LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal of Language and Literature .... p-ISSN 1858-0165 Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id e-ISSN 2460-853X 440 Undergraduate Students’ Perceived Self-Efficacy in Academic Reading Yulius Nahak Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta anaksulung508@gmail.com Concilianus L. Mbato Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta cons@usd.ac.id Abstract Reading academic materials is necessary for acquiring knowledge and new insights to perform well in all academic demands. Nevertheless, many students were still struggling in understanding academic texts due to their high level of complexity and so avoided reading. Thus, self-efficacy as a motivating force and continuous effort in the reading process must be activated. This study aimed to investigate the undergraduate students’ perception of their self-efficacy in handling the academic reading materials. One research question was proposed namely, to what extent do undergraduate students perceive their self-efficacy in reading academic texts? To answer this question, a mixed method was undertaken. The respondents consist of 35 undergraduate students from two private universities in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The findings indicated that most undergraduate students prefer to read academic texts as a process of constructing meaning. Moreover, to succeed in reading academic text, both external (effective strategies) and internal factors (self-efficacy) were required. One of the implications for teachers and lecturers, namely applying learning procedures that can equip undergraduate students with powerful reading strategies and more importantly stimulate their self-efficacy belief to a stable level which enables them to overcome various difficulties in reading academic texts, such as articles. Keywords: academic reading, perceived self-efficacy, undergraduate students. INTRODUCTION Reading, in addition to listening skills, is an academic venture that needs to be developed to succeed in other academic performances, such as speaking and writing. Implicitly, academic writing demands can properly be handled, when an active academic reading attitude is established at first. Bailey (2011: 19) argued that most writing duties require full-size reading. In-depth, reading of academic texts written by those disciplinary experts enables students to immerse themselves in the self-disciplinary way of life and helps to master their conventions, debate, skills, and expertise (Erickson, Peters & Strommer, 2006: 122). That means reading is a task that needs to be engaged fully to equip the readers with sufficient knowledge to be successful in other academic performances. Looking at the present reality, it cannot be denied that many students are still facing a great challenge in dealing with the academic reading complexity, especially in making use of scholarly articles, such as the written purposes of the text, the language and the structure that are used, and the value conveyed by the texts. As a consequence, the complexity of the academic texts may lead students to the academic procrastination, which is “the enemy of high-quality learning” since it refers to “putting things off until later” (Oakley, Sejnowski & McConville, 2018: 50). To face the academic reading challenges, Bandura (1993) suggested that the possession of information and abilities does not guarantee that it can be used successfully in critical circumstances. Instead, when reading academic materials, students must go beyond the http://journal.unnes.ac.id/ mailto:anaksulung508@gmail.com mailto:cons@usd.ac.id LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal of Language and Literature .... p-ISSN 1858-0165 Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id e-ISSN 2460-853X 441 techniques. They need to cultivate an upbeat attitude in order to get to the level of efficacy belief. As regards, students need to ingrain the self-efficacy as a driving force of motivation that can enable them to overcome their negative feelings and face the academic reading demands calmly. This research study aims to address the issue that oftentimes, students developed a poor feeling about their very own efficacy as readers which leads to reading procrastination or avoidance of reading. Therefore, self-efficacy should be ingrained to strengthen their confidence and motivation to overcome academic reading difficulties because efficacy belief contributes to academic tasks over and beyond actual ability. Bandura (1995) argued that perceived self-efficacy fosters engagement in learning activities that promote the development of educational competencies; such beliefs affect the level of achievement as well as motivation. Self-efficacy performs an essential position in students’ reading development, and it is associated with reading comprehension (Solheim, 2011) and high- quality strategy use (McCrudden, Perkins & Putney, 2005). Moreover, Afflerbach, Cho, Kim, Crassas & Doyle (2013) claimed that successful readers have high self-efficacy. Concerning that, this study was intended to reveal the power of self-efficacy as a weapon to execute academic assignments, such as reading and writing tasks. Another urgency of this study is the lack of research findings on students’ perceptions of self-efficacy in reading academic texts. To have it proven, some