The effects of growing up bilingually and monolingually on Finnish university students’ self-efficacy in foreign languages : the correlation between two predictors of foreign language acquisition

Abstract

The aim of this study was to observe if there is a correlation between growing up monolingually or bilingually and Finnish university students’ self-efficacy in FLA (Foreign Language Acquisition). Studies on bilingualism and multilingualism have gained importance in the current globalising world. A wealth of literature from this field has shown the possible advantages that a bilingual upbringing may have on FLA, such as increased metalinguistic awareness, a wider range of learning strategies and a broader linguistic repertoire. Albert Bandura’s self-efficacy theory, on the other hand, has been used flexibly to analyse the learning process of attaining various skills. The self-efficacy theory has also been used in the FLA context, with numerous studies finding a positive correlation between high self-efficacy and success in FLA.

Despite the popularity of Bandura’s self-efficacy theory, its connection with bilingualism has received less attention. This study aimed to help bridge this gap in the literature by conducting a questionnaire on 60 Tampere University students. The questionnaire items measured the students’ self-efficacy in the FLA context. In addition to the questionnaire’s self-efficacy items, the participants’ gender, mother tongues and self-assessed proficiency in the languages of their bilingual environment were measured. The study, however, did not find a statistically significant correlation between the students’ bilingual and monolingual growing environment and FLA self-efficacy. The result of this study highlights the need for further studies with larger sample sizes, and possible longitudinal studies, as the effects of both self-efficacy and bilingualism may become more apparent when observing the participants for a longer time frame.