Psych Educ, Document ID: PEMJ0, doi: 10.5281/zenodo.

7063235, ISSN 2822-4353

Research Article

Mediating Effect of Pedagogical Content Knowledge on the Relationship Between

Language Learning Beliefs and English Self-Efficacy of Students

Denevieve Joy Gerona*, Ana Helena Lovitos

For affiliations and correspondence, see the last page.

Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the mediating effect of pedagogical content knowledge on
the relationship between language learning beliefs and English self-efficacy of students. Utilizing
quantitative, non-experimental design via correlational technique, data were obtained from 400
student-respondents belonging to the senior high school department, particularly Grade 11 students of
the nine national high schools under the Division of Davao Del Sur. The researcher utilized stratified
random sampling technique and survey mode of data collection. The researcher also utilized the
statistical tools mean, Pearson r and Medgraph using Sobel z-test. From the results of the study, it
was found out that there is a high level of mean scores for all variables of language learning beliefs,
pedagogical content knowledge, and English self-efficacy. Also, results revealed that there are
significant relationships between language learning beliefs and English self-efficacy, between
language learning beliefs and pedagogical content knowledge, and between pedagogical content
knowledge and English self- efficacy. Further, it was revealed that there was no mediation on the
effect of pedagogical content knowledge on the relationship between language learning beliefs and
English self-efficacy of students. This implies that the language learning beliefs does not convey
pedagogical content knowledge

Keywords: Education, Language Learning Beliefs, Mediating Effect, Pedagogical Content

Knowledge, English Self-efficacy

Introduction individual differences (Genc, Gulten, Emine Kulusakli

Studies have revealed that students are passive in the
English language classroom (Ahamad & Abdullah,
2019). Among student behaviors commonly seen
include reluctance answering questions in the target
language, parroting sentence structures given by
teachers, showing signs of disinterest in class, all
suggesting lack of competency in the English language
making it a problematic issue. In fact, most of them are
experiencing language anxiety since the tender age of
seven. It was also reported similar case in her
observation of new graduates whereby despite
outstanding academic performance, they still struggle
using the language at the workplace. Other mentioned
problems include: students with low self-efficacy
beliefs in English learning tend to set goals that are far
below their abilities to accomplish; it is easy for
students who have low self-efficacy to give up efforts
since they could not attribute success to personal
efforts; and students with low self-efficacy normally
have low self-confidence, anxiety, and frustrations in
English learning (Xiao, 2018).
Learners’ perceived self-efficacy and beliefs on
English language learning are important issues in
education for the last three decades. Recent research
studies conducted in relation to the language learning
have indicated that learners’ beliefs about foreign
language learning show variations depending on their
Gerona & Lovitos
& Savas Aydin, 2016). In English as a foreign
language (EFL) context such as Iran, where EFL
students have limited access to authentic contexts,
speaking classes play a significant role in the
development of the EFL students’ speaking skills.
Moreover, numerous research has reported the
importance of improving the self-efficacy beliefs of
students which results in a positive influence on their
achievement (Doordinejad & Afshar, 2014; Rahemi,
2007). Previous studies also found that the self-
efficacy of spoken English in non-English major
universities was at a medium level, and there was a
significant positive correlation between the self-
efficacy of spoken English. Also, high school students
had a better general self-efficacy in writing and
listening, but lower self-efficacy in reading and
speaking (Wang, 2014; Zhu, 2016).
Performance accomplishments and vicarious learning
experiences are generally considered major sources of
increasing one’s self-efficacy (Wang et al., 2004). In
other words, viewing others’ successful task
accomplishments like content knowledge may increase
individual’s perceptions of others’ efficacy as well as
one’s own efficacy when performing similar tasks
such as language learning (Liu & Kleinsasser, 2015).
The results from a previous study mentioned that
implicit language learning promotes content
knowledge and consequently promotes student
achievement, while explicit language learning
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Research Article

enhances self-efficacy and promotes content knowledge?

knowledge, thereby contributing to student
achievement (Ho, 2021).
Theories that discuss the interrelationships between the
variables include Bandura’s (1986) social cognitive
theory, wherein individuals’ perceptions of themselves
mediate their behaviors; Language Policy Theory by
Spolsky (2004) with three dimensions namely:
language beliefs, language practices, and language
management; and Pedagogical Content Knowledge
Theoretical Framework by Mishra and Koehler (2006)
which addresses the need to tell students how to apply
ideas to the real world.
4. What is the significance of the relationship between
the following:
4.1 language learning beliefs and English self-
efficacy;
4.2 language learning beliefs and pedagogical
content knowledge, and
4.3 pedagogical content knowledge and English
self-efficacy?
5. What is the significance of the mediation of
pedagogical content knowledge on the relationship
between language learning beliefs and English self-
efficacy of students?

There is an urgency to conduct this study as there are Literature Review

no similar studies which deal with pedagogical content
knowledge in relation to language learning beliefs and
English self-efficacy in Region XI, thereby the
outcome of the study will help become an asset to the
world of literature. Hence, making this study a
generation of new knowledge that can give specific
contribution to the field of education. Furthermore,
results can be used to develop or augment practices of
the teachers as to pedagogical content knowledge and
language learning beliefs and the English self-efficacy
of their students. Thus, the need to conduct this study.
Language Learning Beliefs
The field of language learner’s beliefs have not been
widely studied in so the framework for is basically
based on some key concepts drawn from social
psychology including the definitions of beliefs, the
conceptual difference between knowledge, attitudes
and beliefs, types of beliefs, and belief formation
(Zhong, 2012).

