Tìm hiểu niềm tin vào năng lực viết của sinh viên chuyên ngành Tiếng Anh

 = 
4.34; SD =1.01). The scores of standard 
deviation were very large. It could be 
understood that participants’ writing self-
efficacy in daily life was scattered. 
Tran Quoc Thao et al. TNU Journal of Science and Technology 
 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn 51 
Table 2. English-majored students’ writing self-efficacy in daily life 
No Item 
225(11): 47 - 54 
 N=179
M SD 
1 I compose messages in English on the Internet (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.) 4.40 .97 
2 I write a text in English. 4.34 1.10 
3 I leave a note for another student in English. 4.40 .97 
4 I write e-mails in English. 4.39 1.00 
5 I write diary entries in English. 4.34 1.09 
6 I write an invitation to a friend for a party. 4.38 1.01 
7 I write a good report. 4.37 1.02 
Total 4.37 1.02 
Note: M=mean; SD= Standard deviation 
With respect to the findings from the semi-
structured interviews, it was found that 
interviewees had high writing self-efficacy 
beliefs in their daily life. They reported that 
they usually did their writing in English 
outside a class such as writing letters, writing 
a diary and joining online discussions. Some 
particular examples are as follows: 
I like writing a diary. Not only would this be a 
keepsake to reflect on many years down the line, 
but I will be able to practice my writing in English. 
Set my goals for the week, try to achieve them and 
then write what I did that week. (S4) 
I join online discussions to discuss some course-
related questions that can help me analyze 
material, clarify commonalities and differences, 
and answer other students’ entries. (S10) 
Moreover, participants shared that they could 
write in English in daily life because they 
practiced writing a lot. They could use formal 
constructions and high-level vocabulary, and 
they always consulted a good dictionary to 
choose proper words. In addition, they 
affirmed that being good at writing meant 
choosing the right words and not filling the 
entire page. In a like manner, an interviewee 
stated that he was confidence in his writing 
because he could identify and practice the 
writing of sentences, correct common 
sentence types, practice the writing of many 
sentence types as well as avoid some common 
mistakes. For example, some students 
described as below: 
I am good at writing because I can identify and 
practice writing sentences, recognize and correct 
common types of sentences, recognize and practice 
writing many types of sentences as well as avoid 
some common mistakes. (S6) 
I am good at writing because I can use formal 
constructions and high-level vocabulary and 
always consult a good dictionary to choose the 
proper word. (S12) 
3.1.2 English-majored students’ writing self-
efficacy in writing class 
As illustrated in Table 3 about English-
majored students’ writing self-efficacy in 
writing class, participants were totally able to 
write “reflections” (item 11: M = 4.39; SD = 
.97), “long sentences such as 
compound/complex sentences” (item 12: M = 
4.38; SD = .1.00), “messages” (item 9: M = 
4.35; SD = 1.05) “in English, “keep writing 
even when it is difficult” (item 14: M = 4.37; 
SD = 1.01), and “form new sentences from 
words [they] have just learnt” (item 14: M = 
4.35; SD = 1.07). In addition, participants 
could “write essays in English” (item 10: M = 
3.39; SD = 1.54) and “do writing assignments 
at the last minute and still get a good grade” 
(item 13: M = 3.43; SD = 1.17). Nonetheless, 
they were possibly able to “make English 
sentences with idiomatic phrases” (item 8: M 
= 3.31; SD =1.20). Regarding the scores of 
standard deviation, they are quite large. This 
means that there were gaps among 
participants’ answers. 
Tran Quoc Thao et al. TNU Journal of Science and Technology 225(11): 47 - 54 
 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn 52 
Table 3. English-majored students’ writing self-efficacy in writing class 
No Item 
n=179 
M SD 
8 I make English sentences with idiomatic phrases. 3.31 1.20 
9 I write messages in English. 4.35 1.05 
10 I write essays in English. 3.98 1.54 
11 I write reflections in English. 4.39 .97 
12 I write long sentences such as compound/complex sentences in English. 4.38 1.00 
13 I do writing assignments at the last minute and still get a good grade. 3.43 1.17 
14 I keep writing even when it is difficult. 4.37 1.01 
15 I form new sentences from words I have just learnt. 4.35 1.07 
Total 4.07 1.13 
Note: M=mean; SD= Standard deviation 
The findings from the in-depth interviews 
demonstrated that English-majored students 
were totally confident in writing in classes 
because they got good grades on essays that 
they wrote as well as their lectures helped 
them to correct their essays. Some particular 
examples are as follows: 
the more you practice believing in yourself, the 
bigger that belief becomes, so I believe in what I 
have written, and I often get good grades on 
essays that I wrote. (S9) 
I practiced writing a lot of essays, and then my 
lecturers helped me to correct them, so I believe 
I’m good at writing. (S2) 
Similarly, some students claimed that they 
were very confident in writing essays at the 
university because of their careful preparation 
and caution. Besides, they could keep writing 
even when it was difficult. 
