1 Introduction

The complexity and uncontrollability of foreign language listening lead to learners' anxiety, frustration, and lack of motivation, which affects the development of listening skills. In academic English listening, self-efficacy is particularly important for learners, as it helps to increase learning motivation, interest, reduce anxiety, use listening strategies, and improve listening skills. Self efficacy has domain and skill specificity, and exploring the relationship between individual foreign language self-efficacy and foreign language skill level in specific domains is of great significance. At present, research on academic English listening self-efficacy is very scarce in the field of Sino foreign cooperative education. This study aims to explore the composition and current status of academic listening self-efficacy among Chinese foreign language learners, enrich research on foreign language learning self-efficacy, and provide suggestions for academic English listening teaching.

2 Literature Review

Self efficacy is the core of social cognitive theory and has a significant impact on foreign language learning, positively correlated with foreign language achievement. There is relatively little research on self-efficacy in foreign language listening, and there is a lack of research on gender differences. The structure of self-efficacy includes multiple dimensions. Ge Xiuhua (2013) proposed that English listening self-efficacy includes cognitive and metacognitive dimensions, but does not involve academic English. Academic English listening requires higher standards, and students face special challenges. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is used in the field of English education to study foreign language learning self-efficacy and learning strategies, which helps to understand students' evaluation of their academic listening abilities.

3 Research Design

This paper introduces the design of a study on academic English listening self-efficacy based on exploratory factor analysis. The research questions include the dimensional composition of academic English listening efficacy, the differences between male and female students, and the relationship between efficacy and actual listening ability. The research subjects are sophomore students of the General Academic English course in a Sino foreign cooperative education project at a university in the northwest region of China. A total of 153 students participated in the questionnaire survey. The data collection tool is the "Academic English Listening Efficacy Survey Questionnaire", which uses the Likert five point scale with a total of 28 items. The actual listening ability of students is reflected by the average score of two listening exams. Researchers will use SPSS 26.0 to conduct exploratory factor analysis, descriptive statistical analysis, single sample t-test, Pearson correlation analysis, and linear regression analysis to explore the internal dimensions, current status, gender differences, and their relationship with listening proficiency in academic English listening.

4 Research Results

The dimensions of academic English listening self-efficacy were revealed through data analysis. The reliability of the questionnaire and exploratory factor analysis results showed that the data was suitable for analysis, and the scale was ultimately determined to include 5 dimensions and 24 items. The dimensions include listening effort, listening strategy, basic listening perception, listening environment perception, and listening control perception. Gender difference analysis shows that girls have a significantly higher sense of listening environment than boys, but there is no significant correlation between overall academic English listening efficacy and gender. Academic English listening self-efficacy is positively correlated with listening scores, but the correlation is weak and cannot significantly predict actual English listening ability.

5 Conclusion and Implications

This chapter summarizes the five dimensions of self-efficacy in academic English listening: listening effort, listening strategy, basic listening, listening environment, and listening control, emphasizing the complexity of academic English listening activities. Suggestions have been put forward to improve students' self-efficacy in academic English listening, including strengthening listening strategy training, cultivating students' self-regulation ability, and creating a positive learning atmosphere. The research results show that gender has no significant impact on academic English listening self-efficacy, indicating that academic English listening is a new challenge for all students. There is a positive correlation between academic English listening self-efficacy and listening ability, but the predictive ability is limited. Future research can explore the mechanisms of other factors.