of the current research studies (from 2016 to 2020) are investigated to discover the way students dealing with the phenomena of academic reading demands. The first study, which was conducted by You, Dang & Lim (2016) indicated that students’ self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation influenced the relationship between students’ expectations of teachers’ motivational actions and their academic accomplishments in reading, English, and mathematics. The second study held by Mbato (2019) discovered that students possessed some degree of critical thinking in reading, but to become critical, they had to be in a learning atmosphere where their critical thinking in reading could be nurtured consistently and intensively. Then, the study by Rahmawati & Sholihah (2019) revealed that reading logs is very beneficial for the students specifically when they were reading academic articles. Furthermore, Setiawan & Ena (2019) in their study showed that students have positive self- efficacy expectations about their reading, especially in terms of describing, summarizing, and comprehending graphics found in the text without the help of their teachers. Their self- efficacy sources were found in their mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, and emotional and psychological states. Lastly, Sari & Ningsih (2020) found two fundamental issues of online reading strategy: First, students use problem-solving strategies more often when doing online reading activities; and second, there was no significant difference in the reading strategies used by males and females. Having reviewed these previous studies, the researchers observed that the emphasis they made was heavily on external supporting factors of academic reading development, such as problem-solving strategies in online reading (Sari & Ningsih, 2020), the role of the reading log (Rahmawati, 2019), and critical thinking atmosphere (Mbato, 2019). Only two research studies (Setiawan & Ena, 2019 and You, Dang & Lim, 2016) highlighted the influence of self- efficacy in academic performances, including reading, however, the sources of self-efficacy were found in different indications, such as their mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, and emotional and psychological states. Precisely, none of these studies discussed profoundly the strength of self-efficacy that the students should ingrain and maintain to attain their academic reading goals. To fill the gap, this current study deals mainly with the role of self-efficacy as a driving force of motivation that made people pursue a goal and overcome obstacles in academic reading challenges, as emphasized by Ersanli (2015) that those with high self-efficacy did their best and did not give up easily when confronted with difficulties. Leading by this insight, this research aims to investigate the undergraduate students’ perception of their http://journal.unnes.ac.id/ LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal of Language and Literature .... p-ISSN 1858-0165 Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id e-ISSN 2460-853X 442 self-efficacy in reading academic materials. To attend to this aim, one research question was proposed, namely, to what extent do the undergraduate students perceive their self- efficacy in engaging with academic reading demands? The pedagogical implications of this study lie in the awareness of teachers, instructors, students, and researchers to give more attention to the importance of self-efficacy in the academic development, especially reading tasks. As regards, teachers and lecturers are expected to emphasize the importance of designing and implementing teaching processes that provide students with both the effective strategies and a strong sense of self- efficacy to meet all academic demands, particularly academic reading challenges. Then, this study can be a tool that opens a new horizon for the students to ingrain their self- efficacy in order to succeed in reading as construction of meaning, which is crucial in all academic performances. And lastly, this study will be one of the references for future researchers to develop more empirical studies concerning the importance of self-efficacy in achieving academic reading goals. To address the research question deeply, some literatures related to the purpose of academic reading and perceived self-efficacy are reviewed in this following: The purpose of academic reading Sengupta (2002) described academic reading as reading for academic purposes that are more complex and multi-leveled than non- academic reading. What makes academic reading complex is its features that contain formal vocabulary, use of references, impersonal style, long and complicated sentences, and so on. Besides, Hunt (2004:137) asserted that academic reading is a process molded in part by the text, in part by the reader's background, and in part by the situation in which the reading takes place. According to Leki (2001: 88), academic reading entails a comprehensive analysis of texts that are situation explicit and comprise a full synthesis of material from many sources. Reading is thus, more than a basic activity in which one attempts to comprehend what is written in a text; it is a syntactic, semantic, and schematic activity (Wassid & Sunendar, 2011). Nevertheless, reading academic materials cannot be ignored since they provide readers with