Exploring ESP learners’ self-efficacy of writing skills in IT context

Abstract

In the context of its application in engineering fields, language learning is an insufficiently researched area. Language competencies are a highly significant aspect of professional performance, business communication, and professional development, especially in Information Technology. The paper gives insight into the analysis of differences in the self-efficacy measured among three groups of students classified according to their achieved grades. The aim of this paper is also to investigate the correlations between the students’ self-efficacy observed for five categories of writing skills in ESP and the students’ assessment graded by the teacher during the summary writing task. Besides, the paper provides an analysis of correlations between different categories of writing skills. The total number of students who participated in the research was 94, and the participants were the students of Information technology at the Faculty of Technical Sciences Čačak. The research instrument was English language self-efficacy scale for writing skills. Three types of analyses were used: descriptive analysis, correlative analysis and the analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results of the research indicate that the higher the students’ assessment is, the more skilled in writing in IT context they are considered in comparison to the students with lower assessment. The skills of writing fluency were estimated lowest over the entire sample. Positive correlations were obtained between all the analysed categories of students’ self-efficacy for writing skills and the teacher’s grades.