study. The implications of this study are both practical and theoretical. From the practical point of view, this study provides educators with information on how a positive environment (i.e., peer support, parental support, and teacher support) and personal self-beliefs (i.e.,self-efficacy, self-concept and fear of failure) predict academic achievement. From the theoretical point of view, this study also expands Bandura's (1986) Social Cognitive Theory to establish its cross-cultural generalizability in Hong Kong schools. All rights reserved.