Feature Article

Students’ Levels of Confidence inUsing English, Self-Perceptions of
Ability, and Perceptions of Course
Difficulty
James Bury
Shumei University
Anthony Sellick
Shumei University
Students’ perceptions of their own ability to learn or successfully complete tasks at a specificlevel can have a wide range of impacts on their learning. While students’ self-perceptionsof English ability and levels of confidence in using English have been investigated, theirconnection to students’ perceptions of difficulty has been relatively under-documented.
Furthermore, students’ attitudes towards the difficulty of full courses have not received asmuch attention as their perceptions of the difficulty of isolated tasks. This paper examines
the relationship between 261 students’ attitudes towards the difficulty of the materials
focusing on different English skills in the EFL courses they enrolled in at a private Japanese
university and their levels of confidence and self-perceptions of ability. The impact of genderand place of origin on those perceptions is also analysed.
学習能力やある特定レベルの課題を的確にこなす能力についての学生自身の認識は、学習そのものに大きな影響を与える。英語力や英語使用に対する自信の度合いに関する学生の自己認識については、これまでにも研究されてきた。しかし、これらと学生の難易度についての認識との関連を示す文献は十分であるとは言えない。さらに、授業全体の難易度についての学生の考えという点は、個々の課題の難易度についての認識ほどには注目されてこなかった。本稿では、日本のある私立大学におけるEFLの授業で使われた、様々な英語の技能に焦点を当てた学習材料の難易度についての261人の学生の考え

3

Bury & Sellickと彼らの自信の度合いと能力についての自己認識との関係性を考察する。また、性差や出身地がこれらの認識に与える影響についても分析する。

The constructivist paradigm of education indicates that increasing student
involvement in their own learning can lead to improved learning outcomes(Guthrie et al., 2004). Students’ levels of confidence and beliefs about their own
abilities can be a barrier to engagement, and thus, effective learning. Students
that are overconfident can become frustrated at their perceived lack of progress,
while students that lack confidence can easily become demotivated and give up(Savaşç, 2014).
Students’ perceptions of their own ability to learn or successfully completetasks at a specific level, known as self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997), influence
academic motivation (Covington, 1992; Konnel & Bjork, 2007), learning(Seifert, 2004), task choice, effort, persistence, resilience, future courses of action,
and achievement (Schunk & Pajares, 2002; Tavani & Losh, 2003). Students thathave high levels of confidence and self-perceptions of ability participate andengage in tasks more readily, work harder, persist longer when they encounter
difficulties, achieve at a higher level (Schunk & Parajes, 2009), display lessapprehension and anxiety (Parajes, 2002), and have greater self-regulatory skills(Zimmerman, 2000).
Factors that influence students’ levels of confidence and perceptions ofability include social comparisons, degrees of student autonomy, and learningand teaching styles (Schunk & Parajes, 2009). Self-efficacy has been foundto decline as students progress through the education system due to greater
competition among students and increased social-comparative processes, such as
test ranking ( Jacobs et al., 2002). Classrooms that encourage social comparison,
via processes such as announcing relative test performance, tend to lower the
self-efficacy of students who perform at a lower level than their peers (Pintrich& Schunk, 1996), a phenomenon accentuated by educational organisations
streaming students by ability (Watt, 2004).
Pintrich and Garcia (1991) claim that attempts to teach strategies that
promote meaningful cognitive engagement have a stronger impact when students
have greater levels of confidence and perceptions of their own ability. If this is4

