Construcción y validación de una escala de autoestima en la clase de lengua extranjera

Abstract

Introduction: Self-esteem is a factor that has a decisive influence on people's perceptions, behaviors and attitudes on a personal, social and academic level. Such influence has been specifically identified in the process of teaching and learning a foreign language; however, there are few previous studies and there are no specific tools in this context that allow us to know the state of the question in depth. Justification and Objective: Being self-esteem a factor that plays a considerable influence on the teaching and learning processes, to date there is no validated tool that diagnoses the levels of self-esteem of students for the specific context of the foreign language class. Therefore, the objective of this doctoral dissertation is to study the construct of self-esteem, and to construct and validate a scale for measuring the construct of self-esteem in that context. Methodology: This study has been sequenced in ten steps that guide the scale construction and validation process (Boateng et al., 2018 and Muñiz and Fonseca-Pedrero, 2019). After addressing the conceptualization of self-esteem and its theoretical aspects, it proceeded to form a theoretical model. This model was operationalized to identify the dimensions and their respective factors, in order to develop the self-esteem measurement scale with the highest possible content validity. The scale was analyzed by a group of experts and subjected to an empirical study to refine the items through a pilot test. Once the first version of the scale was constructed, a reliability study was carried out with a sample of 252 native Spanish speakers who studied languages in formal or informal contexts. A new refinement of items or factors using confirmatory factor analysis gave rise to the final version of the scale, called the Self-Esteem Scale in the Foreign Language Class (SEFLS). Results: Three dimensions were identified: Language proficiency, performance of skills or tasks, and perceived social support. The reliability coefficient of the test was ω = .92. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) yielded an acceptable fit of the 10-item three-dimensional structure model. Conclusions: The SEFLS instrument could be a useful tool to assess students' self-esteem in language class. Implications, limitations, and directions for future research are added.