In this study, the researcher aims to contribute to Beliefs about language learning are considered key for
Psychology and Education by finding the mediating success in language learning. These beliefs can be
effect of pedagogical content knowledge on the shaped by contextual factors (Negueruela-Azarola,
relationship between language learning beliefs and 2011). A paper explored the beliefs about language
English self-efficacy of students. learning of Thai secondary school students in two
educational contexts: in the so-called English
Research Questions programs and in the regular Thai public programs
(Horwitz, 2012). The findings revealed differences in
The main thrust of this study was to determine the beliefs among students in the English program and
mediating effect of pedagogical content knowledge on those in the regular program. The English program
the relationship between language learning beliefs and students who have more exposure to English were
English self-efficacy of students. Specifically, this found to have more facilitative beliefs about language
s t u d y s o u g h t to a n s w e r th e f o l l o w i n g learning than those in the regular program who have
questions: limited exposure to English. A higher number of
English program students showed beliefs that are
supportive of autonomous learning such as seeing the
1. What is the level of language learning beliefs when importance of practicing in various means and learning
analyzed in terms of the following: from various resources. They also believed that they
1.1 analytic learning; could find online learning resources for self-practice.
1.2 experiential learning; and
1.3 self-efficacy and confidence? Language learners’ perceptions about the degree to
2. What is the level of English self-efficacy among which they have control over the learning process
students when analyzed in terms of the following: affect learning performance. Students with higher
2.1 self-efficacy for listening; perceived control over the learning process attend
2.2 self-efficacy for speaking; classes more regularly, study more and achieve higher
2.3 self-efficacy for reading; and levels of proficiency. The level of perceived control
2.4 self-efficacy for writing? itself constitutes a belief, and this may affect attitudes
3. What is the level of pedagogical content as well. It is challenging to analyze how the perception