Levels of Confidence in Using English, OnCUE Journal, 12(1), pages 3-24

correct, then aiding the development of these factors should be a central part ofeducational courses, as they can positively influence motivation and academic
achievement (Greene & Miller, 1996). Educators should encourage the early
development of their students’ positive self-beliefs and try to ensure they become
automatic and self-perpetuating, determining the ways in which, and to what
extent, they use the knowledge and skills they have learned (Parajes, 2002).
Assessing students’ levels of confidence and self-perceptions of ability canprovide educators with valuable insights into their learners’ academic motivation,
behaviour, and future choices. Hackett (1995) reported that unrealisticallynegative perceptions of self-efficacy can have a greater impact on choices toavoid academic courses and subsequent careers than actual lack of ability. Thistendency should be treated seriously, especially as low levels of confidence
and self-perceptions of ability are internal and therefore difficult to overcome(Graham, 2006).
Confidence and ability are commonly viewed as distinct variables that havea direct positive relationship such that if one increases, so will the other (Butler& Lumpe, 2008; Phillips & Lindsay, 2006). While motivation is also included
in research focused on levels of confidence and self-perceptions of ability (Wuet al., 2011), their relation to other factors such as perceptions of difficulty arecommonly omitted (Li et al., 2007).
As students’ levels of proficiency rise, they generally perceive tasks asless difficult (Hu, 2011), and there is some evidence supporting an inverse
relationship between perceptions of task difficulty and self-perceptions of ability(Mangos & Steele-Johnson, 2001). However, this is not always reflected in
students’ performance levels (Lee & Tajino, 2008). Furthermore, perceptionsof the difficulty of entire courses are often not investigated, with most focus
being placed on successful completion of isolated tasks and consequent attitudes
towards difficulty at the task level.
Research into the relationship between gender and self-efficacy has generally
reported that males indicate greater levels of confidence than females in academicareas related to mathematics, science, and technology (Meece, 1991; Wigfield etal., 2006), despite reported gender achievement gaps in these fields diminishing5

Bury & Sellick

or disappearing in recent years (Eisenberg et al., 1996; UNESCO, 2016).
Conversely, in areas related to languages and arts, male and female students
exhibit similar levels of confidence despite the tendency for female students tooutperform their male counterparts (Schunk & Pajares, 2002). However, there
is a gap in the literature for research which adequately covers the relationshipbetween gender and students’ perceptions of difficulty and self-efficacy (Bernat& Lloyd, 2007).
Despite findings that culture has a large impact on learning (UNESCO,2016), compared to the amount of research into gender and self-efficacy,
relatively few studies have been published that investigate the impact ethnicity
has on levels of confidence, self-perceptions of ability, and perceptions ofdifficulty, especially in Japan. However, Heine et al. (2001) found that Japanese
students demonstrated a stronger self-improvement response to task failure
when compared to North American students due in part to the relatively higher
weighting placed on effort compared to performance in Japanese culture.
The relative lack of research into the impact ethnicity has on levels ofconfidence, self-perceptions of ability, and perceptions of difficulty whenstudying English as a foreign language is significant given the growth in the
population of international students at Japanese universities since the mid1980s (Murphy-Shigematsu, 2002). This is of particular interest at universities
where international students and Japanese students have the opportunity to
study together. Thus, it is important to investigate how individual differencessuch as gender and place of origin impact on students’ perceptions (Bernat &Gvozdenko, 2005; Rifkin, 2000).
Consequently, in this paper, the relationship between students’ attitudes
towards the difficulty of the materials focusing on different English skills in the
EFL courses they enrolled in at a private Japanese university and their levelsof confidence and self-perceptions of ability are investigated, alongside overall
perceptions of course difficulty. An analysis into the impact gender and placeof origin have on those attitudes is also undertaken, with the following researchquestions being asked:
1. What are students’ overall perceptions of the difficulty of the courses they6

Levels of Confidence in Using English, OnCUE Journal, 12(1), pages 3-24

enrolled in?
2. What are the connections between levels of confidence, self-perceptions ofability, and perceptions of the difficulty of materials focusing on the following:(i) reading; (ii) speaking; (iii) listening; (iv) writing; (v) vocabulary?
3. How do the variables of gender and place of origin impact on students’attitudes?

Methods

The study participants consisted of 261 students (171 male, 90 female; medianage 20) from Japan, South Asia (Nepal, Sri Lanka, India, and Bangladesh), SouthEast Asia (Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines), and East Asia excluding
Japan (China and Taiwan) attending a private four-year university in Japan.
The large majority of participants (91%) were in their freshman or sophomore
year (Table 1). All of the international students must have achieved level N2 in
the Japanese Language Proficiency Test or have been highly recommended by ateacher at their Japanese language school. All students, Japanese and international,
are required to take English language classes during their first two years of study
at the university. These classes are not segregated by nationality, and many courses
include a mix of nationalities.
In order to measure perceptions and attitudes, students were asked tocomplete a 26-item questionnaire during the final lesson of their course. The
questionnaire consisted of three items of demographic data, eight modified
Likert scale items relating to overall perceptions of course difficulty, and 15
modified Likert scale items relating to students’ levels of confidence in using
English, self-perceptions of English ability, and perceptions of the difficulty ofthe materials (which focused on English reading, speaking, listening, writing,and vocabulary).
The data was collected anonymously during the final lesson of the course as
it was hoped that this would encourage the students to participate voluntarily,rather than out of a feeling of obligation or belief that it was a necessary partof the course. Furthermore, it was hoped that this timing would allow students
the chance to adequately reflect on their experiences throughout the course.
7

