Implications of Enhancing Students’ Self-Efficacy ...
Our research and analysis of the data regarding self-efficacy beliefs collected through students’reflective journals and semi-structured individual and focus group interviews，as well as a semi-structured interview with the lecturer have yielded findings that relate to Chinese-English interpreting training，and they have implications for teaching Chinese-English interpreting in Australian universities.These implications include:①self-efficacy is an important concept and it can be applied to teaching and training programs that involve language skills and learning-by-doing modelling experiences;②apart from the commonly researched four major sources of self-efficacy，our research shows that there can be additional sources and factors that affect the student self-efficacy;and 3)when designing and implementing courses for teaching Chinese-English interpreting in Australia，multi-dimensional factors involving the learners and teachers as well as the teaching and learning environment can be taken into consideration holistically to nurture and enhance the learners’and the lecturer’s self-efficacy beliefs for effective learning and teaching experiences.
Firstly，self-efficacy research has been ongoing for over half a century，and the concept itself has evolved partly due to the technology-enhanced human interaction.Therefore，revisiting the concept and exploring how it can be applied to teaching and training across domains in various contexts are of significance，particularly for teaching and learning programs that involve language skills and learning-by-doing modelling experiences，such as the interpreting training unit we have been exploring in this chapter.Such programs involve learners and teachers that are expected to set challenging goals and develop“intrinsic interest and deep engrossment”(Bandura，1994:72)for themselves，and to maintain strong commitment to accomplish their goals and career aspirations.In addition，since self-efficacy beliefs are multidimensional and they are usually domain-specific and context dependent(Bandura，1997)，it warrants the need to investigate how self-efficacy operates in domain-specific tasks and activities across different contexts.In that sense，what has been discovered through this interpreting training unit in an MBL context not only validates the significance of self-efficacy research，but also contributes to its domain-specific nature of the research and practice.This implies that the current research can be extended to similar teaching and learning programs(e.g.，Henderson et al.，2012)that involve language skills and learning-by-doing modelling experiences in MBL tertiary education in Australia.
Secondly，apart from the commonly researched four major sources of selfefficacy，our research shows that there can be additional sources and factors that affect the student self-efficacy.This implies that self-efficacy research may look more closely into specific domains，contexts and ultimately the people who interact with one another in those domains and contexts.It also implies that selfefficacy research may look beyond the well-researched sources and look for more nuanced sources and factors that affect people’s perceptions，attitudes and cultural beliefs surrounding their self-efficacy development.For example，as far as the interpreting training unit is concerned，the students and the lecturer have raised a number of factors，in addition to the four major sources of self-efficacy to account for their efficacy beliefs and behaviours.These factors include their language proficiency，particularly their language use that involves domainspecific and topic-related knowledge.In addition，they have considered cultural background knowledge as a factor for their self-efficacy development.Interpreting is not only an activity but also a profession that involves，by its very nature，interlingual transfer and intercultural communication(Hlavac and Xu，2020).Therefore，as self-efficacy research taps into different domains，more factors and sources may arise and become salient in their role for people’s selfefficacy development.In interpreting teaching，it appears that professional attributes of an interpreter，e.g.，“on-going practice”and its associated“practice makes perfect”mentality，“acquisition of specialist terminology”，“improved oracy/auracy”，“improved memory skills”and“a willingness to keep learning”(Hlavac，2016:77)，may all become potential factors that determine the self-efficacy of interpreter trainees and professionals.In addition，Hlavac(2016:77)suggests that“cognitive and interactional capacities”should be foregrounded in much contemporary(university-level)training of interpreters.This suggestion has been evidenced in the current research where both students and the lecturer believe that cognitive apprenticeship and teamwork activities，such as role-play，all function as integral factors that influence students’selfefficacy.
Last but not least，when designing and implementing courses for teaching Chinese-English interpreting in Australia，multi-dimensional factors involving the learners and teachers as well as the teaching and learning environment can be taken into consideration holistically to nurture and enhance the learners’and the lecturer’s self-efficacy beliefs for effective learning and teaching experiences.It can be noted that our current research explores the intricate relationship between students’self-efficacy beliefs and the situated multimediabased learning environment.Throughout our research，we have been developing an explicit focus on the students and the lecturer involved in the learning and teaching processes in relation to their interpreting domain-specific beliefs，behaviours and practices through extensive reflective journals and semistructured interviews.Such a focus helps us engage in a more in-depth and nuanced analysis of what contributes to students’as well as the lecturer’s quality learning and teaching experiences.Ahn，Bong，and Kim(2017:162-163)argue that“self-efficacy influences the quality of the learning processes and outcomes that learners experience，so understanding the type of self-efficacy information most conducive to building their self-efficacy is of great theoretical and practical value”.In our current research，we have also added dimensions regarding how the lecturer’s perceptions and course design and implementation，as well as the technology enhanced MBL environment affect students’self-efficacy beliefs and their learning experiences.This implies that multidimensional factors should be brought onto the agenda when designing and implementing language related，technology enhanced situated learning courses in the Australian higher education context.