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of control alone affects performance. However, the
data on perception indicate that perceived control is an
important factor. The prediction of language learners’
beliefs about their ability to learn a language would
help educators when they need to start new
interventions (Alhamami, 2019).
Originally, beliefs initiated from metacognitive
knowledge adopted from cognitive psychology. They
were defined as opinions or ideas about aspects of
second language acquisition held by learners or as
components of metacognitive knowledge, which
contain all that individuals understand about
themselves as learners and thinkers. It was also
claimed that beliefs originated from the personal
experiences of learners and from the opinions of others
around them, and that they were influenced by factors
such as home and cultural background and individual
differences (Holopainen, 2019; Kalaja, 2015).
The first indicator is analytic learning. Learning
analytics uses predictive models that provide
actionable information. It is a multi-disciplinary
approach based on data processing, technology-
learning enhancement, educational data mining, and
visualization (Scheffel, Drachsler, Stoyanov, &
Specht, 2014). Also, with the growing quantity of data
generated from the internet and digitization, there is
increasing interest in analytics and big data. In
education, high profile initiatives like massive online
courses, online video-based learning, educational apps,
and personal and portable computing devices, have
provided access to increased quantities of learner data.
Thus, analytics and big data in education holds the
potential to develop scalable methods that can be
employed widely across large numbers of students and
institutions; to obtain big impact from big data
(Merceron, Blikstein & Siemens, 2016). While data
was previously available in educational research,
learning analytics holds the promise of providing
insight for learning research through the longitudinal
collection of data on various levels of granularity from
multiple sources in authentic learning environments
(Reimann, 2016).
The second indicator is experiential learning which is
a holistic philosophy of education based on the notion
that an individual’s life experiences, education and
work play a central role in their learning and
understanding of new knowledge (Fry, Ketteridge &
Marshall, 2009; Kolb & Kolb, 2009). It is not a set of
tools and techniques to provide students with a range
of experiences, as it is frequently misunderstood to be.
Rather, it positions learning as a continuous process in
which students bring their own knowledge, ideas,
Gerona & Lovitos
beliefs and practices at different levels to their
understanding and interpretation of new information.
In turn, this transformative process shapes the changes
in their understanding and interpretation of theory,
beliefs, values and practice (Ambrose, Bridges,
DiPietro, Lovett & Norman, 2010; Cooper, Orrell &
Bowden,2010).
The final indicator is self-efficacy and confidence. It
was measured by Stankov, Lee, Luo and Hogan (2012)
regarding confidence, self-belief, self-efficacy, self-
concept and anxiety in students from Singapore and
found that a distinct confidence factor exists in the
domains of mathematics and English. Their focus on
confidence was understood as a state of being certain
about the success of a particular behavioral act. It was
also predicted by Morony, Kleitman, Lee and Stankov,
(2013) that achievement by measuring confidence
against self-efficacy, anxiety and self-concept in Asia
and Europe and they reported that confidence is a
relatively new measure of self-belief, but is the single
most important predictor of math/english accuracy.
They observed that confidence ratings have not been
elicited previously in large scale international studies
in education, but use of confidence judgements in
psychology has a long history dating back to early
psychophysics.
Qualitative and quantitative research was applied to
identify levels of participating in experiential learning
activities of technical students and differences among
factors such as school year, gender, learning results
with these activities. Results in technical students’
perspective indicated that students took part in many
activities in occasional and low level except two
groups of activities: do family support, identify
problem and make plans reached frequency/often
level. Additionally, statistics also show that there are
significant differences between variables with nearly
all the activities but only significant differences
between male and female students in doing family
support activities (Hien & Oanh, 2018).
English Self-Efficacy
Self-efficacy had direct positive effects on the
performance-approach goal but negative effects on the
performance-avoidance goal. Authors noted an indirect
effect of self-efficacy beliefs on the English language
test scores. Thus, enhancing English language learners'
self-efficacy beliefs is crucial to their language
learning process and needs to be included in classroom
teaching approaches (Wang, Schwab, Fenn & Chang,
2013). The declining level of the English language
proficiency among graduates has caused great concern
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among employers. Many studies have been conducted
on self-efficacy in second and foreign language
settings.
However, there is a paucity of research on self-
efficacy in relation to speaking ability in second
language learning, especially among technical college
students. A study has been conducted to investigate
differences, in self-efficacy in speaking English among
technical college students based on gender during two
different semesters. The students’ perceived self-
efficacy of speaking ability was measured using three
constructs, namely ability, activity perception and
aspiration. In general, the findings have shown that
female students tended to possess high levels of self-
efficacy (Khatib & Maarof, 2015).
The first indicator is self-efficacy for listening points
out the difficulties inherent in listening in a second
language. It argues that self-efficacy, broadly defined
as the belief in one’s ability to carry out specific tasks
successfully, is crucial to the development of effective
listening skills, and that listening strategy instruction
has the potential to boost self-efficacy. The degree of
control over the process of listening that learners can
gain through listening strategy instruction is an
important factor in this process (Graham, 2011).
Furthermore, listening forms the basis for speaking
and is about showing the cognitive side, whereas
speaking is about behavior or performance. For
successful communication, it is inevitable to combine
listening and speaking education. Listening while
providing control of the learning process stimulates
students to speak and helps to improve their speaking
skills, and their self-control during verbal
communication (Kondreteva, Safina & Valeev, 2016).
Another important issue in learning is positive self-
perception and belief in success that can affect
students’ participation in classroom activities and help
them avoid deciding that the activities are beyond their
abilities (Wang & Rajprasit, 2015). In terms of deep
process strategies, the amount and the quality of effort
is related to students’ self-efficacy in terms of their
general cognitive learning interactions with the
effective students using more cognitive strategies than
those who possess self-efficacy. This helps determine
self-efficacy in relation to listening and speaking skills
that form verbal communication, the relationship
between these skills and how one predicts the other.
The next indicator is self-efficacy for speaking.
Students who have high levels of self-efficacy have a
great curiosity, confident and like a challenge. Self-
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efficacy includes self-control or how to behave. Self-
efficacy also affects the tenacity and learning
achievement without depending on others. Briefly,
self-efficacy could generate student's independence.
For instance, a student with high level of self-efficacy
has a courage for practice their speaking skill about a
topic in front of the class. The student will perform
confidently and deliver the material perfectly because
he has learned it and has mastered the material before
presented (Desmaliza & Septiani, 2017).
In traditional classrooms in Taiwan, students usually
receive lectures from teachers and are passive and
quiet learners. With few opportunities in using English
in real communication, the students would have less
confidence in questioning and answering teachers’
questions. To encourage students to use English in the
class, teachers often applied open-ended questions to
help students summarize and review what they read
and learned. Open-ended questions are effective
questions for the teachers to develop students’
narrative competence to use in the classroom
(Brubacher, Powell, Skouteris & Guadagno, 2015).
The third indicator is self-efficacy for reading. In a
recent study involving students from urban schools in
various cities in the United States, reading self-
efficacy was found to have a positive, significant
impact on student performance on three standardized
reading measures used in the study (Lee & Jonson-
Reid, 2016). Hence, self-efficacy becomes especially
critical in the performance of complex tasks
demanding mastery of specific abilities and possibly
lacking adequate conditions of motivation (Miñano &
Castejón, 2011). Reading comprehension might serve
as an example (Lopes, Madalena, Moniz, Spear-
Swerling, & Zibulsky, 2015).
The last indicator is self-efficacy for writing. To date,
only seven studies (Limpo & Alves, 2013) have
examined the role of self-efficacy in typically-
developing students’ writing performance. In the first
study it was sought to examine the influence of various
factors, such as self-efficacy, writing apprehension,