adequate knowledge and insights. In short, academic reading is purposeful and necessary reading of prolonged educational texts for studying particular foremost challenge areas (Sengupta, 2002). In-depth, Rahim (2009) elaborated that reading activities seeks to (1) extend learners' experiences in science, technology, and culture; (2) teach language sounds, symbols, and meanings of new words to learners; (3) assist learners in comprehending complex sentence structures by reading; and (4) teach comprehension skills through reading. Zua (2017) asserted those individuals read for some reasons, including gaining new information and knowledge, having new experiences (entertainment), and evaluating other people's views, attitudes, and actions. After reviewing these reading purposes, it is apparent that reading assists readers in effectively handling academic obligations since it is a means of verbal communication in which a message is visually transferred between persons (Kingston, 1967: 72). In accord with that, Hermida (2009: 23) affirmed that reading an academic text is a way of interacting with the text that includes recreating the meaning alongside the author. Furthermore, Weir, Hawkey, Green, Unaldi & Devi (2009) asserted that reading is a significant source of input because students must effectively examine to meet the study's requirements. Hence, the most crucial language skill for academic achievement is reading (Celce-Murcia, 1991). To top it all, comprehensive reading is a constructive process of meaning (Duke & Carlisle, 2011; Afflerbach, Cho, Kim, Crassas & Doyle, 2013; Wahyono, 2019). Perceived self-efficacy in academic reading Perception is a term used to describe the whole process of human reasoning that incorporates a person's perspective and understanding of an object in their environment based on their observations, knowledge, and experience (Fitriani, 2019: 85). In relation to academic growth, perceived academic self- http://journal.unnes.ac.id/ LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal of Language and Literature .... p-ISSN 1858-0165 Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id e-ISSN 2460-853X 443 efficacy is a subjective assessment of one's ability to plan and carry out actions to achieve specific sorts of educational outcomes (Bandura, 1977; Schunk, 1989). Consequently, reading self-efficacy beliefs are shown to be related to reading achievement (Sundström, 2006) as well as to reading behavior (Anmarkrud & Bråten, 2009). To stress the point, Gavora (2010) argued that self-efficacy refers to one's belief in his/her capacity to do academic activities adequately and successfully. In fact, the successful readers have strong self-efficacy; they anticipate being challenged by various texts and activities, and they expect to succeed (Afflerbach, et al., 2013: 440); they frequently attribute failure to insufficient effort or to lack of intelligence and attribute their success to exterior factors, such as luck or instructor assistance (Shell, Colvin & Bruning, 1995). While, students with poor self- efficacy, on the other hand, avoid difficulties and focus their attention on personal flaws (Pajares, 1996). As expected, efficacious students who are struggling with textual content may believe that they need to be more diligent and strategic, whereas less efficacious students may believe that they are simply not smart enough to comprehend the challenging text (Afflerbach, et al., 2013: 446). Hamming it up, self-efficacy is crucial for students’ academic reading growth (McCrudden, Perkins & Putney, 2005), since it is connected to reading comprehension and the use of high-quality techniques (Solheim, 2011); it is also favorably connected to self-rated mental effort and accomplishment while learning from text material that is viewed as difficult (Salomon, 1984). METHODOLOGY Research design This research study employed a mixed-method approach, combining qualitative and quantitative techniques to gain a better understanding of a single phenomenon (see Creswell, Clark & Garrett, 2003). One of the reasons the researchers used a mixed-method approach was that many social scientists currently feel that no significant problem area should be investigated only using one study method (compare Terrell, 2012: 258). Therefore, data was collected qualitatively and quantitatively to get a better knowledge and confirmation of the phenomenon of undergraduate students perceived their self- efficacy in academic reading demands. Data collection procedures The procedure of gathering the quantitative data was done in two steps: The first step was distributing the Likert-scale questionnaire consisting of ten statements: five statements were asking about how undergraduate students deal with the challenge of the academic reading. Another five statements were asking about how the undergraduate students perceived their self-efficacy in meeting the academic reading challenges to succeed well. The Likert-Scale questionnaire consists of options, such as “Strongly Agree” (SA), “Agree” (A), “Neutral” (N), “Disagree” (D), and “Strongly Disagree” (SD). The next step was to organize all the data gathered into descriptive statistics and display percentages of the total responses of each participant in the study. The researchers applied this formula to measure the percentage of each finding: ∑x/∑ n. 100%. While gathering the qualitative