Bury & Sellick
Table 1
Distribution of Participants’ Place of Origin and Grade
Place of origin

No. ofParticipants

Academic Year

No. ofParticipants

Japan

199

First Year -Freshman

113

South Asia

38

Second Year - Sophomore

125South-East Asia

12

Third Year - Junior

18

East Asia (excluding Japan)

11

Fourth Year - Senior

5

Not Given

1

Total

261

Total

261

The classes were all either elective or semi-elective subjects with a focus oncommunicative English, and the class sizes ranged from eight to twenty-five witha mix of international and Japanese students. The courses included in this study
were taught by L1 native-English-speaking teachers who had at least nine years
teaching experience in Japan. Of the 276 questionnaires distributed, 261 werereturned, representing a 94.5% response rate.
Independent-samples t-tests were undertaken to assess the statisticalsignificance of the findings. Two levels of significance are reported, those withan alpha (p) of .01 (denoted with a double asterisk), and those at an alpha(p) of .05 (denoted with a single asterisk). For items found to be statisticallysignificant, Hedge’s g tests were conducted to establish effect size. Hedge’s g-test
was used because it provides more accurate results for relatively small sample
sizes (Grissom & Kim, 2005; McGrath & Meyer, 2006) than Cohen’s d. Whilethey are not recognised as definitive benchmarks (Thompson, 2007), the effectsizes were interpreted as small (g = 0.2), medium (g = 0.5), and large (g = 0.8)
based on Cohen’s (1998) suggestions. Furthermore, one-way ANOVA tests wereconducted to investigate students’ perceptions in relation to the five different
aspects of English.
Despite some criticism of self-report methodologies (e.g., Spector, 2006), it
has been argued that students above secondary level can effectively comprehend,8Levels of Confidence in Using English, OnCUE Journal, 12(1), pages 3-24

reflect on, and report their own characteristics (Linnenbrink & Pintrich,2002). Further research has indicated that self-perceptions of ability and levelsof confidence accurately predict a variety of learning factors, including goal
orientation and actual outcomes (Hardré & Sullivan, 2008; Leach et al., 2003).
While students’ levels of confidence and self-perceptions of ability may be poorly
correlated with external evaluations of the same factors (Alba & Hutchinson,
2000), it is the students’ own perceptions of these variables that has the greatest
impact on the level of effort they will invest in their education (Kember, 2004).

Results
Overall perceptions of course difficulty
Items 19 through 26 of the questionnaire investigated the students’ opinions of
the difficulty of the specific courses they had taken via 5-point Likert scales. The
results obtained are presented in Table 2.
The large standard deviations observed in the responses indicate that there
is a diversity of opinion. However, there appears to be a trend towards mild
disagreement with the statement contents of items 19, 20, and 22 through 25,
and a trend towards mild agreement with the statement contents of item 26.
Relationship between levels of confidence, self-perceptions ofability, and perceptions of difficulty of courses taken
In items 4 through 18 of the questionnaire students were asked to indicate theirself-perceived ability, levels of confidence, and perceived difficulty of course
materials relating to English reading, speaking, listening, writing and vocabulary
on a 10-point modified Likert scale. The results relating to gender are summarisedin Table 3.
Results related to vocabulary presented the greatest statistically significant
difference, with both male and female students indicating much higher
perceptions of difficulty when compared to their levels of confidence and selfperceptions of ability. Male students indicated significantly greater perceptionsof difficulty in relation to English speaking and writing when compared to theirlevels of confidence and self-perceptions of ability. Conversely, Female students
9Bury & Sellick
Table 2Overall Perceptions of Course Difficulty with the Variable of Gender
OverallMale

