THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG GENERAL ENGLISH UNIVERSITY STUDENTS` SELF-EFFICACY, THEIR ANXIETY, AND THEIR ACHIEVEMENT

This study was an attempt to explore the possible relationships among university students’ self-efficacy in General English (GE) course and their achievement in this course. Moreover, the differences in GE course achievement among university students of Humanities, Sciences, and Engineering were examined. Furthermore, it checked the relationship between GE achievement among such students and their level of anxiety. Also, the differences among anxiety mean scores of students of humanities, sciences, and engineering were explored. The results of the study indicated that first there is a significantly positive relationship between the university studentsʹ self-efficacy and their achievement in GE course. Second, there is a negative correlation between GE university students` self-efficacy and their level of anxiety. In other words, university students of humanities suffered more than other university students. Third, there are significant differences in GE course achievement among the three groups. Fourth, there are significant differences in self-efficacy among the three groups of university students. Fifth, the differences in anxiety among the three groups of students were significant. In addition, the results of teachersʹ interviews were also in agreement with those of the questionnaires. The results of this study can invite the attention of GE course teachers to the fact that encouraging their students to find ways to enhance their self-efficacy and manage their anxiety can be highly useful for them to achieve higher scores in GE course.