Investigating Human Agency and Self-Efficacy: The Case of Iranian EFL Learners

Heavily influenced by the proposed claims concerning the close interconnection of self-efficacy, motivation and learning strategies, the current study was conducted to investigate the possible differences among EFL learners with high and low levels of self-efficacy in terms of learning strategies and motivation. The addressed issues are almost exclusively involved in identification of one’s agency to form one’s identity in a language learning context. Thus, the purpose of the present investigation was finding alternative ways for addressing language learners’ learning needs. The results of the analyses indicated equal percentages of low and high levels of general self-efficacy among the learners and slightly higher degrees of high language self-efficacy compared to its low levels. Besides, analysis of the learners with high and low levels of selfefficacy (both language and general self-efficacy) indicated no significant differences in terms of learning motivation and strategy use. However, the results suggested learners’ significantly higher degrees of language self-efficacy than their general self-efficacy.