設定明確目標對英語為外語學生單字學習的自我效能和成就表現之影響

The Effect of Specific Goals on EFL Students' Self-efficacy and Performance of Vocabulary Learning

本研究的目的之一在於探討明確目標和模糊目標，對於英語為外語國中學生學習單字方面，自我效能和成就表現方面所產生的影響；另一目的為深入了解師生對於本次目標設定的想法。本研究樣本為一百零二位國中學生和一位英語教師。學生依照研究目的分為二組：明確目標組（實驗組）和模糊目標組（對照組）。二組學生皆接受相同單字課程教學，由該教師進行教學，學習廿五個單字。教學開始時，教師告知所有學生，單字課程結束後三天，將實施以該廿五個單字為範圍的測驗；同時，教師針對實驗組每位學生根據其能力分別賦予一個明確目標，而對照組學生則以「盡全力」和「努力用功」準備考試作為該目標。本研究採用量性和質性研究法。在量性方面：學生的自我效能問卷反應和單字學習成就表現，在實驗結束後進行比較，統計結果顯示，實驗組在自我效能和成就表現優於對照組學生；此乃意味適切目標能有效提升學生學習動機、自我效能，和成就表現。在質性方面：本研究使用學生學習日誌以及和教師訪談等技巧，以求深入了解師生對於本次目標設定的想法。結果發現，師生雙方都肯定適切的目標設定能有效提升學習動機、成就和自我效能。

The purpose of the present study was two-fold. First, it investigated the relative effects of the specific goal and the vague goal on EFL students' self-efficacy and performance of vocabulary learning. Second, it aimed to obtain in-depth understandings of the teacher's and the students' perceptions about the goal setting in the study. One hundred and two junior high school students and their English teacher participated in the study. The students were divided into two different groups, i.e., specific goal group (experimental group) and vague goal group (control group). Both groups were instructed 25 new vocabulary words by the same EFL teacher. Prior to the instruction, all participants were informed that a test on the 25 vocabulary words would be given three days after the instruction. Meanwhile, each student in the experimental group was assigned an individual goal regarding the test by the teacher. The students of the control group were told to 'do your best' and 'work hard' for the test as their goal. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. Student self-efficacy questionnaire responses and the vocabulary test scores of these two groups were compared at the end of the experiment. The t-test results showed that the experimental group outperformed the control goal group in both the vocabulary test and self-efficacy scores, which suggested that setting specific goals was more effective in enhancing students' self-efficacy and performance. In addition to the quantitative analysis, qualitative techniques such as student journals and the teacher interview were employed to obtain in-depth understandings about the students' and teacher's perceptions of the goal setting in this study. It was found that students and the teacher both perceived setting specific goals as an effective way to enhance learning motivation and self-efficacy.