data, a semi- structured interview of five selected participants was done by asking them about the challenges and factors that affect their reading success. The interview results were arranged in form of extracts presented the challenges, internal and external factors which affect undergraduate students’ success in academic reading tasks. Participants The participants who took part in this research project were thirty-five undergraduate students from two separate private universities in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. They were chosen using convenient sampling. The researchers chose them because they were living close to the researchers, which could facilitate us to collect data about their self-efficacy in academic reading. Many of them seemed to struggle and even avoid reading academic texts because of the complexity of the text and lack of motivation. Data collection methods http://journal.unnes.ac.id/ LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal of Language and Literature .... p-ISSN 1858-0165 Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id e-ISSN 2460-853X 444 To collect the quantitative data, a Likert-scale questionnaire was distributed. Awang, Afthanorhan and Mamat (2016) pointed out that the Likert scale is commonly used in survey research using primary and secondary data to measure the respondent attitude by asking how much they agree or disagree with a particular question. And to collect the qualitative data, a tool called semi- structured interviews was employed. Semi- structured interview is believed to be “more flexible and adaptive” (Gavora, 2006) because the interviewer can create and avoid questions in order to adjust to the topic, and this can lead to more effective data collection. The first goal of this interview tool, according to Kvale (1996), is to establish a connection with the respondent in order to grasp their point of view. Trueman (2016) asserted that a natural and trusting connection between the researcher and the study subject may lead to a more successful dialogue, which can then result in the creation of rich in-depth material with better internal validity. Data analysis procedures To analyze the data, the researcher utilized the explanatory approach which included the task of identifying key variables. This study’s data gathering approach sought to look at both quantitative and qualitative data. For the quantitative one, the number or percentage of participants from the entire population sample who offered certain types of perspectives on each of the question variables was calculated. Qualitative data was used to support the quantitative findings in relation to undergraduate students’ perception on their self-efficacy in exploring the academic reading tasks. The interview results from the participants were arranged in the form of extracts and followed by the analysis of each extract. RESULT AND DISCUSSION This chapter summarizes all of the data from the Likert-scale questionnaire and interview activities on undergraduate students' self- efficacy in academic reading. It is divided into two categories, although they are slightly similar. The first findings consisted of five statements which concerned about external and internal factors that supported and at the same time challenged the undergraduate student's self-efficacy when they were involved in academic reading assignments. The second finding, which consisted of the other five statements, gave more emphasis on the degree of self-efficacy that undergraduate students needed to ingrain to reach their goal in academic reading. Therefore, to gain a better knowledge of this issue, the data findings from the questionnaire are provided below in the form of percentages, along with some interview results, associated theories from experts, and some pertinent connections from prior studies. Table 1. The questionnaire result of supporting factors in academic reading success No . Statement SD D N A SA 1. I believe that I can only read with a deep understanding if I master the active academic reading strategies. 1 2.85% 4 11.4 % 9 25.7 % 16 45.7% 5 14.2% 2. I believe that I can overcome my negative feelings in reading difficult academic texts because I possess the capacity to do so. - 8 22.8% 8 22.8% 14 40% 5 14.2% 3. I believe that I can only learn how to decode the technical elements of the text when the teachers or colleagues are guiding me along the process. 1 2.85% 6 17.1% 9 25.7% 16 45.7% 3 8.57% http://journal.unnes.ac.id/ LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal of Language and Literature .... p-ISSN 1858-0165 Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id e-ISSN 2460-853X 445 4. I agree that reading academic materials in a printed copy is more effective than reading a soft copy on the computer screen. 