Locus of Control as a Function of ELL Success
INTRODUCTION
As the United States is increasing rapidly in immigrant populations, it is vital to address the educational needs of these students. A large part of the solution is to focus on the issue from a multicultural worldview (Kerka, 1992), with a focus on learning, rather than on teaching (Chang and Ho, 2009). Rubie, Towsend, and Moore (2004) addressed the worldwide phenomenon of the lack of educational achievement amongst immigrant students. They attributed this to several societal factors, such as "teaching practices that are insensitive to minority cultural practices or values and familial factors such as low parental expectations of children's schooling (p. 144)." The researchers also found that student locus of control plays a large role in academic achievement. However, several other dynamics come into play, such as teacher expectancies.
According to the authors of our class textbook, (Shunk, Pintrich, and Meece, 2008) expectancies are the beliefs and judgments of people that they are able to complete a given task successfully (p. 44). While this definition reflects the mindset of an individual regarding his/her capabilities, people may hold expectancies of others as well. A notable example is the relationship between teachers and students.
Murray, Herling, and Staebler (1971) discovered that many teachers have "expectancies of students based on the student's initial performance than by more recent performance on his/her part (p. 14)." If teachers expect particular students to perform well, it is likely that the students will do so. Conversely, if teachers hold negative expectancies of students who do not initially perform well, this may create a self-fulfilling prophecy, which is similar to the concept of stereotype threat. Stereotype threat, as defined by Shunk et al., postulates that negative assumptions held by teachers about students' abilities would generally lead to a decline in performance.
Regarding English language learners (ELL), Henderson (1980) found that culturally diverse children often come from a different background from which their teachers are accustomed. The aforementioned self-fulfilling prophecy may be extremely harmful, particularly when concerning ELL students, who may show sharp increases in academic achievement as their skill in English develops. If the negative expectancy is not addressed and overcome, this may impact learners' capabilities to adjust to school, which, in turn, can affect their motivation and academic achievement. Students who are not able to adapt are likely to experience repeated academic failure.
In this review of current and historical literature, I will briefly address theories of motivation, discuss the premise of locus of control, and tackle how locus of control may affect ELL students. Finally, I will reveal solutions found in the literature to help all students become more intrinsically motivated.
MOTIVATION
"Motivation affects all aspects of schooling and contributes to students' school success, [so] improving students' academic motivation is a worthwhile goal of schooling (Shunk et al., p. 3)."
The word, motivation, derives from the Latin word, motivus, meaning, "a moving cause (Brittanica, 2010)." In English, motivation, as defined by Chang and Ho, means, "a state of cognitive and emotional arousal...[which] leads to a conscious decision to act, and also gives rise to a sustained intellectual or physical effort (p. 191)." Shunk et al. found that students with high motivation in a given subject area tend to achieve at higher levels (p. 13).
Bandura's (1993) conducted significant research in the area of motivation. His model of self-efficacy postulates that individuals judge their own capabilities to perform at a given task. This further influences their choices of activity, work, and persistence (p. 193). When individual feel a strong sense of self-efficacy, they are likely to attempt to work through difficulties. Conversely, when individuals lack self-efficacy, they are more likely to give up when facing challenges. Similarly to Shunk et. al, Benninga, Thornburg, and Guskey (1980) also found that motivational factors play a large part in an individual's scholarly success.
Shunk et al. and Henderson described the theory of learned helplessness, associated with a lack of perceived control, whereby students fall into a repeated pattern of academic failure, and learn to attribute their failure to a lack of competence in the given subject. These students then fall into a downward spiral, when facing difficult circumstances of the same sort. Eventually, students who display learned helplessness might decline to expend effort, altogether. This learned helplessness, which may plague many ELL students, can be attributed to an external locus of control. This idea is further developed in the following section.
LOCUS OF CONTROL
Historically, the term "locus of control" derives from attribution theory. In the mid-1960s, Rotter coined the term from his work in social learning theory, to describe an individual's orientation in learning, motivation, and ability. Chang and Ho define locus of control as "one's belief in his or her abilities to control life events (p. 193)." The term can be further dissected into two parts: locus, meaning either internal or external; and control, meaning whether a cause is controllable or uncontrollable (Shunk et al., p. 83).