 People would be impressed to say that I could 
write an essay of 2,000 words in less than an hour, 
but what they don’t know was how much 
preparation had been done up to that point. 
Therefore, I am very confident in my essays, and I 
can keep writing even when it’s difficult. (S5) 
when I write something down, I use caution to 
choose the right words. This means that I write 
more eloquent, concise and elegant, so I can write 
well. (S14) 
Moreover, a large number of 
interviewees predicated that they had never 
been scared of having their writing evaluated 
by their peers and marked by their lecturers. 
I feel less pressured and more relaxed when 
doing peer review. The useful advice of my peers 
is easy to use to revise essay, and I am able to do 
more discussion and practices. (S8) 
being evaluated by my peers and marked by my 
lecturers means giving detailed feedback. 
Therefore, I can improve my grades throughout 
my educational journey. (S11) 
3.2. Discussion 
This study revealed some major findings. 
Participants strongly believed that they could 
write well in English. This finding was not in 
alignment with that of studies conducted by 
Hong et al. [21] who have found that their 
research participants did not have a strong 
belief in writing self-efficacy. The observed 
difference is that this study did not examine 
the correlation between participants’ writing 
self-efficacy with their writing ability. In 
addition, this study focused on English-
majored students. Therefore, it could be 
inferred that the frequent practice of writing 
may contribute to the high self-efficacy in 
learners, which may positively influence on 
learners’ self-practice of writing. This is 
supported by Bandura [20] who have 
postulated that those with high self-efficacy 
believe that they can perform well, and he has 
highlighted that confidence in one’s capacity 
is a useful predictor of efficiency. 
With respect to the writing in daily life, 
participants were strongly confident that they 
were totally able to write well. One of the 
Tran Quoc Thao et al. TNU Journal of Science and Technology
 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn 53 
possible explanations for this may be that 
participants were majoring in English, so they 
had a wide range of chances to practice their 
writing skills at different occasions in their 
daily life. Furthermore, many participants 
(90.5%) in this study allocated at least 1 hour 
per day to their self-practice of writing skill. 
In respect of the writing in academic class, 
participants self-reported they were able to 
write different academic genres in class. This 
finding may be due to some reasons that they 
may quite familiar with academic writing and 
they may understand academic writing genres 
well as they may have to write frequently in 
academic classes. What is more, because 
participants were the fourth-year students, 
their higher level of writing self-efficacy 
beliefs may show good training and 
experience in English writing skills. 
Therefore, they were confident in appraising 
their writing capabilities. Notwithstanding, 
participants’ self-efficacy in academic writing 
seemed equally as the scores of standard 
deviation were scattered. This may infer that 
some may believe strongly in their academic 
writing, while others may have low 
confidence in their academic writing. 
4. Conclusion 
This study indicated that English majored 
students believed in their writing self-efficacy 
in both daily and academic tasks in English, 
and the high self-efficacy can be a significant 
predictor in identifying the students’ writing 
achievement. Such a conclusion can draw up 
some implications. Firstly, teachers should 
understand their students’ self-efficacy well 
so that they can predict their students’ writing 
skills and provide them with different writing 
activities in daily life and academic class. 
Secondly, students should be trained how to 
use self-regulated writing strategies 
effectively as they have high self-efficacy in 
writing, so it is rationale for them to be 
 225(11): 47 - 54 
determined in improving their writing skills in 
terms of self-practice. Thirdly, students 
should be provided with appropriate learning 
materials to self-practice their writing skills. 
This study cannot avoid some limitations. Its 
focus mainly lies on the English-majored 
students’ self-efficacy in writing. 
Additionally, the research instruments were 
questionnaire and semi-structured interview. 
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