perceived usefulness of writing, and writing aptitude
on the written performance of fifth-grade students. A
total of 218 students were asked to complete an essay
as well as measures of self-efficacy, writing
apprehension, perceived usefulness of writing, and
writing aptitude. The measure for self-efficacy was the
Writing Skills Self-Efficacy Scale, which consisted of
eight items that asked students to rate confidence in
performing various writing skills. The results of the
study found that self-efficacy was predictive of
students’ written performance in spite of writing
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aptitude’s strong effect. It was found that writing
apprehension and perceived usefulness of writing had
no direct effects.
However, there were effects of writing self-efficacy on
perceived usefulness of writing and writing
apprehension, which suggests these components may
actually be a by-product of self-efficacy, which has
been suggested in the literature. In addition, there were
no sex differences in written performance, but girls
reported higher writing self-efficacy (Eggleston,
2017).
Pedagogical Content Knowledge
Pedagogical content knowledge is an education term
that describes several interconnected domains of
knowledge that are useful to the educator teaching in a
school or in an out of school context. The most
important domains are subject specific content
knowledge and knowledge of the pedagogy used in
teaching a subject. The broader contextual knowledge
that frames the teaching may also be important. This
pedagogical content knowledge can be complex, since
it is only one aspect of an educator’s professional
knowledge, and may be tied to the specific educator,
the specific topic, and even the specific teaching
situation (Van Driel & Berry, 2010). Recently,
test instruments to measure teacher cognition have
been developed and used in several studies, leading to
empirical confirmation that pedagogical content
knowledge makes a difference for instructional quality
and student learning. For instance, Baumert et al.
(2017) found a significant positive effect of teachers’
content knowledge and pedagogical content
knowledge on instructional quality and on student
progress in education. Results even showed that
pedagogical content knowledge had greater predictive
power for student progress and instructional quality
than content knowledge.
Pedagogical content knowledge is an academic
construct that represents an intriguing idea. It is an
idea rooted in the belief that teaching requires
considerably more than delivering subject content
knowledge to students, and that student learning is
considerably more than absorbing information for later
accurate regurgitation. Pedagogical content knowledge
is the knowledge that teachers develop over time, and
through experience, about how to teach particular
content in particular ways in order to lead to enhanced
student understanding. However, Pedagogical content
knowledge is not a single entity that is the same for all
teachers of a given subject area; it is a particular
expertise with individual idiosyncrasies and important
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differences that are influenced by the teaching context,
content, and experience. It may be the same for some
teachers and different for others, but it is, nevertheless,
a corner stone of teachers’ professional knowledge and
expertise (Loughran, Berry & Mulhall, 2012).
The first indicator is knowledge of Science
pedagogy.Pedagogy is a system because macro
education should be a multiple, open, comprehensive
system. Educational science is a huge system. Hence,
education possesses all the traits of the system (Zhong
& Li, 2010). The entirety of an educational system is
that all of its subsystems interconnect, forming a
whole structure, and bringing entirety into play. For
example, in the aim of education, the human’s all-
around development is an ensemble concept. Its
manifestations are as follows: the different qualities
such as virtue, wit, beauteousness, technique displays
their unity in each character, and forms a system
architecture. In addition, promoting the development
in an all-around way of all that is civil is also target
architecture of a national education system. It goes
without saying that teaching is a system, in that
teaching should provide students considerable
broadcast knowledge in social science, natural science
and the humanities (Yong, 2013).
As generalists, primary school teachers must
determine how, when and where they attend to a range
of explicit science curriculum demands while also
attempting to balance teaching and learning
requirements across all curriculum areas (Smith &
Fitzgerald, 2013). These decisions are informed by
personal and professional experience, including
professional understandings of pedagogy and content
knowledge, personal thinking and beliefs about the
importance of science and ideas about what science
matters for their students (Fitzgerald, 2012).
A revised model of pedagogical content knowledge
consisting of four components of content and
pedagogical knowledge, along with knowledge of
learners and context, was used to analyze educators'
Science education pedagogy. The findings revealed the
educators used all four components, but asymmetrical
use, together with little integration and synthesizing of
components, resulted in the potential of affordances
for science learning offered not being realized. The
pedagogical content knowing model proved valuable
for identifying these educators' strengths and also areas
for development. It was also argued that its use could
provide a way for educators to reflect on their
pedagogy, leading to the provision of transformed and
powerful knowledge (Zhang & Birdsall, 2016).
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The second indicator is knowledge of learners which is
increasingly recognized as an essential component of
knowledge base for effective teaching as in today’s
schools, teachers must be prepared to teach a diverse
population of student. In other words, teachers need to
be aware that their students in a classroom are and
always have been different from one another in a
variety of ways. It refers to an understanding of
diversity of students in terms of their abilities and
interests and how they respond to diverse situations; an
application of different teaching strategies; and how
various types of classroom activities might be
managed. Result indicates that pre-service teachers
were able to develop knowledge of learners and show
their understanding of it, yet not readily apply such
knowledge in modified situations. Moreover, Gates et
al. (2016) explored and identified a range of largely
personal attributes that are assumed to create broader
positive outcomes across important areas of youth’s
lives, including in terms of workforce success,
violence prevention, and sexual and reproductive
health. Specifically, knowledge of learners includes
communication which is the ability to effectively
express and understand knowledge and ideas.
Communication includes listening, as well as skills in
verbal, nonverbal, and written communication. It also
includes the ability to negotiate, persuade, transmit and
interpret knowledge (Lippman et al., 2015).
The third indicator is knowledge of concept
representation. The representation and processing of
conceptual information plays a crucial role in many
cognitive tasks each involving different brain areas
and several neural connections. In this paper, a
possible general framework for the representation of
concepts in cognitive artificial systems and cognitive
architectures is proposed. The proposed framework is
introduced at the computational level of detail. This
means that, despite some representational details are
sketched, the main goal of this article is that one of
providing a possible common ground between the
theoretical and the computational cognitive science
concerning the problem of concept representation. In
particular, our proposal is inspired by the so called
proxy type theory of concepts and combines it with the
heterogeneity approach to concept representations,
according to which concepts do not constitute a unitary
phenomenon (Machery, 2010; Lieto, 2014).
Correlation between Measures
Studies conducted in Taiwan, Turkey and Iran found a
correlation between the participants’ self-efficacy and
their self-directed language learning, as well as their
reading and listening comprehension skills. The
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researchers also pointed that the individuals’
proficiency level, their writing and speaking
performance and the ability to acquire new vocabulary,
could be successful or not depending on their self-
efficacy and language learning beliefs. Providers must
take reasonable steps to provide students from
linguistically diverse backgrounds with opportunities
to use their home language in language learning. As
stated by Romijn et al. (2020) diversity-related policies
could explain why teachers in a previous study
reported relatively low use of intercultural classroom
practices despite their high self-efficacy and language
learning beliefs. A national mandatory policy that
supports the use of student’s home language is
lacking.
Generally speaking, English language teachers require
an advanced level of proficiency in order to be
successful language teachers, but pedagogical skills
are also necessary for effective instruction. One
approach has been to focus on teachers’ self-efficacy
and language learning beliefs about their abilities to
enact specific classroom tasks in certain contexts and
potential relationships with teachers’ reported
language proficiency. Overall, teachers’ self-efficacy
beliefs regarding their pedagogical abilities do
correlate with language proficiency, but results are at
times weak and inconclusive with inconsistent results
across studies and contexts (Faez & Karas, 2017).
Researchers were interested in investigating the