3 8.57% 1 2.85% 8 22.8% 13 37.1% 10 28.5% 5. I believe that I can read English academic texts because they have benefits for my professional or personal life. 2 5.71% 4 11.4% 4 11.4% 13 37.1% 12 34.2% As shown in table 1, the results of the first five assertions were utilized to identify certain external and internal factors that improved undergraduate students’ self-efficacy in academic reading activities. In response to the first statement, five undergraduate students (14.2%) picked strongly agree while sixteen undergraduate students (45.7%) chose to agree. According to this result, the majority of undergraduate students believed that learning the techniques and strategies were critical to have a thorough knowledge of the academic reading. This finding backs up the concept of Paris et al (1991) that strategic readers are defined by their ability to match appropriate techniques to the reading environment. Furthermore, Pada, Setyosari, Degeng & Widiati (2016: 356) believed that good readers were those who employed a range of reading methods to build meaning when reading the text and material. In addition, Molotja (2020) showed that metacognitive reading techniques were critical for students to obtain information in academic texts. To top it all, the use of academic reading strategies by the undergraduate students is necessary to succeed in their university studies. The second statement revealed that five undergraduate students (14.2%) picked strongly agree, whereas fourteen students (40 %) chose to agree. This finding revealed the majority of the undergraduate students possessed the ability to overcome their negative feelings in confronting academic reading difficulties. These undergraduate students can be categorized as having a high self-efficacy since “they anticipate to be pushed by diverse texts and tasks, and they expect to meet those challenges” (Afflerbach et al., 2013) in their reading process. Besides, this finding indicates an ability of undergraduate students to strategize the academic reading which contributed to overcoming their reading anxieties. This is strengthened by the finding of Rahmat, Arepin & Sulaiman (2020) discovered that in the academic reading classroom, teaching and learning techniques impacted readers' perceptions of reading anxiety. In the third statement, three undergraduate students (8.57%) picked strongly agree, whereas sixteen undergraduate students (45.7%) chose to agree. This finding showed that most undergraduate students can decode the technical elements of the text when the teachers or colleagues are guiding them along the process. According to Pada, Setyosari, Degeng & Widiati (2016: 356), decoding (encoding) is the process of turning a series of pictures into words. In conclusion, reading, whether in printed or online materials, is not a straightforward activity in the sense that it entails striving to comprehend what is expressed in the text, and it is necessary to be guided by a teacher or peers. And in case of academic online reading materials, Lee & Chang (2017) discovered that students' reading proficiency improved when they were able to collaborate with their groupmates and teachers online via the Edmodo educational networking site rather than doing the reading individually in the traditional manner. The fourth statement revealed that ten (28%) undergraduate students picked strongly agree and thirteen (37%) undergraduate students chose to agree. This finding indicates that the majority of the undergraduate students considered a printed reading format more effective than an unprinted one to be read. This finding is similar to that of Mizrachi, Salaz, Kurbanoglu, Boustany & ARFIS Research Group (2018), who discovered that the majority of university students preferred to read their academic materials in print format, believing that they learned and focused better on the material presented in print. In conclusion, the print format provides an advantage for learning and retaining information provided in a text. The last finding is nearly identical to the fourth finding, as twelve undergraduate http://journal.unnes.ac.id/ LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal of Language and Literature .... p-ISSN 1858-0165 Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id e-ISSN 2460-853X 446 students (34.2%) picked strongly agree and thirteen (37.1%) chose to agree. Therefore, it can be said that the majority of undergraduate students were capable of reading English academic material since it was enriching and enabling them to pursue their high education demands. Concerning this, Busby (2020) discovered that the quantity of English experienced outside of formal schooling had a substantial influence on students’ academic reading abilities, indicating that the way English is taught in schools should be reassessed. This research has ramifications for our knowledge of second language reading in a world where students are increasingly required to read in English as a second language as part of their higher education. All these first five findings are related to the five selected interview participants regarding the challenges and strategies to read academic texts. They are arranged in these following excerpts: Participant number 1 Excerpt 1: This participant stated: “The internal factors that challenged me in reading academic text are my negative emotions, such as low self-motivation, feel boring, doubted and anxious to read.” Excerpt 2: “The external factors are that I need the stimulation through the requirement given by the instructors to do research. Language limitation to understand English-written journals is another factor that affects my motivation to read.” Participant number 2 Excerpt 3: The second participant said: “The internal factor that supported my academic reading tasks are first is to understand the untranslated term in a foreign language. There are so many terms that we cannot translate literally. Second is the tendency to read rapidly.” Excerpt 