Female

SD

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

p

g

19. I was surprised by how
difficult this course was.

2.63 1.02

2.68

1.02

2.53

1.03

0.144

–

20. I thought this course
would be easier.

2.64 0.99

2.65

0.97

2.61

1.05

0.374

–

21. I thought this course
would be more difficult.

2.91 0.99

2.8

0.97

3.1

1.01

0.011* 0.305

22. I wanted this course tobe easier.

2.58 1.14

2.68

1.1

2.41

1.21

0.040* 0.237

23. I wanted this course to
be more difficult.

2.75 1.01

2.76

0.96

2.72

1.1

0.395

–

24. This course should beeasier.

2.47 0.99

2.52

0.98

2.39

1.01

0.157

–

25. This course should be
more difficult.

2.87 0.97

2.93

0.94

2.76

1.02

0.087

–

26. The level of this course
was just right.

3.48

3.45

1.02

3.54

1

0.24

–

Item

Mean

1.01

* = p <.05

indicated significantly greater levels of confidence and self-perceptions of ability
compared to their perceptions of difficulty in relation to Listening with Tukey
HSD post-hoc tests indicating self-perceptions of ability and perceptions ofdifficulty to be different with an alpha of 0.0366.
With regard to the impact of place of origin on students’ perceptions, theresults in Table 4 indicate that international students had significantly greater levelsof confidence and self-perceptions of ability compared to their perceived levels ofdifficulty in reading. However, the opposite was indicated in relation to listening.
Japanese students indicated significantly greater perceptions of difficulty10Levels of Confidence in Using English, OnCUE Journal, 12(1), pages 3-24
Table 3
Relationships Between Levels of Confidence, Self-perceptions of Ability, and Perceived Difficulty of
Course Materials for Five Aspects of English with the Variable of Gender
Levels ofconfidence

SelfPerceived
perceptions of difficulty ofabilitycourse materials

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

F

p

Male

5.4

2.16

5.54

1.96

5.55

2.02

0.28

0.753

Female

5.13

1.94

5.54

1.63

5.28

1.94

1.14

0.321

Overall

5.31

2.09

5.54

1.85

5.46

2

0.92

0.398

Male

5.04

2.13

5.08

1.86

5.58

2.1

3.7

0.025*

Female

5.09

2.28

5.4

1.93

5.2

1.85

0.54

0.583

Overall

5.06

2.18

5.19

1.89

5.45

2.02

2.45

0.087

Male

5.36

2.09

5.35

2.04

5.57

2.08

0.61

0.545

Female

5.21

2.07

5.7

1.86

4.97

1.99

3.19

0.043*Overall

5.31

2.08

5.47

1.98

5.36

2.06

0.44

0.645

Male

4.82

2.08

4.96

1.97

5.54

2.08

5.9

0.003*

Female

4.82

2.12

4.93

1.87

5.31

1.72

1.63

0.198

Overall

4.82

2.09

4.95

1.93

5.46

1.96

7.26

0.001*

Male

4.72

2.06

4.61

1.83

5.58

1.97

12.47 0.000*

Female

4.26

1.89

4.42

1.77

5.42

1.98

10.04 0.000*

Overall

4.56

2.01

4.55

1.81

5.52

1.97

21.7

Aspects of English
Reading

Speaking

Listening

Writing

Vocabulary0.000** = p <.05

compared to their levels of confidence and self-perceptions of ability in terms of
speaking, writing, and vocabulary.
Overall, the participants indicated significantly higher perceptions ofdifficulty compared to their levels of confidence and self-perceptions of ability
11Bury & Sellick
Table 4
Relationships Between Levels of Confidence, Self-perceptions of Ability, and Perceived Difficulty of
Course Materials for Five Aspects of English with the Variable of Place of Origin
Levels ofconfidence