relationship between pre-service teachers’ self-
efficacy, language learning beliefs and content
knowledge and the relationship between the variables
as they co-evolve in a specialized content course. A
specialized content course refers to a course
specifically designed for pre-service teachers to learn
to integrate understanding of concepts with
pedagogical models advocated by national reform
efforts. The relationship between content knowledge,
self-efficacy and language learning beliefs has been
suggested in the literature but has not been
systematically explored in the context of specialized
content courses (Menon & Sadler, 2016).
However, while some studies have addressed issues
while reporting findings or analysing language
learning beliefs more broadly, there is yet no
comprehensive synthesis of language learning beliefs
research. Issues are being mapped out and examining
selected studies set in second and foreign language are
ongoing but not first language contexts that is why a
fuller synthesis of language learning beliefs research
seems needed (Wyatt, 2018). This is evident in the
light of some recent studies, such as Karimi et al.
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(2016) as these researchers focus on self-efficacy and
language learning beliefs in teaching reading in
English as a second language, and so are clearly
working within the developing domain-specific field
of pedagogical content knowledge and language
learning beliefs research.
Recently, a study conducted by Martinussen, Ferrarim,
Aitken and Willows (2015) in a Canadian urban
university, examined the relations among 54 pre-
service teachers’ perceived and actual pedagogical
content knowledge of phonemic awareness, exposure
to phonemic awareness instruction during practicum,
and English self-efficacy for teaching phonemic
awareness. The aforementioned found out that
perceived pedagogical content knowledge of phonemic
awareness was significantly and positively related with
pre-service teachers’ English self-efficacy for teaching
phonemic awareness and language learning beliefs,
while actual knowledge of phonemic awareness was
not significantly correlated with perceived knowledge
or self-efficacy ratings.
Additionally, addressing pre-service teachers’
experiences with problem behavior among pupils
during their teaching practice. In teacher education,
pre-service teachers are challenged to use a variety of
classroom competencies and pedagogical content
knowledge in order to teach. While their main task is
to facilitate learning, they also must organize
information and manage numerous issues of
importance to learners. Pre-service teacher teaching
practices are focused on developing the social and
leadership skills that pre-service teachers need to
provide an effective classroom learning environment.
In practice, pre-service teachers inevitably experience
challenging situations, and through these situations,
they learn how to handle these. Generally, this finding
supports the notion that English self-efficacy and
language learning beliefs are developed through active
support from certain individuals. However, the low
connection between feedback and self-efficacy raises
questions about the nature of feedback (Juuti et al.,
2018).
While policy-makers may have much to say on the
subject of teacher competence and pedagogical content
knowledge, majority view a focus on teacher efficacy
in the context of pre-service and in-service teacher
education as a far more productive way of approaching
language learning beliefs. Efforts to produce a self-
efficacy scale in relation to the teaching of writing will
contribute to the debate around what this domain-
specific construct might look like and how it might be
used in research that investigates, for example, the
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relationship between enhanced English self-efficacy
around the teaching of writing and student outcomes
(Locke et al., 2013).
Effective classroom teaching is defined as the use of
strategies that have been associated with student
language learning beliefs gain in core academic
content areas specifically in Mathematics, English,
Science and History. For each of the three domains of
effective classroom teaching, it first describes its
conceptualization and compare it to the corresponding
conceptualization of teacher English self-efficacy for
that domain in order to assess the extent of specificity
and domain matching (McWilliams, Nier & Singer,
2013). The specificity matching principle states that
specific predictors’ best predict domain-specific
behaviours rather than broad behaviours. A lack of
coherence between pedagogical content knowledge
and classroom teaching may limit the ability to detect
associations between the two constructs.
Moreover, language learning beliefs and teacher
attrition, along with other factors, such as retirement,
increased enrolments, legislation, and perceptions of
teaching, have been linked to a shortage of language
teachers (Swanson, 2010). Among the components that
constitute people’s perceptions of teaching, a teacher’s
sense of English self-efficacy has been linked to the
shortage. Research suggests that teacher English self-
efficacy is cyclical in nature: each proficient
performance helps create a new mastery experience,
which then serves as new information that shapes
future self-efficacy beliefs and pedagogical content
knowledge. A stronger sense of teacher English self-
efficacy leads to increased effort and persistence,
which leads to better performances later, which, in
turn, leads to even stronger self-efficacy beliefs.
Conversely, lower self-efficacy leads people to expend
less effort and to give up more easily, which leads to
poor teaching outcomes and, ultimately, a decreased
sense of teacher English self-efficacy. Such negative
feelings are associated with the shortage of language
teachers in North America (Swanson, 2012; Swanson
& Huff, 2010).
This study is anchored on Bandura’s (1986) Social
Cognitive Theory, wherein one main idea of which is
that individuals’ perceptions of themselves mediate
their behaviors. Thus, individuals pursue activities and
situations in which they feel competent and avoid
situations in which they doubt their capability to
perform successfully. The following subcomponents
can be included: motivational beliefs; goal orientation
beliefs; interest and value beliefs; self-concept, self-
efficacy, self-esteem, and control beliefs.
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This study is supported by the Language Policy
Theory by Spolsky (2004) which articulates that there
is a unique language policy of the social unit expressed
in the way you speak (practices), the way you think
you should speak (beliefs), and the way you think
other people should speak (management). Together,
the three dimensions: language beliefs, language
practices, and language management comprise a
definite language policy present in every social unit or
domain.
This study is also supported by the Pedagogical
Content Knowledge Theoretical Framework by Mishra
and Koehler (2006) for theories, particularly those in
the arena of education, need to tell students how to
apply the ideas to the real world. This is a pragmatic
concern and helps teachers design better learning
contexts and systems. First, the pedagogical content
knowledge theoretical framework allows teachers to
critique simplistic approaches toward developing
teacher knowledge. Further, it assists teachers in
developing better learning environments. In particular,
it argues against teaching skills in isolation and
supports integrated and design-based approaches as
being appropriate techniques for teaching teachers. It
argues that learning environments that allow students
and teachers to explore in relationship to subject
matter in authentic contexts are often most useful. The
researcher believes that the above-cited theories
clearly support the variables indicated in the study.
The theories clearly establish and guide the connection
of pedagogical content knowledge, language learning
beliefs and English self-efficacy
Methodology
This study utilized quantitative non-experimental
design of research using correlational technique. This
kind of design according to De Vaus (2001) provided
summary data specifically measures of central
tendency including the mean, standard deviation and
correlation between variables or employing methods of
analyzing correlations multiple variables by using tests
such as Pearson r and regression analysis. Generally,
correlational studies use independent and dependent
variables, but the effect of the independent variable is
observed on the dependent variable without
manipulating the independent variable (Patidar, 2013;
Creswell, 2014).
Moreover, the mediation process was used to
determine whether the relationship between language
learning beliefs as the independent variable and self-
efficacy as the dependent variable is significantly
Gerona & Lovitos
reduced after inclusion of the mediator variable-
pedagogical knowledge content. In other words,
mediating relationships occur when a third variable
plays an important role in governing the relationship
between the other two variables (MacKinnon, 2008).
Respondents
The respondents of this study included the 400
students who belong to the senior high school
department, particularly Grade 11 students of the 9
national high schools, all under the division of Davao
del Sur in the Province of Davao del Sur, Philippines.
A stratified random sampling technique was used in
the study. In this method, there is a possibility that
each person in the population sample could be selected
as a subject. It ensured that the results would be
comprehensive to the context currently studied. This
stratified sampling approach divides the population
into groups or strata. The concept is that the groups are
formed so that the demographic units are comparable.
(Salkind, 2007).
Instruments of the Study
There were three sets of questionnaires which were
