The correlation between parents' educational background and students' self-efficacy in English learning

Self-efficacy is one of the elements that can be predictors that influence whether learning a language is successful or not, and is influenced by various factors, including parents’ socioeconomic status (SES), particularly their educational level. This interpretation aims to investigate the correlation between parents’ educational background and students’ self-efficacy in English learning. The research adopts a correlation design and is conducted at SMAN 15 Surabaya, involving two classes,10-7 with 34 students and 10-12 with 36 students, and parents are also included in this study. However, the participants gathered around 57 students. The data collection instruments consist of a close-ended questionnaire and interviews, supplemented by Microsoft Excel and SPSS for data analysis. The findings reveal a significant correlation in the middle of parents’ educational background and students’ self-efficacy in English learning, with a Sig.(2-tailed) score of 0.004. This indicates that the null hypothesis (Ho) is rejected, and the alternative hypothesis (Ha) suggesting a correlation between the variables is accepted. The Spearman’s coefficient of 0.374 suggests a weak correlation within the range of 0.3 - 0.5. Therefore, while a correlation exists, it is a low level. In conclusion, this study demonstrates the correlation between parents’ educational background and students’ self-efficacy in English learning, it also finds out students’ English learning self-efficacy based on each fathers and mothers’ education level. However,further research is entail to identify additional components that can modify students’ self-efficacy in language learning.