PERCEIVED SELF-EFFICACY OF MALAYSIAN ESL ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY STUDENTS ON THEIR SPEAKING ABILITY AND ITS PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

This study looked into the self-efficacy of Malaysian ESL students (n=338) from a private university in their ability to speak in English. These students are majoring in engineering and technology. A questionnaire, designed by Idrus and Sivapalan (2007) adapted from Bandura’s (1990) and Mikulecky et al.’s (1996), was used to access the perceived self-efficacy of the students on three dimensions: ability, aspiration and activity perception. The findings indicated that, in general, the students had high self-efficacy belief in their speaking ability on all the three dimensions. The study also compared the students’ self-efficacy level in relation to year of study, gender and ethnic group. This paper discusses the findings and the pedagogical implications in the teaching and learning of speaking skills to English language learners.