Attribution and Self‐Efficacy and Their Interrelationship in the Korean EFL Context

Abstract

This study examined the interrelationships between learners’ attributions and self‐efficacy and their achievements in learning English as a foreign language. Participants were 192 ninth‐grade English learners in Korea who were asked to provide attribution and self‐efficacy ratings upon receiving test grades. Results indicated that learners with different levels of self‐efficacy ratings endorsed attributions differently for successful and unsuccessful outcomes. Learners with higher levels of self‐efficacy attributed their test results to more internal and personal control factors than those who reported lower self‐efficacy levels. For learners who were unsuccessful, those with higher self‐efficacy made stronger personal control attributions than learners with lower self‐efficacy.