An individual with an internal locus tends to believe that rewards and punishments are granted because of his/her actions, knowledge, or influence, whereas someone with an external locus may believe that situations generally occur due to luck, fate, or other factors outside of his/her control. Whiting (2009) studied gifted African American adolescent males, and found that students with an internal locus of control generally do well because of a strong work ethic, which leads them to participate in class, study, and do school assignments for intrinsic reasons (p. 229).
Henderson also found a positive correlation between internal locus of control and educational achievement. He further stated that minority and poor children tend to have an external locus of control in school, as opposed to their majority and affluent peers. However, this claim has been refuted by several sources, one of which being Stephens (1972), who found that socioeconomic status appears to trump race and/or ethnicity in determining an individual's locus of control. Schunk et al. further discussed the notion, reporting that while early research identified African Americans and women to have external loci of control, these inferences were later found to be overgeneralizations. The authors further stated, "Researchers often do not find cultural differences in motivation (p. 296)," implicating that there has been no correlation between culture and locus of control.
Interestingly, Murray et al. found that the particular locus orientation of a teacher may play a large part in the evaluation of students. In their study, female teachers from grades four through six watched a video of a boy performing mathematical tasks, and were asked to evaluate him in several ways, such as intelligence, academic achievement, and performance condition. They found that extrinsically oriented teachers attributed the boy's performance to factors such as performance condition. However, there was no significant difference between the groups in regards to attribution of intrinsic values such intelligence. The authors replicated the study, and obtained the same results with male teachers. Martin and Baldwin (1996) affirmed the reliability of the study, stating that teachers "with a greater sense of personal control will have different perceptions about classroom management style."
Such perspectives can play a large role in the academic success of any given student. Shunk et al. relayed the results of the controversial Pygmalion study, whereby researchers found that "teacher expectancies acted as self-fulfilling prophecies because student achievement came to reflect the expectations (p. 332)." As stated in the introduction, given that a teacher's expectancy of a student's achievement is likely to be based on the student's initial successes, educators must be aware of this expectancy bias particularly when dealing with ELL students. It is towards these students that I now turn my attention.
LOCUS OF CONTROL IN RELATION TO ELL STUDENTS
For the purposes of this literature review, I have operationalized the term ELL to mean students raised into a non-Anglophone culture, who face a language barrier upon entering American educational systems. These students may have immigrated, or may be born in the United States, but raised by a family whose native tongue is not English. This definition was based on the work of researchers who studied locus of control as a function of culture (Henderson, Kerka), and served as a criterion for article selection in this review of literature.
Kerka discussed the concept of worldview in her research, defining it as "the attitudes, values, opinions, and beliefs with which a person perceives the world...influenced by cultural heritage and life experiences (p. 2)." This concept of worldview is important in relation to locus of control, regarding ELL students, because it can have a tremendous affect on self-efficacy. English language learners are at risk for learned helplessness, as described in previous sections (Henderson). They may feel anxiety and may experience deterioration in performance, as a result of failure experiences. These individuals may also suffer a tremendous blow to their academic self-efficacy. Strategies to facilitate the transition of ELL students are shared in the conclusion.
Estrada, Dupoux, and Wolman (2005) stated that personal-emotional functioning is a predictor of adjustment to college, and investigated how locus of control affected personal-emotional and social adjustment in ELL community college students. The researchers utilized the Adult Nowicki-Strickland Internal External Scale (ANSIE), a 40-item selected response instrument, in order to assess students' locus of control. They found that locus of control was significantly related with both personal-emotional and social adjustment.
Similarly, Chang and Ho measured the effects of locus of control on self-efficacy and performance in adult ELL students at the community college level through the Intellectual Achievement Responsibility questionnaire, which assessed locus of control through a twenty-question Likert-scale. They found that students with an internal locus of control achieved more than students with an external locus of control. Both aforementioned studies dealt with adult students at the community college level. Many of the same concerns may be found in K-12 students; however, students at different ages are at different developmental stages. Thus, the findings of these studies cannot be generalized to the experiences of younger students.