4: “The external factors are having enough time to read/ no rush, no distraction during reading and have a comfortable place to read.” Participant number 3 Excerpt 5: This third participant explained: “The internal factors that support my reading are my curiosity to know something more; the willingness to change my way of thinking; and enjoying how the writer builds his idea. Excerpt 6: “The external factors are the obligation in the university to finish the assignment that is given and to prepare me for answering the questions from the professors during the exam; the obligation in the community to read the books; and the encouragement of the community and the university to know something further.” Participant number 4 Excerpt 7: This participant stated: “The internal factors that support me in reading academic texts are my own desire to read; and my own knowledge.” Excerpt 8: “The external factors are my own skill of reading; the people to whom I am dealing with; and the information, knowledges from various sources.” Participant number 5 Excerpt 9: This fifth participant said: “The internal factors that support me in reading academic texts are the motivation to study; have self-control to use the Internet properly; the disposition of mind and hearts; self-discipline to manage the time; and priories the subject that is need immediate attention when studying.” Excerpt 10: “The external factors are the available books; people around us; the system where we live; and the internet access where we can get information and the health condition is limited”. The interview result from participant number 1 showed that this undergraduate student was able to read the academic text material due to the motivation to learn new things and the professor's encouragement to keep his desire to read and comprehend the tough text alive. Motivation, according to Akhtar, Iqbal & Tatlah (2017) is made up of significant internal and external components that boost people’s desire and effort to attain a goal. The interview result from participant number 2 indicated that this undergraduate student needed dedicated time and space to study academic material, with foreign- http://journal.unnes.ac.id/ https://ntnuopen.ntnu.no/ntnu-xmlui/browse?value=Busby,%20Nicole%20Louise&type=author https://ntnuopen.ntnu.no/ntnu-xmlui/browse?value=Busby,%20Nicole%20Louise&type=author https://ntnuopen.ntnu.no/ntnu-xmlui/browse?value=Busby,%20Nicole%20Louise&type=author https://ntnuopen.ntnu.no/ntnu-xmlui/browse?value=Busby,%20Nicole%20Louise&type=author https://ntnuopen.ntnu.no/ntnu-xmlui/browse?value=Busby,%20Nicole%20Louise&type=author https://ntnuopen.ntnu.no/ntnu-xmlui/browse?value=Busby,%20Nicole%20Louise&type=author https://ntnuopen.ntnu.no/ntnu-xmlui/browse?value=Busby,%20Nicole%20Louise&type=author https://ntnuopen.ntnu.no/ntnu-xmlui/browse?value=Busby,%20Nicole%20Louise&type=author LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal of Language and Literature .... p-ISSN 1858-0165 Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id e-ISSN 2460-853X 447 untranslated words and a proclivity to read quickly posing problems. The interview result from participant number 3 pointed out the external forces that drove him to read were the responsibility to finish assignments and prepare well for exams, the community's obligation to read books, and the community's and university's encouragement to obtain more information. Internal considerations for him include his want to learn more, his readiness to modify his way of thinking, and his enjoyment of the writer's construction of his concept. According to the interview result from participant number 4, the people around him, as well as information or knowledge from various sources, were external factors that encourage academic reading. Personal reading abilities, a desire to read, and prior knowledge, on the other hand, were internal elements that were encouraged. The interview result from participant number 5 revealed that reading development was influenced by resources such as books, Internet access, the environment, and the institutional structure. Furthermore, personal characteristics such as motivation to study, health, mental and emotional temperament, self- discipline, and reading priorities were beneficial. The challenges encountered, such as a lack of motivation to study, a lack of self-discipline to manage time, a lack of self-control to use the Internet appropriately, and amusement all the things we want but were not necessary. These findings from five participants are in line with Afflerbach’s (2013: 440) claimed that successful readers are metacognitive, encouraged, engaged, epidemic, and have high self-efficacy. Metacognition has an impact on students' reading performance as they establish targets, choose and used strategies, and self- monitor the effectiveness of their reading to achieve goals (Zimmerman, 2008). Besides, when students’ interest and motivation are high, reading instruction develops their reading comprehension (Guthrie & Wigfield, 2017). Moreover, Bråten, Britt, Strømsø & Rouet, (2011a) found that students' epidemic views affect their reading comprehension. When students consider reading as an opportunity to learn something new, they are more likely to employ higher-order thinking than when they feel the aim of reading is to develop a literal comprehension of the text to report back to the instructor. Regarding the role of self-efficacy, Schunk & Zimmerman (2007) believed that it has an impact on reading performance. Table 2. The questionnaire result of self-efficacy-promoted impact in academic reading success No . Statement SD D N A SA 1. I have a very strong confidence to attribute academic reading tasks as constructing new meanings that equip me with sufficient knowledge to face other academic demands. - 2 5.71% 6 17.1% 18 51.4% 9 25.7% 2. I have a very high self-efficacy in academic readings to overcome my negative feelings on academic readings challenges. 