adapted from different authors, which were validated
by experts on questionnaire construction.The five-
point Likert scale was used for the research variables.
Having been adapted, the survey instrument was
content-validated by four internal and one external
experts and garnered an average 4.6 mean score. Pilot
testing was done, and reliability of the scales were
established using Cronbach alpha coefficient with the
result of 0.973 for language learning beliefs, 0.978 for
English self-efficacy and 0.944 for the mediating
variable of pedagogical content knowledge
Procedure
A systematic procedure was followed in the conduct of
the study. First, before the conduct of the study, thru a
letter-request duly approved by the Dean of
Professional Schools, the researcher forwarded the
said request to the Schools Division Superintendent
of the Department of Education Division of Davao del
Sur asking permission for the conduct of the study.
Then, the researcher furnished a copy of the approved
letter to the different School Heads of the respondents
for the conduct of a full blown data gathering. During
the conduct of this study, the researcher has strictly
observed the safety protocols in this pandemic time as
per mandate by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the
Emerging Infectious Disease (COVID 19) such as
physical/social distancing and the wearing of
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facemasks. Before the survey questionnaires were
administered to the respondents of the nine national
high schools under the Division of Davao del Sur, the
researcher visited the school heads of identified
national high schools for a courtesy call to discuss the
plan on the conduct of online survey thru google docs
to all concerned respondents.
During the courtesy call, a list and contact
numbers/email addresses of all respondents/students
were requested from the offices of the concerned
school heads/principals. The list served as the basis for
the researcher for the data gathering which activity
took around fifteen days from the sending of the
survey questionnaire to all the respondents in google
docs up to the retrieval of the accomplished survey
questionnaires. The google docs contained specific
instructions for the accomplishment and retrieval of
the instrument, which contents were understandable by
the respondents. Also, before the actual data
collection, the researcher has secured the Certificate of
Compliance from UMERC to ensure compliance of
some ethical considerations in research.
All retrieved questionnaires were encoded in the Excel
template after verification and checking as to
completeness of the answers. After all the tallying and
validating of results, the data were analyzed and
interpreted in line with the objectives of the study.
Based from the findings of the study, conclusions and
recommendations were formulated
Ethical Considerations
The researcher has ensured that the data gathered were
kept confidential, that such information was utilized
only for the purpose of the research. For the misuse of
the data and information, the respondents have the
right to file a complaint and request for investigation.
Each target respondent was given with an informed
consent form prior to the gathering of data. In the
form, the title and the purpose of the study were stated.
It was a form asking for their voluntary consent in
giving their ideas of the study. The participant signed
the ICF to prove his/her willingness to participate and
is assured of confidentiality of the data and that the
data will be used only for the purpose of the study. The
study did not involve in high risks of situations that the
participants had experienced. Some mitigating
measures were also considered, to include the
psychological, financial and physical preparations.
There was no risk involved in this study and this was
conducted in accordance with the due process. The
respondents included the Grade 11 students who were
enrolled in SY 2021-2022 in the nine identified
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national high schools under the Division of Davao del
Sur and they were the primary beneficiaries of the
study. They gained the understanding of what is
pedagogical knowledge content, language learning
beliefs and English self-efficacy. At the same time, the
Office of the Department of Education will be able to
establish a scientific basis for drawing out some
interventions for any issues resulting from the study
that needs to be addressed, in order to help the students
in their studies and this study will be used as a
practical reference for future research in the field of
education.
Moreover, before the conduct of actual data collection,
the researcher secured Compliance Certificate from
UMERC with the understanding that all ethical
considerations were properly observed. The study
underwent plagiarism check in the University using
the Turnitin, to ensure that there was no plagiarism
that happened in the whole duration of the study. The
study underwent the standard procedure of research
established by the Professional Schools of the
University of Mindanao. There was no trace/evidence
of intentional misrepresentation, or there was no
making up of data and/or results, or purposefully
putting forward conclusions that were not accurate. No
inconsistency with the existing literature among the
information was included in manuscript.
In this study, there was no trace of purposefully
misrepresenting the work to fit a model or theoretical
expectation and no evidence of over claiming or
exaggerations. To avoid scientific misconduct such as
falsification, correction mechanism was improved, and
researcher worked to give peer review the importance
it deserves to ensure accuracy. In addition,
collaboration between research institutions, journals,
authors, and co-authors will be needed to improve
research standards and procedures, thus giving priority
on knowledge over economic benefits and prestige.
Also, no person will be authorized to publish nor
present this paper except for the researcher himself or
his adviser without the consent of the researcher. In
case, an organization wants to have a copy of the result
of the study then it can be accessed only for the
purpose in creating programs and policies in the
organization but still with the permission of the
researcher, adviser, and the university.
Results
Language Learning Beliefs of Students
Presented in Table 1 is the level of language learning
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beliefs of students which revealed a total mean rating
of 3.64 labelled as High, with 0.675 as the SD. It can
also be viewed from the table that the indicator
analytic learning gained the highest mean score of
3.81 described as High. Followed by self-efficacy and
confidence with a mean score of 3.62 descriptively
described as High, and lastly, experiential learning
with a mean score of 3.48 or High.
Table 1. Language Learning Beliefs of Students
English Self-Efficacy
It can be gleaned from Table 2 that the level of English
self-efficacy resulted to an overall mean score of 3.61
described as High. Moreover, the indicator self-
efficacy in listening gained the highest mean score of
3.65 described as High. Followed by self-efficacy in
reading with a mean score of 3.64 described as High,
self-efficacy in speaking with a mean score of 3.59
described as High, and lastly, self-efficacy in writing
with a mean score of 3.54 or High.
Table 2. English Self-Efficacy
Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Teachers
Revealed in Table 3 is the pedagogical content
knowledge of teachers has a High level with an overall
mean score of 3.71, with 0.867 as the SD.
Furthermore, the indicator knowledge of English
pedagogy gained the highest mean score of 3.76
described as High. It is followed by knowledge of
learners with a mean score of 3.70, and lastly,
knowledge of English concepts with a mean score of
3.66 or High.
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Table 3. Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Teachers
Correlation Analysis of the Variables
It can be seen from Table 4 that the correlation
between language learning beliefs and English self-
efficacy gained an r-value of 0.702 with a p-value of
0.000 which is lower than the 0.05 level of
significance. This indicates that there is a significant
relationship between language learning beliefs and
English self-efficacy. Therefore, the null hypothesis of
no significant relationship between language learning
beliefs and English self-efficacy is rejected. It can also
be seen from the table that when language learning
beliefs is correlated with pedagogical content
knowledge, the r-value results to 0.428 with a p-value
of 0.000 which is less than the 0.05 level of
significance. This signifies that language learning
beliefs has a significant relationship with pedagogical
content knowledge. Therefore, the null hypothesis
stating that there is no significant relationship between
language learning beliefs and pedagogical content
knowledge is rejected. In addition, Table 4 also reveals
the results on the correlation between pedagogical
content knowledge and English self-efficacy. Results
revealed that the r-value of 0.326 has a p-value of
0.000 which is lower than the 0.05 level of
significance. This means that pedagogical content
knowledge has a significant relationship with English
self-efficacy. Therefore, the null hypothesis of no
significant relationship between pedagogical content
knowledge and English self-efficacy is rejected.
Table 4. Correlation Analysis of the Variables
Mediation Analysis of the Three Variables
There are four steps to be met for a third variable to be
acting as a mediator. In Table 5, these are categorized
as Steps 1 to 4. In Step 1, language learning beliefs of
students as the independent variable (IV) significantly
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predicts English self-efficacy, which is the dependent