Selfperceptions ofability

Perceived
difficulty ofmaterials

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

F

p

5.36

1.81

5.08

2.06

5.52

1.97

2.6

0.753

International 6.15

1.87

6.05

2

5.24

2.08

3.85

0.023*

Aspects of English
Reading

Speaking

Listening

Writing

Vocabulary

Japanese

Overall

5.31

2.09

5.54

1.85

5.46

2

0.92

0.398

Japanese

5.1

1.92

4.91

2.26

5.58

2.04

5.49

0.004*

International 5.48

1.79

5.52

1.84

5.02

1.91

1.38

0.254

Overall

5.06

2.18

5.19

1.89

5.45

2.02

2.45

0.087

Japanese

5.4

1.98

5.17

2.1

5.49

2.05

1.3

0.274

International 5.72

1.99

5.76

1.96

4.94

2.07

3.24

0.042*
0.645

Overall

5.31

2.08

5.47

1.98

5.36

2.06

0.44

Japanese

4.73

1.93

4.56

2.07

5.61

2

15.79 0.000*

International 5.66

1.77

5.66

1.92

4.96

1.75

3.02

0.051
0.001*Overall

4.28

2.09

4.95

1.93

5.46

1.96

7.26

Japanese

4.41

1.82

4.4

2.08

5.65

2

22.81 0.000*

International 4.97

1.74

5.05

1.68

5.13

1.85

0.13

0.881

2.01

4.55

1.81

5.52

1.97

21.7

0.000*Overall

4.56* = p <.05

in relation to writing and vocabulary. However, international students actuallyindicated an opposite trend with regards to writing, but this narrowly failed toreach significance (p = 0.051).
Table 5 indicates that gender significantly impacted only on students’12

Levels of Confidence in Using English, OnCUE Journal, 12(1), pages 3-24

perceptions of the difficulty of the listening materials of their courses, with malestudents indicating they were more difficult than Female students. Conducting
a Hedge’s g test on this item produced an effect size of g = 0.292752, which isinterpreted as a small effect based on Cohen’s (1998) suggestions.
The results displayed in Table 6 indicate that place of origin had a muchgreater impact on perceptions with 12 of the 15 items achieving significance.
The results indicate that, compared to their Japanese classmates, international
students were significantly more confident in relation to reading, writing, andvocabulary, had significantly higher self-perceptions of ability in all five aspects
of English, and perceived the course materials as significantly less difficult in allof the aspects of English but reading. However, it must be noted that effect sizes
were small to medium.
Impact of gender and place of origin on students’ attitudes
The only items that produced statistically significant differences between maleand female students were items 21 and 22, which indicated that female students
had expected the courses they had enrolled in would be more difficult and thatmale students wanted their courses to be easier. However, Hedge’s g for both ofthese items was <0.5, which indicates small effect sizes based on Cohen’s (1998)
suggestions.
The results displayed in Table 7 illustrate that only two of the items (19and 20) produced statistically significant differences between Japanese andinternational students. The results indicated that international students wereretrospectively more surprised by how difficult their courses were, whereas theJapanese students had initially anticipated that their courses would be easier thanthey were. Again, effect sizes for both of these items were small.
To better interpret the overall relationships between items 19 through 26
that may be interpreted as contradictory or mutually exclusive, paired items were
further analysed via Student’s t-Tests with an alpha of 0.01. The results of theseanalyses are presented in Table 8.
When the students considered their English courses, they reported that they
had expected the course to be harder (items 19 and 20, and items 20 and 21),
13

Bury & Sellick
Table 5
Impact of Gender on Students’ Perceptions
Male

Levels ofconfidence

Self-perceptionsof ability

Perceived
difficulty ofcourse materials

FemaleAspects of English

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

p

g

Reading

5.4

2.16

5.13

1.94

0.3214–

Speaking

5.04

2.13

5.09

2.28

0.8605–

Listening

5.36

2.09

5.21

2.07

0.5808–

Writing

4.82

2.08

4.82

2.12

1

–

Vocabulary

4.72

2.06

4.26

1.89

0.079

–

Reading

5.54

1.96

5.54

1.63

1

–

Speaking

5.08

1.86

5.4

1.93

0.1934–

Listening

5.35

2.04

5.7

1.86

0.1758–

Writing

4.96

1.97

4.93

1.87

0.9054–

Vocabulary

4.61

1.83

4.42

1.77

0.4208–

Reading

5.55

2.02

5.28

1.94

0.2991–

Speaking

5.58

2.1

5.2

1.85

0.1493–

Listening

5.57

2.08

4.97

1.99

0.0254*0.293

Writing

5.54

2.08

5.31

1.72

0.3693–

Vocabulary

5.58

1.97

5.42

1.98

0.5341–* = p <.05

but that the course level was appropriate (items 24 and 26, and items 25 and 26).