CONCLUSION
Considering the literature reviewed in this paper, it is critical that educators help facilitate the development of an internal locus of control for all students. Minority and ELL students, in particular, can benefit from a variety of different strategies, which will reduce their likelihood of falling into the pattern of learned helplessness. Several of these strategies are discussed below.
Shunk et al. encouraged teachers to help students set positive expectancies for themselves. When one has a perceived sense of control, he or she is more likely to be intrinsically motivated to complete an activity (Chang and Ho). Such internally oriented individuals tend to excel at learner-controlled instructional situations, whereas other students may not do as well. Chang and Ho's findings supported attribution theory, which postulates that locus of control is influenced by affect. The researchers suggested encouraging students to take more responsibility for their learning, as well as providing them with more decision-making power, in order to foster the active growth of students.
In terms of teacher expectancies, Henderson found that professional development could help to facilitate student internal locus. He also suggested a highly structured classroom environment, with less emphasis on competition. English Language Learners could also benefit from learning to set their own realistic goals, and from positive teacher feedback on students' performance (Fong, 1994).
Hoffman and Wallash (2005) discussed the merits of mentoring, particularly in community college situations. In their study, they examined the effects of a mentoring program between four-year university students and community college students. They found that, through weekly gardening and collaborative group work sessions, the internal locus of control of the community college students increased significantly. Similarly, Shunk et al. discussed how model similarity (the process of observing similar "others" succeed, p. 133) could raise the self-efficacy of individuals.
More specifically to the topic of ELL students, bilingual and multicultural programs can play an important role in motivation and self-efficacy, and can encourage parents to play a more active role in their children's learning. Kerka, Whiting, and Rubie et al. further suggest that educational institutions strive to have diverse role models on their staff, and model culturally sensitive attitudes and behaviors, while utilizing culturally responsive content and methods in instruction.
In order to meet the needs of the diverse classroom, educators must use such culturally responsive practices in their teaching. Furthermore, we must examine and be aware of our own cognitions and biases, and possibly amend them so that we have a positive expectancy for each student. As evidenced by the research, teachers' expectancies can create self-fulfilling prophecies; therefore, it is important to remember that every student can learn, regardless of gender, race, class, immigrant status, or any other characteristic, and it is our job, as educators, to facilitate learning.
REFERENCES
Benninga, J. S., Thornburg, K. R., and Guskey, T. R. (1980). Selected attitudes of teachers and student perceptions of instruction at the primary level. Paper presented at the International Congress on Early Childhood Education (Tel Aviv, Israel, January 6-10, 1980).
Chang, M. and Ho, C. (2009). Effects of locus of control and learner-control on web-based language learning. Computer assisted language learning. Vol. 22, No.3, July 2009. 189-206.
Estrada, L., Dupoux, E., and Wolman, C. (2005). The personal-emotional social adjustment of English-language learners to a community college. Community college journal of research and practice. 29; 557-568, 2005.
Henderson, R. W. (1980). Social and emotional needs of culturally diverse children. Exceptional children. Volume 46, No. 8.
Hoffman, A. G. and Wallash, J. (2005). Effects of mentoring on community college students in transition to university. The community college enterprise. Spring 2005.
Kerka, S. (1992). Multicultural career education and development. ERIC digests. Retrieved from www.eric.ed.gov on March 24, 2011.
Martin, N. K. and Baldwin, B. (1996). Perspectives regarding classroom management styles: Differences between elementary and secondary level teachers. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Southwest Educational Research Association (New Orleans, La, January 1996).
Stephens, M. W. (1972). Locus of control as a mediator of cognitive development. Annual convention of the American Psychological Association.
Whiting, G. (2009). Gifted black males: Understanding and decreasing barriers to achievement and identity. Roeper review, 31: 224-233, 2009.
Young, F. L. (1994). Self-concepts, locus of control, and Machiavellianism of ethnically diverse middle school students who are gifted. Roeper review. v16, n3, p 192-94. Feb 1994.
