A Structural Equation Modeling of EFL Learners' Goal Orientation, Metacognitive Awareness, and Self-efficacy

Abstract

This article sets out to examine the relationship between EFL learners' goal orientation, metacognitive awareness and self-efficacy in a single framework. One hundred fifteen EFL students from two universities of Mashhad, a city in north-eastern Iran took part in this study. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to examine the hypothesized relations. The results of SEM demonstrated that among goal orientations, mastery goal is a positive and significant predictor of metacognitive awareness. It also positively and significantly predicts self-efficacy. Furthermore, it was found that metacognitive awareness has a positive and significant role in self-efficacy. The results of correlation between subscales of metacognitive awareness and mastery goal indicated that the highest correlations were found between mastery goal, planning and monitoring. Identical analysis for performance goal revealed that there are significant but weak correlations between performance goal and declarative and procedural knowledge.