14

Levels of Confidence in Using English, OnCUE Journal, 12(1), pages 3-24
Table 6
Impact of Place of Origin on Students’ Perceptions
Japan

Levels ofconfidence

Selfperceptionsof ability

Perceived
difficultyof coursematerials

International

Aspects of English

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

p

g

Reading

5.36

1.81

6.15

1.87

0.0022*

0.433

Speaking

5.1

1.92

5.48

1.79

0.0738–

Listening

5.4

1.98

5.72

1.99

0.1352–

Writing

4.73

1.93

5.66

1.77

0.0003*0.491

Vocabulary

4.41

1.82

4.97

1.74

0.0163*

0.311

Reading

5.08

2.06

6.05

2

0.0006*

0.474

Speaking

4.91

2.26

5.52

1.84

0.0180*0.281

Listening

5.17

2.1

5.76

1.96

0.0226*

0.285

Writing

4.56

2.07

5.66

1.92

0.0001*

0.54

Vocabulary

4.4

2.08

5.05

1.68

0.0073*

0.326

Reading

5.52

1.97

5.24

2.08

0.1749–Speaking

5.58

2.04

5.02

1.91

0.0268*0.279

Listening

5.49

2.05

4.94

2.07

0.0330*

0.268

Writing

5.61

2

4.96

1.75

0.0075*

0.334

Vocabulary

5.65

2

5.13

1.85

0.0309*0.265* = p <.05

15

Bury & Sellick
Table 7Overall Perceptions of Course Difficulty with the Variable of Place of Origin
OverallJapanese

International
p

g

Item

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

19. I was surprised by how
difficult this course was.

2.63

1.02

2.56

1

2.84

1.09

0.037* 0.274

20. I thought this course
would be easier.

2.64

0.99

2.7

0.94

2.43

1.14

0.050* 0.273

21. I thought this course
would be more difficult.

2.91

0.99

2.9

0.95

2.94

1.13

0.402

–

22. I wanted this course tobe easier.

2.58

1.14

2.59

1.09

2.57

1.3

0.468

–

23. I wanted this course to
be more difficult.

2.75

1.01

2.75

0.99

2.73

1.09

0.459

–

24. This course should beeasier.

2.47

0.99

2.52

0.99

2.34

0.98

0.105

–

25. This course should be
more difficult.

2.87

0.97

2.85

0.94

2.92

1.06

0.333

–

26. The level of this course
was just right.

3.48

1.01

3.49

1.03

3.45

0.95

0.381

–

* = p <.05
Table 8
p-Values for Paired Item t-Tests
Item Pairpg

19 and 20

0.91–

19 and 21

0.001*

0.279

20 and 21

0.001*

0.272

22 and 23

0.072

–

24 and 26

0.000*

1.01

25 and 26

0.000*

0.616* = p <.05

16

Levels of Confidence in Using English, OnCUE Journal, 12(1), pages 3-24

Discussion

Overall, the participants indicated significantly greater perceptions of course
difficulty when compared to their levels of confidence and self-perceptions ofability in relation to writing and vocabulary. This may be attributed to the useof sentence-level writing (which the writing materials in these courses focusedon) and vocabulary exercises often having dichotomous right/wrong answers.
Consequently, students may feel that due to the ease at which they can ascertain
whether they have been successful, the materials are actually more difficult.
However, when attempting materials that focus on the English skills of speaking,listening, and reading, students are able to adopt a variety of strategies, such as theuse of short – even single-word – answers, which can facilitate communicationand the ability to complete lesson tasks at least minimally.
Male students indicated significantly greater perceptions of course difficultywhen compared to their levels of confidence and self-perceptions of ability inrelation to speaking, writing, and vocabulary, but this was only true for female
students concerning vocabulary. In relation to productive English skills, thesefindings suggest that female students perceive less distance among the threevariables.
The similar levels of reported confidence and self-perceptions of ability indifferent areas of English corroborate previous research which indicated thatmale and female students tend to exhibit similar levels of confidence in areas
related to languages (Parajes, 2002). They further support previous findings thatmale and female students generally hold similar views about language learning
in general (Bernat & Lloyd, 2007), despite sometimes viewing their roles as EFL
learners differently (Zhang, 2000). Where they vary from prior research is inindicating that there are some gendered differences in perceptions of difficulty.
For overall perceptions of course difficulty, despite the general agreementthat the level of the courses were appropriate, female students indicated that they
had thought their courses would be more difficult while male students reported
a desire for easier courses. This suggests that female students would prefer thecourses they enroll in to be more demanding than male students would.
Compared to gender, students’ place of origin produced more noticeable
17

