Comparative analysis of educational self-efficacy and language mindsets in adult Persian learners and English learners

This research examines the relationship between Entity and Incremental beliefs and the components of educational efficacy in adult Persian and English learners‏.‏ This survey research was done by field method‏.‏ The participants (742 people) responded to two standard questionnaires, the Linguistic Mindset Inventory (LMI) by Lou and Noels (2017) and the standard academic self-efficacy questionnaire (Matoti, & Lekhu, 2019)‏.‏ The findings show that there is a positive and significant relationship between Incremental beliefs and academic efficiency, and this relationship is higher in English learners than in Farsi learners‏.‏ There is the highest degree of relationship between academic efficiency and L2B Incremental belief‏.‏ There is a negative and significant relationship between fixed beliefs and academic efficiency, and this rate is higher in English learners than in Farsi learners‏.‏ There is the greatest relationship between academic efficiency and the Entity beliefs of GLB‏.‏ The results of this research will have practical applications for Persian and English teachers‏.‏
Extended Abstract:
Introduction
Mindsets provide an important framework for understanding learners' progress and learners' self-evaluation of learning. Dweck (1999) believes People have beliefs or put forward points of view that determine how they understand and explain the social world. Such mindsets can be broadly classified as entity theory; So that personal characteristics are considered fixed. Or they can be expressed in the form of incremental theory, where personal characteristics are considered as changeable characteristics. These beliefs lead people to think, feel and act differently (Dweck, 1991). Since the early 1980s, Dweck has studied people's beliefs about intelligence and other personal characteristics. He believes people have implicit theories about the nature of intelligence: Some believe that intelligence is a fixed thing that people are born with and cannot change much (Dweck, 2006).  Others have other implicit theories in which intelligence is seen as a malleable trait that can be developed gradually with effort. According to Dweck et al, these theories or implicit Mindsets affect the types of goals that people set and the way people behave and feel in different situations. For example; A person may believe that his ability to learn a language will develop (Incremental belief), but another person may believe that his ability is fixed and will never change (Entity belief). In addition, Mindsets provide an important framework for understanding the motivation and progress of learners in a specific educational subject. Although these incremental and entity patterns and beliefs have been well investigated in several scientific fields, the concept of Mindsets in language learning has not been paid enough attention.
Self-efficacy refers to a person's ability to face problems to achieve his goals and success. Self-efficacy is effective in the choice of behavior, effort and perseverance and pursuing goals and determines how to face obstacles and challenges.   Today, self-efficacy beliefs are considered one of the most important and main factors in explaining human behavior. Self-efficacy refers to a person's ability to face problems to achieve his goals and success. It is effective in the choice of behavior, effort and perseverance and pursuing goals and determines how to face obstacles and challenges.  Today, self-efficacy beliefs are considered one of the most important and main factors in explaining human behavior. According to the points mentioned about linguistic mindsets and self-efficacy, the current research was carried out. This research examined the relationship between Entity and Incremental beliefs and the components of educational efficacy in adult Persian language and English learners‏.
Methodology
The main aim of this study is to describe linguistic mindsets and eighteen components and a list of linguistic mindsets (incremental and entity beliefs in three domains: General language intelligence beliefs (GLB), Second language aptitude beliefs (L2B) and Age sensitivity beliefs about language learning (ASB)). This field study is an applied survey and has an implementation method. The statistical sample included 361 Persian language learners and 381 English learners. The age group of Persian language learners was between 20-45 and the age group of English learners was between 15-45. All the English learners were selected from among the adult English language learners of the Iran Language Institute who were learning English at the beginner, intermediate and advanced levels of the Iran Language Center. The statistical sample of Persian language learners was chosen from different Persian language education centers (Persian language teaching centers of Tarbiat Modares and Allameh Tabatabai universities and Dehkhoda Institute, which took two years (2020 and 2021 academic years) to collect their data. In this research, 102 male English learners, 279 female English learners, 269 male Persian language learners, and 92 female Persian language learners participated.
Results
The data collection tool of this research was the standard questionnaire of the Linguistic Mindset Inventory (LMI) by Lou and Noels (2017) (based on the Likert scale), which included the three dimensions: General language intelligence beliefs (GLB (, Second language aptitude beliefs (L2B) and Age sensitivity beliefs about language learning (ASB). Lou and Noelz obtained the reliability and validity of this questionnaire in their article. Cronbach's alpha was obtained for entity beliefs at 0.71, for incremental beliefs at 0.75 and its combined score at 0.77, which indicates good reliability. The validity of the questionnaire is suitable. For English learners, an online questionnaire in Persian language was used, and for Persian learners, an Arabic language questionnaire was used. Descriptive analysis of academic self-efficacy data and incremental beliefs showed that English learners and Persian language learners are different in the average academic self-efficacy components, but they were similar in dispersions. But in the descriptive analysis of entity beliefs, based on the average scores of the questions related to each component, it was found that among English learners, ASB obtained the highest average, and GLB obtained the lowest average; while for Persian language learners, the highest average was related to GLB, and the lowest average was related to ASB.
Conclusion
In the inferential analysis of the data, Pearson's correlation test was used to check the research hypotheses. The findings of the research showed that there is a negative and significant relationship between academic self-efficacy and the components of entity belief. Also, by comparing the values of correlation coefficients in English learners and Persian language learners, we found that there is the highest correlation between entity beliefs and the component of learning requirements in class and this relationship is negative. In this way, we conclude that there is a relationship between entity beliefs and academic self-efficacy. There is a significant negative relationship between English learners and Persian language learners. Also, by comparing the values of correlation coefficients in English learners and Persian language learners, it was concluded that there is a significant negative relationship between entity beliefs and academic self-efficacy in English learners and Persian language learners. Structural equation analysis also confirms the first hypothesis of the research. In examining the second hypothesis of the research, the findings showed Among English learners and Persian language learners, the degree of correlation between incremental beliefs and academic self-efficacy is significant. Therefore, the second hypothesis is confirmed and this correlation was more present among English speakers. Structural equation analysis also confirms the second hypothesis. The results of this research are in line with the results of researchers such as (Burnette. Et ai, 2013; Dweck & Yeager, 2019; Cutumisu, & Lou, 2020). The results of this research will have practical applications for Persian language and English teachers; For example, teachers can take action in content development and classroom activities to expand academic self-efficacy and increase incremental attitudes in the language mindsets of Persian students. Considering the confirmation of two hypotheses (the existence of a significant positive relationship between incremental beliefs and academic self-efficacy in English learners and Persian language learners and the presence of a significant negative relationship between entity beliefs and academic self-efficacy in language learners), it can be concluded that to increase academic self-efficacy among language learners, teachers should pay attention to the components of language mindsets in the activity Individual and group class tests and tests and try to develop incremental beliefs (in the three components of GLB, L2B and ASB). These results can open the way for educational managers and designers of educational courses to increase the incremental beliefs of language learners in educational content and curriculum design.
Conflict of Interest
This research has been carried out at all stages, including design, collection, analysis and interpretation of data and publication, at personal expense, and the author is not affiliated with any organization that affects any of the goals or actions of the research.
 Acknowledgment
The author would like to thank the Persian language teaching centres of Tarbiat Modares and Allameh Tabatabai universities and Dehkhoda Institute for providing the basis for collecting research data.