Gender Differences Between Japanese High School Students’ Speaking Self-Efficacy and Their Speaking Proficiency

抄録

This study examines the relationships between Japanese high school students’ speaking self-efficacy and speaking performance from a different perspective. Two types of self-persuasion, instructional and motivational cues (Hatzigeorgiadis et al., 2008), were employed to assess the impacts on speaking self-efficacy across genders in delayed tests. The results showed that males rely more on instructional cues while females on motivational ones. Moreover, independent samples t-tests revealed that significant gender difference exists in out-of-class self-efficacy. Lastly, possessing higher self-efficacy could help students maintain speaking proficiency. Future pedagogical implications are discussed based on the results.