variable (DV) of the study. In Step 2, language
learning beliefs of students significantly predicts
pedagogical content knowledge of teachers, the effect value of 0.485 is the amount of the original beta
mediator (M). In Step 3, pedagogical content between the language learning beliefs of students on
knowledge of teachers significantly predicts English English self-efficacy that now goes through
self-efficacy. Because the three steps (paths a, b and c) pedagogical content knowledge to English self-
are significant, further mediation analysis through efficacy (a * b, where “a” refers to the path between
medgraph is necessary, including the Sobel z test to Language Learning BeliefsàEnglish Self-Efficacy and
assess the significance of mediation effect. If the effect “b” refers to the path between Pedagogical Content
of the independent variable on the dependent variable KnowledgeàEnglish Self-Efficacy). The ratio index is
becomes non-significant at the final step of the computed by dividing the indirect effect by the total
analysis, full mediation will be achieved. It means all effect; in this case, 0.485 by 0.730 equals 0.020. It
the effects are mediated by the mediator variable. In seems that about 20% of the total effect of language
addition, if the regression coefficient is substantially learning beliefs of students on English self-efficacy
reduced at the final step but remains significant, only goes through pedagogical content knowledge and
partial mediation is obtained, which implies that part about 80% of the total effect is either direct or
of the independent variable (language learning beliefs
mediated by other variables not included in the model.
of students) is mediated by the mediator (pedagogical
content knowledge of teachers) but other parts are
In this study, pedagogical content knowledge has no
either direct or mediated by other variables that are not
mediation on the relationship between language
included in the model. In this case, as gleaned in step 4
learning beliefs of students and English self-efficacy.
(denoted as c’), the effect of language learning beliefs
Language learning beliefs of students may have a
of students on English self-efficacy was found to have
been decreased after mediated by pedagogical content
direct effect on English self-efficacy in addition to its
knowledge of teachers. With this, no mediation took indirect effect on English self-efficacy through
place since the effect was found to be significant at pedagogical content knowledge.
p<0.05 level.
Table 5. Regression Results of the Variables in the
Additionally, presented in Figure 3 is the result of the Four Criteria of the Presence of Mediating Effect
computation of mediating effects. The Sobel test
resulted to a z-value of 0.802 with a p-value of greater
than 0.05, which is significant at 0.05 level. This
implies that there is no mediating effect, as it is likely
that the original direct effect of language learning
beliefs of students on English self-efficacy has
decreased upon the addition of pedagogical content
knowledge of teachers The Sobel z-value indicates that
the addition of pedagogical content knowledge
decreases the effect of language learning beliefs of
students on English self-efficacy.

