Self-Confidence of Students with Disabilities in College Level Linguistic Class

Professional English Chair, Kuban State University (KubSU), Krasnodar city, Russia

^* Corresponding author: arthelen@mail.ru

Abstract

The goal of this study is to determine the difference of linguistic literacy and self-confidence of students with disabilities in an English class. An enhanced understanding of how students’ self-confidence influences benefits of educational linguistic practice. In this article the concepts of linguistic literacy and the storytelling as one of the methods are examined and discussed. In linguistic field, self-confidence was predicted by various factors: current self-confidence of students with disabilities was most strongly predicted by received praise, current grades, and interest in linguistics. The number of under-confident students was reported consistently higher than the number of confident students, highlighting that under-confidence may ultimately be motivationally detrimental. The data for this study were collected through linguistic literacy test and a questionnaire at the English class which was distributed through a randomized sampling method. Students with disabilities who have had linguistic experience have a higher level of self-confidence in linguistic literacy than students who have not attended the class. This study provides means to improve self-confidence of students with disabilities’ and at the same time improves linguistic literacy which allow them to achieve higher personal, career goals and prosperous future.