Bury & Sellick

and significant differences in perceptions. International students indicatedsignificantly greater perceptions of course difficulty only when compared to theirlevels of confidence and self-perceptions of ability for one of the five aspects ofEnglish (listening), whereas Japanese students indicated this to be true for threeof the aspects (speaking, writing, and vocabulary).
International students were significantly more confident in reading, writing,and vocabulary. In terms of self-perceptions of ability, international students
indicated significantly greater self-perceptions of ability than Japanese students
on all of the five aspects of English. Likewise, Japanese students indicatedsignificantly greater levels of course difficulty for all of the aspects of English
except for reading. This may be a result of international students having a higher
average age and experience of living and communicating in a foreign country,
which builds confidence. Moreover, having devoted several years to learning
Japanese, it is possible that they are more able to accurately assess their language
learning ability. In addition, research has shown that Japanese students often
under-estimate their abilities (Heine et al, 2001). A further factor contributing
to lower levels of reported confidence and perceived ability compared toperceptions of course difficulty among Japanese students may be the greater
emphasis placed on reading over other aspects of English in the Japanese seniorhigh school classroom (Burden, 2001; Murphey & Sasaki, 1998).
Despite the findings outlined in relation to ethnicity above, international
students actually indicated greater retrospective surprise at how difficult theircourses were. However, this finding was seemingly contradicted by the result thatmany Japanese students indicated they had prospectively thought their courses
would be easier. Unfortunately, the lack of qualitative data in this study meansthat analysis into what the students actually found difficult cannot be conducted.
The results outlined in this investigation do have important implications forEnglish language educators, but it is important to acknowledge their limitations.
Despite the diversity of place of origin of the participants, the perceptions ofstudents from only one university were investigated, and as such, this reduces
the overall general effect size of the findings. Furthermore, there is a large skew
towards students in their freshman and sophomore years, which also reduces
18Levels of Confidence in Using English, OnCUE Journal, 12(1), pages 3-24

the general effect size of the findings. This is a result of more focus being placedon thesis writing and job seeking for third- and fourth-year Japanese students
reducing the opportunities to study English, a common phenomenon in bothsecondary and tertiary education in Japan (Burden, 2001; Bury & Oka, 2017).
Also, variables that could have impacted on students’ perceptions, including classsize, students’ previous language learning experiences, and teacher background,
were not taken into consideration.
A further constraint in this study was that, due to the anonymous collectionof student data, it was not possible to link students’ self-assessed ability andconfidence levels with their course test scores or independent assessments of
their ability such as TOEIC scores. A possible solution to this would be to
conduct interviews with the participants, which would allow more in-depth
analysis to be carried out. Consequently, it is suggested that further research that
includes the use of interviews and possibly pre- and mid-course questionnaires
be undertaken at other colleges and universities to strengthen the scope of thefindings and to gain further insights into English as a Foreign Language students
in general.
Finally, while this study was able to identify gendered differences inperceptions of course difficulty, it was not able to ascertain why these differences
exist. Consequently, further research is necessary in order to develop a better
understanding of the source of these gendered differences in perceptions ofcourse difficulty.

Conclusion

Understanding the thoughts and attitudes of learners can greatly benefit teachers,
especially with multinational classes in the Japanese context. Thus, it is importantto understand how different groups perceive their own strengths and weaknesses,
levels of confidence, and perceptions of difficulty.
This study has attempted to add to the current literature by investigating
students’ perceptions in the context of a Japanese university. It was found thatstudents’ place of origin had a much greater impact on perceptions than gender,
with international students indicating significantly higher levels of confidence
19Bury & Sellick

and self-perceptions of ability, and Japanese students indicating greater
perceptions of difficulty.

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Author biosJames Bury is an Associate Professor at Shumei University, Japan. He has taught
in a range of universities, colleges, and schools across Asia. He has an MA in English
Linguistics and a master’s degree in Education. His research interests include
developing students’ communicative confidence and teaching English for SpecificPurposes. bury@mailg.shumei-u.ac.jp
Anthony Sellick is Associate Professor of the Faculty of Teacher Education at Shumei
University, Japan. He holds master’s degrees in Education and in Psychology, andhas taught in primary, secondary, and tertiary educational institutions in the U.K.
and Japan. His research interests include the psychology of the language classroom.
sellick@mailg.shumei-u.ac.jp
Received: January 11, 2018
Accepted: April 22, 201924