Self-efficacy, known to influence academic achievement, has been widely studied in English education in Japan, often to assess instructional effectiveness. This paper first reviews 81 articles to analyze the use of self-efficacy scales in this field, revealing three issues: 1) participants, 2) social comparison, and 3) the indicators for English ability. Incorporating these three points, the second half of the paper examines the correlations between three self-efficacy scales and four indicators of English ability. The scales are: A) Matsunuma (2006), the most frequently used scale; B) Matsunuma with social comparison; and C) Pintrich et al. (1991), originally developed for college students. The results suggest that A) is broadly applicable for measuring self-efficacy related to various aspects of English ability among students with a wide range of proficiency levels, B) is effective in capturing self-efficacy in English proficiency among CEFR A1 learners, and C) is more suited to measure self-efficacy for academic achievement among CEFR A2 learners. Given that most Japanese university students are at CEFR A2 or higher, C) may be the most appropriate for use in college settings. These findings highlight the importance of carefully selecting self-efficacy scales based on learner characteristics when evaluating the effectiveness of English education methods.
