Biehl, Kurt_MED_2020

Title Biehl, Kurt_MED_2020
Alternative Title THE IMPACT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHERS' LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY AND SELF-EFFICACY ON STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
Creator Biehl, Kurt
Collection Name Master of Education
Description Foreign language teachers at all levels are expected to be proficient in the language they teach and have a belief in their ability to do their job effectively. Teachers with deficiencies in language proficiency or self-efficacy beliefs tend to not stay in the profession for long, leading to teacher shortages. The purpose of this study was to 1) measure the correlations between language proficiency and teacher self-efficacy, 2) measure the correlation between these two factors and student achievement in the foreign language classroom, and 3) measure the extent to which these three factors interact. A survey was designed to collect general teacher demographic information including education history, previous language proficiency scores, and student grade information. The Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale survey was also used with permission from the survey developers (Tschannen-Woolfork & Hoy, 2001). Educators from the Utah Foreign Language Association (UFLA) were invited to participate in this study. Members of the UFLA were invited to participate in the survey by email and data collection took place over a span of 6 weeks. Positive correlations were found between language proficiency and self-efficacy. Mostly positive correlations were observed between language proficiency, self-efficacy beliefs, and student achievement with stronger correlations for upper level foreign language courses (level 4, AP, and immersion) than teachers of lower level classes (level 1, level 2, and level 3). The correlations did not turn out to be statistically significant but results from this study suggest that some combination of language proficiency and self-efficacy belief is essential to the success of foreign language teachers in the current foreign language teaching environment.
Subject Education--Evaluation; Education--Research--Methodology
Keywords Foreign language teaching; Foreign language proficiency; The Teacher's Sense of Efficacy Scale; Utah Foreign Language Association
Digital Publisher Stewart Library, Weber State University
Date 2019
Language eng
Rights The author has granted Weber State University Archives a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce their theses, in whole or in part, in electronic or paper form and to make it available to the general public at no charge. The author retains all other rights.
Source University Archives Electronic Records; Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction. Stewart Library, Weber State University
OCR Text Show
Format application/pdf
ARK ark:/87278/s6cvmgft
Setname wsu_smt
ID 96798
Reference URL https://digital.weber.edu/ark:/87278/s6cvmgft