2 5.71% 8 22.8% 11 31.4% 13 37.3% 1 2.85% 3. I possess a very strong confidence to challenge myself to appreciate more the value delivered by the authors. 2 5.71% 3 17.1% 6 25.7% 18 51.4% 6 17.1% 4. I have a strong confidence to manage the bad conditions, such as a distracting environment, or just read through a soft copy on the computer screen to read academic texts. 1 2.85% 8 22.8% 11 31.4% 15 42.8% - http://journal.unnes.ac.id/ LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal of Language and Literature .... p-ISSN 1858-0165 Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id e-ISSN 2460-853X 448 5. I have a high confidence to enjoy reading academic texts the same as reading non- academic texts. - 4 11.4% 11 31.4% 12 34.2% 8 22.8% Table 2 above shows that the results of the other five statements which are used to find out the important role of self-efficacy in academic reading development. Statement number one reveals that nine (25.7%) undergraduate students chose strongly agree and eighteen (51.4%) students chose to agree. From this finding, it is concluded that most of the undergraduate students attribute academic reading tasks as constructing new meanings which equip them with sufficient knowledge to face other academic demands. This conclusion is supported by the idea of Wahyono (2019) which stated that reading is a crucial literacy skill by which the learners have to be acquired in order to duplicate the meaning in the text. In the second statement, there was one (2.85%) undergraduate student who chose strongly agree and thirteen (37.3%) students who chose agree. From this finding, it can be inferred that many undergraduate students believe that they have very high self-efficacy in academic readings to overcome their negative feelings on academic reading challenges. This is closely related to Salomon’s (1984) hypothesis, which believed that self-efficacy is positively associated to self-rated mental effort and accomplishment while students are learning from difficult text material. Besides, this finding is similar to Diasti & Mbato's (2020), who discovered that: (1) students had high self-efficacy which enabled them complete their academic reading task; (2) they had an intrinsic motivation that empowered them stay motivated throughout the academic reading exposure; and (3) they had positive emotions about academic reading. In the third statement, there were six (17.1%) undergraduate students who chose strongly agree and eighteen (51.4%) students who chose agree. This finding shows that the majority of the undergraduate students saw themselves as having very strong confidence to challenge their selves to appreciate more the value delivered by the authors. This finding is linked to the notion of Epidemic Beliefs, which is a personal view of knowledge and understanding. Students’ critical reading is influenced by epidemic belief when they make judgements about the text’s truth and quality, as well as author bias and trustworthiness (NGA Center & CCSSO, 2010). The fourth statement showed that there were fifteen (42.8%) undergraduate students who chose to agree. This finding indicates that many undergraduate students had strong confidence to manage the bad conditions, such as a distracting environment, or just read through a soft copy on the computer screen to read academic texts. This finding is in line with the finding of Thompson, Aizawa, Curle & Rose (2019), which argued that students with higher efficacy put out more effort and perceive course activities as opportunities for growth. Reading on the Internet is the same as reading through a computer screen or unprinted format. In the fifth finding, there were eight (22.8%) undergraduate students who chose strongly agree and twelve (34.2%) students who chose agree. For this last finding, it can be argued that many populations of undergraduate students believe that they had strong confidence to enjoy reading academic texts the same as reading non- academic texts. This finding is related to the theory of motivation in reading. Motivated readers prefer to devote time and effort for the variety of reasons, including information collection, knowledge acquisition, or for the purpose of enjoyment (Guthrie & Wigfield, 2017). All of these previous explanations are in accord with five selected participants of interviews regarding activating and maintaining self-efficacy to face the academic reading challenges. The interview results are arranged in the following excerpts: Participant number 1 Excerpt 1: This participant stated: “To cope with those challenges, I used to ask clarification from the instructors and colleagues, re-read and compare the main idea with other journals.” http://journal.unnes.ac.id/ LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal of Language and Literature .... p-ISSN 