Examination of prep-class students' metacognitive awareness, self - efficacy beliefs, foreign language anxiety levels, foreign language attitudes and academic achievement in foreign language

This dissertation aimed to examine the relations among the general metacognitive awareness levels, academic self-efficacy beliefs, foreign language classroom anxiety levels, foreign language attitudes and foreign language achievement of the Turkish students who, having been registered to study at various engineering departments of Fırat University, were receiving compulsory English preparatory education at the School of Foreign Languages during the academic year of 2013-2014. Moreover, the study also tried to investigate whether the students' general metacognitive awareness levels, academic self-efficacy beliefs, foreign language classroom anxiety levels, foreign language attitudes and foreign language achievement significantly differ in terms of their gender, department, the kind of high-school they already finished, the type of prep-class education they were receiving (daytime and evening education), their experience abroad, perceived level of income and any third language (other than Turkish and English) they knew. The population of this correlational survey study was consisted of 683 students. The data of the study were collected with a personal information sheet, the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale, the Attitudes towards English Scale, the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory, and the College Academic Self-Efficacy Scale. In addition, the data regarding the students' prep-class grades were taken from the School of Foreign Languages, Fırat University. In order to analyze the data of the study, such statistical techniques as percentage, frequency, mean, standard deviation, t-test, ANOVA and structural equation modelling were employed. Some of the findings of the study are as follow: 1. There is a statistically significant positive correlation between the students' academic self-efficacy beliefs and their foreign language achievement. 2. There is a statistically significant negative correlation between the students' foreign language classroom anxiety and their foreign language achievement. 3. There is a statistically significant negative correlation between the students' academic self-efficacy beliefs and their foreign language classroom anxiety. 4. The students' academic self-efficacy beliefs have a mediating effect on the relationship between their foreign language classroom anxiety and foreign language achievement. 5. There is no statistically significant correlation between the students' general metacognitive awareness and their foreign language achievement. 6. There is a statistically significant positive correlation between the students' metacognitive awareness and their academic self-efficacy beliefs. 7. The students' academic self-efficacy beliefs have a mediating effect on the relationship between their metacognitive awareness and foreign language achievement. 8. The students' academic self-efficacy beliefs have a mediating effect on the relationship between their attitudes toward English and foreign language achievement. As a conclusion, it was discussed in the study that foreign language classroom anxiety is a considerable hinderance in front of the achievement in foreign language learning, and the role of self-efficacy and metacognitive awareness were emphasized in order to combat against foreign language anxiety, and to enable learners to develop positive attitudes toward the foreign language classes. Lastly, the study was concluded with suggestions for future research and implications. Key Words: Foreign Language Learning, Individual Differences, Metacognitive Awareness, Self-efficacy, Foreign Language Anxiety, Foreign Language Attitudes, Academic Achievement