Dear colleagues,
I would like to know what are the differences between a language learning mindset and self-efficacy in language learning. What resources do you recommend that explain such notions in detail? Also, are there any other similar notions?
Thank you
Dear Samaher, I did not know that "language learning mindset" was an established term (or, rather, an established learner variable) in SLA research at all. I agree with Ting He that it sounds like a collection of other learner features, such as their L2 aptitude, L2 motivation, or L2 competence. I suppose that "self-efficacy" for L2 learning would be a student's belief in their capacity to act in the ways necessary to learn the L2. This self-efficacy could obviously also be part of a learner's "mindset". In any case, you may want to look up both terms in any available SLA Handbook's index to find more clear-cut definitions.
Self-efficacy essentially means confidence that "I can succeed at this."
A learning mindset, or learning goals, about language or anything else, includes self-efficacy, but also adaptive attributions, and self-regulation. It means that the learner understands that knowledge is not simple and may take extended work to understand, and that knowledge may change over time with new discoveries.
The linked conceptual model summarizes this, as it contrasts with performance goals, and provides a citation to the foundational work of Chin and Brewer.
Poster Conceptual Model of Foundational Beliefs
Andreas Wirag
Thank you for your reply you made me think deeper.
So my question is are learners' variables, factors, and individual differences the same? are there other names of them? so I can properly search about them?
Do you recommend any resources or a comprehensive handbook to read more about learner variables/ factors?
I couldn't find a resource that includes these notions in SLA.
I would say that any attribute that a person has, that is part of their personality and/or cognition, could be called a "learner variable". Those may be their IQ, L2 motivation, L2 speaking competence, L2 reading competence, intercultural competence, L2 aptitude, extraversion, etc. So you might call those learner variables, competences, characteristics, attributes, constructs etc. - it would mean the same thing. As quantitative researchers, we would assume that any learner is effectively a collection of these variables with a specific momentary value to them (here, of course, learners differ greatly). I don't know of any handbooks that would list up all those learner variables, since they are usually investigated seperately. So handbooks would have these variables as chapter titles, for instance. But a Google search for "L2 learner variables" and some further browsing will give you the whole spectrum. After that, you can look them up as handbook chapters - that is, the ones that you really want to consider in your research!
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