1858-0165 Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id e-ISSN 2460-853X 449 Excerpt 2: “The most importantly is setting a personal schedule to read, and dare to challenge my feeling of boredom, doubt, and anxieties to establish a desire to read within me.” Participant number 2 Excerpt 3: The second participant said: “The way I used to overcome challenges in academic reading are by study more other language to be able to read the original text, and try to consult a commentary about the text or discuss with others to find new perspectives.” Participant number 3 Excerpt 4: This third participant explained: “The way I activate and maintain my self- efficacy is by putting away all the destructions (other books, handphone, and etcetera) and try to find the main topic of each paragraph. It can give me a small sense of pride and encourages me to maintain myself-efficacy.” Participant number 4 Excerpt 5: This participant stated: “The way I activate and maintain my self-efficacy is firstly, by keeping on updating the particular skills of reading; second, try to find ways of overcoming the challenges in which I have undergone, I am undergoing and will undergo; and third, prepare myself to be aware of the challenges that I will face.” Participant number 5 Excerpt 6: This fifth participant said: “The way I activate and maintain my self-efficacy is by being faithful to the personal project, self- discipline, and improving self-motivation, develops self-confidence to express one’s ideas and opinions, building up group study.” The interview result from participant number 1 demonstrated that he was able to manage his time to read journal articles relevant to his study program and dared to confront his feelings of boredom, uncertainty, and anxiety to instill a desire to read in him. The interview result from participant number 2 indicated that when he had to study a text by selecting an original text, he needed to learn additional languages, which is why being able to comprehend another language is advantageous in academic reading assignments. In addition, he would look for a commentary on the text or discuss the book with someone else who had already finished reading the text and would try to learn something new from them. The interview result from participant number 3 mentioned that one of the ways to activate and maintain his self-efficacy was by putting away all the destructions, such as other books, cellphones, and other electronic devices, and attempting to discover the primary theme of each paragraph. It gave him a little sense of accomplishment and motivated him to keep his self-efficacy. The interview result from participant number 4 explained that he activates and maintained his self-efficacy in three ways: (1) continuing to update his reading skills; (2) taking the opportunity to overcome the challenges that he had faced, was facing, and would face; and (3) preparing himself to be aware of the challenges that he would face. The interview result from participant number 5 claimed that sticking to one's project, exercising self-discipline, and increasing self- motivation improved one's self-confidence in expressing one's views and opinions, and helps to create group study. To summarize, findings from the five participants above demonstrated that these undergraduate students were categorized as self- efficient and self-regulated readers. These extracts are closely linked to Bandura's theories on self-efficacy (Bandura, 2006: 170), which claimed that unless students assumed that their actions would achieve desired effects; they had little motivation to act. Further, it was linked to Zimmerman's theory of self-regulation (Zimmerman, 1998: 73), which described self- regulation as self-generated thinking, feelings, and behavior to achieve academic goals. CONCLUSION This research was conducted to answer the question “to what extent do undergraduate students perceive their self-efficacy in reading academic texts”. The conclusion obtained from the quantitative findings revealed that mastering the active academic reading strategies is crucial to read with a deep understanding. Besides, the finding also indicated that having a strong sense http://journal.unnes.ac.id/ LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal of Language and Literature .... p-ISSN 1858-0165 Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id e-ISSN 2460-853X 450 of self-efficacy is necessary to value more academic reading tasks as constructing new meanings to face the academic reading demands. These results were supported by the qualitative data finding with the emphasis on the external and internal factors as prerequisite for achieving academic reading goals. This study’s limitation relied on its heavy focus on the internal component that supported academic reading, specifically self-efficacy. It did not dig further into both external and internal factors affecting students’ academic reading success. In line with that, two important suggestions are addressed: Firstly, future researchers are expected to look deeply into the link between undergraduate students' attitudes, beliefs, and self-efficacy in academic reading tasks and external factors such as text difficulty and instructors’ teaching strategies. This will allow them to collect more detailed information about students’ academic reading. 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