Exploring the impact of Self- efficacy and Learning Styles on Iranian EFL Learners' Achievement Scores

Abstract

Although all human beings share the same bio-psychological features in the learning process, their preferences concerning the ways of giving meaning and acquiring information may vary considerably. In fact, these are the individual-specific differences which play key roles in learning process. The more we know about these differences, the better we can analyze the learning process. To determine whether those who are academically more successful, favor a particular learning style and/or have necessarily high degree of self-efficacy, among the various individual-specific differences, the learning styles and self-efficacy have been addressed in this study. A number of 110 advanced Iranian EFL learners studying English at a Language Institute in Tehran took part in this study. The homogenized sample of the study was selected with respect to their scores on the Oxford placement test (OPT). Then, the Kolb's (1984) learning styles inventory, the general self-efficacy scale designed by Schwarzer and Jerusalem (1995), and the achievement test were administered to the participants. The results of the study showed that there was a significant relationship between learners' self-efficacy and their achievement test scores. There was not a significant relationship between learners' vocabulary scores and their self-efficacy though. The results of the regression analyses showed that 15% of variability in reading comprehension score and 27% of variability in grammar score were predicted by Iranian EFL learners' self-efficacy. The results of ANOVA omnibus test of different groups of learning style revealed that there was no statistically significant correlation between Iranian EFL learners' learning styles and their achievement test scores. In the end, implications and suggestions for further research were proposed.