The figure also shows the results of the computation of

the effect size in the mediation test conducted between
the three variables. The effect size measures how
much of the effect of language learning beliefs of
students on English self-efficacy can be attributed to
the indirect path. The total effect value of 0.730 is the
beta of language learning beliefs of students on
English self-efficacy. The direct effect value of 0.715
is

the beta of language learning beliefs of students on Figure 1. Medgraph Showing the Variables of the Study
English self-efficacy with pedagogical content
knowledge included in the regression. The indirect

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Discussion
Language Learning Beliefs of Students
The high level rating of analytic learning indicates that
teachers highly tailor educational opportunities to the
individual learner’s need and ability through actions
such as intervening with students at risk or providing
feedback and instructional content. This claim is in
line with various authors (Merceron et al., 2016;
Reimann, 2016) stating that analytics and big data in
education holds the potential to develop scalable
methods that can be employed widely across large
numbers of students and institutions. Learning
analytics holds the promise of providing insight for
learning research through the longitudinal collection of
data on various levels of granularity from multiple
sources in authentic learning environments.
Moreover, the high level rating of self-efficacy and
confidence is a reflection of the high state of
confidence about the success of a particular behavioral
act. This is in congruence with various authors
(Morony et al., 2013; Stankov et al., 2012) who
mentioned that self-efficacy and confidence are the
most important predictors of accuracy. A distinct
confidence factor exists in the domains of mathematics
and English, and self-efficacy and confidence are
important to success in mathematics.
Lastly, the high level rating of experiential learning
indicates that technical students are highly provided
with opportunities to learn actively, relate well to
others, and emerge theoretical knowledge into
practical context to develop their comprehensive
competences for a sustainable development. This
claim is aligned with various authors (Ambrose et al.,
2010; Cooper et al., 2010; Hien & Oanh, 2018) stating
that students took part in many learning activities
through experiences to develop new skills, attitudes
and thinking. It positions learning as a continuous
process in which students bring their own knowledge,
ideas, beliefs and practices at different levels to their
understanding and interpretation of new information.
In turn, this transformative process shapes the changes
in their understanding and interpretation of theory,
beliefs, values and practice.
English Self-Efficacy of Students
The level of English self-efficacy is high resulting
from the high level responses. The indicators self-
efficacy in listening, self-efficacy in reading, self-
efficacy in speaking, and self-efficacy in writing have
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high ratings. These indicators are arranged from
highest to lowest level.
The high level rating of self-efficacy in listening is a
reflection that students have a high ability to carry out
specific tasks successfully for it is crucial to the
development of effective listening skills, and that
listening strategy instruction has the potential to boost
self-efficacy. This substantiates the claim of various
authors (Kondreteva et al., 2016; Wang & Rajprasit,
2015) stating that positive self-perception and belief in
success can affect students’ participation in classroom
activities and help them avoid deciding that the
activities are beyond their abilities. For successful
communication, it is inevitable to combine listening
and speaking education as listening while providing
control of the learning process stimulates students to
speak and helps to improve their speaking skills, and
their self-control during verbal communication.
In addition, the high level rating of self-efficacy in
reading indicates that students become highly critical
in the performance of complex tasks demanding
mastery of specific abilities. This verifies the
statements of various authors (Lee & Jonson-Reid,
2016; Lopes et al., 2015) who mentioned that reading
self-efficacy was found to have a positive, significant
impact on stud ent p erfo rm an ce. Read ing
comprehension is an example of self-efficacy
becoming especially critical in the performance of
complex tasks demanding mastery of specific abilities
and possibly lacking adequate conditions of
motivation.
Moreover, the high level rating of self-efficacy in
speaking is a reflection that students highly knew how
to ask questions relating to a text and showed lots of
improvement in comprehending a text. This validates
the claim of various authors (Brubacher et al., 2015;
Desmaliza & Septiani, 2017) stating that teachers often
applied open-ended questions to help students
summarize and review what they read and learned.
Open-ended questions are effective questions for the
teachers to develop students’ narrative competence to
use in the classroom. For instance, a student with high
level of self-efficacy has a courage for practice their
speaking skill about a topic in front of the class. The
student will perform confidently and delivers the
material perfectly because he has learned it and has
mastered the material before presented
Lastly, the high level rating of self-efficacy in writing
indicates that students have high self-efficacy, writing
apprehension, perceived usefulness of writing, and
writing aptitude on written performance. This
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authenticates the statements of various authors
(Eggleston, 2017; Limpo & Alves, 2013) who
mentioned that the effects of writing self-efficacy on
perceived usefulness of writing and writing
apprehension suggests that these components may
actually be a by-product of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy
was predictive of students’ written performance in
spite of writing aptitude’s strong effect.
Correlation Analysis of the Variables
The correlation between measures of language
learning beliefs and English self-efficacy revealed a
significant relationship. This implies that language
learning beliefs is significantly correlated with English
self-efficacy. The findings of this study is comparable
to the work of with some authors (Gutierrez &
Narvaez, 2017; Romijn et al., 2020; Shi, 2017) stating
that there is a correlation between English self-efficacy
and self-directed language learning, as well as reading
and listening comprehension skills. It was also pointed
out that the proficiency level, writing and speaking
performance and the ability to acquire new vocabulary,
could be successful or not depending on English self-
efficacy and language learning beliefs. Moreover,
diversity-related policies could explain why teachers in
a previous study reported relatively low use of
intercultural classroom practices despite their high
self-efficacy and language learning beliefs. A national
mandatory policy that supports the use of student’s
home language is lacking.
In addition, the correlation between measures revealed
that there is a significant relationship between
language learning beliefs and pedagogical content
knowledge. This implies that language learning beliefs
is positively correlated with pedagogical content
knowledge. The result of the study confirms the
statements by various authors (Faez & Karas, 2017;
Karimi et al., 2016; Locke et al., 2013) who mentioned
that on the subject of teacher competence and
pedagogical content knowledge, majority view a focus
on teacher education as a more productive way of
approaching language learning beliefs. Also, English
language teachers require an advanced level of
proficiency in order to be successful language
teachers, but pedagogical skills are also necessary for
effective instruction. Overall, teachers’ beliefs
regarding their pedagogical abilities do correlate with
language proficiency as evidenced by the focus on
language learning beliefs in teaching English as a
second language, and the developing field of
pedagogical content knowledge and language learning
beliefs research.
Gerona & Lovitos
Lastly, the correlation between measures of
pedagogical content knowledge and English self-
efficacy revealed a significant relationship. This
implies that pedagogical content knowledge is
significantly correlated with English self-efficacy. The
findings of this study is in agreement with various
authors (Martinussen et al., 2015; McWilliams et al.,
2013; Swanson 2012) suggesting that perceived
pedagogical content knowledge of phonemic
awareness was significantly and positively related with
pre service teachers’ English self-efficacy for teaching
phonemic awareness and language learning beliefs.
Further, English self-efficacy is cyclical in nature and
serves as new information that shapes future self-
efficacy beliefs and pedagogical content knowledge. A
stronger sense of teacher English self-efficacy leads to
increased effort and persistence, which leads to better
performances and even stronger self-efficacy beliefs.
Mediation Analysis of the Three Variables
The aim of this study is to contribute to the literature
regarding the possible indirect, mediating variable for
the relationship between language learning beliefs and
English self-efficacy. Specifically, pedagogical content
knowledge was investigated as a possible mediating
variable that could explain the effect between language
learning beliefs and English self-efficacy. Although no
mediation was found in the study, important and
significant direct effects were presented that may help
in the enhancement of the existing researches on
language learning beliefs and English self-efficacy.
Significantly, the studies of these authors on the
relationship language learning beliefs and English self-
efficacy have found relevance to the study of Bandura
(1986) which insists that the set of knowledge and
beliefs necessary for students to attain understanding
of specific topics must include the affective ones, and
that they have to be contemplated by adding explicit
components of knowledge and beliefs about the
affective domain related to the specific subject matter
content. All of which must be related to the teachers’
interests, attitudes and emotions about their own ways
of teaching; the subject matter they are teaching; and
their knowledge related to the attitudes that students
adopt when they are learning. Particularly, the current
study has found that pedagogical content knowledge is
not a mediator of language learning beliefs and
English self-efficacy and did not meet Baron and
Kenny’s (1986) mediation guidelines.
The mediation analysis involved the path between
language learning beliefs and pedagogical content
knowledge and the path between pedagogical content
knowledge and English self-efficacy. The findings
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negate the significant relationship between language
learning beliefs and pedagogical content knowledge
leading to negate one of the authors mentioned in this
study Menon and Sadler (2016) who stated that there
is a relationship between pre-service teachers’ self-
efficacy, language learning beliefs and content
knowledge and the relationship between the variables
as they co-evolve in a specialized content course. A
specialized content course refers to a course
specifically designed for pre-service teachers to learn
to integrate understanding of concepts with
pedagogical models advocated by national reform
efforts. The relationship between content knowledge,
self-efficacy and language learning beliefs has been
suggested in the literature. This implies that language
learning beliefs does not convey pedagogical content
knowledge.
The results of the general objective negate the
theoretical framework of the study. The findings
negate the anchor theory, the Social Cognitive Theory
by Bandura (1986) wherein one main idea of which is
that individuals’ perceptions of themselves mediate
their behaviors. Thus, individuals pursue activities and
situations in which they feel competent and avoid
situations in which they doubt their capability to
perform successfully. Also, the findings negate the
Language Policy Theory by Spolsky (2004) which
articulates that there is a unique language policy of the
social unit expressed in the way you speak, the way
you think you should speak, and the way you think
other people should speak. Together, the three
dimensions: language beliefs, language practices, and
language management comprise a definite language
policy present in every social unit. Lastly, the findings
negate the Pedagogical Content Knowledge
Theoretical Framework by Mishra and Koehler (2006)
which allows teachers to critique simplistic approaches
toward developing teacher knowledge. It provides an
analytic framework and categorization schemes for the
analysis of teacher knowledge and its evolution.
Conclusion
With considerations on the findings of the study,
conclusions are drawn in this section. There is a high
level of language learning beliefs, pedagogical content
knowledge, and English self-efficacy. Moreover, there
is a significant relationship between language learning
beliefs and English self-efficacy. Also, there is a
significant relationship between language learning
beliefs and pedagogical content knowledge, and a
significant relationship between pedagogical content
knowledge and English self-efficacy. Furthermore,
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there is no mediation on the effect of pedagogical
content knowledge on the relationship between
language learning beliefs and English self-efficacy.
In addition, the findings of the study negate the notion
about the mediating effect of pedagogical content
knowledge on the relationship between language
learning beliefs and English self-efficacy. The findings
negate the anchor theory, the Social Cognitive Theory
by Bandura (1986) which insists that the set of
knowledge and beliefs necessary for students to attain
understanding of specific topics must include the
affective ones, and that they have to be contemplated
by adding explicit components of knowledge and
beliefs about the affective domain related to the
specific subject matter content.
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Affiliations and Corresponding Information
Denevieve Joy Gerona
Soong National High School
Department of Education - Digos City, Philippines
Ana Helena Lovitos
University of Mindanao, Philippines
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