An Interpreting Self-Efficacy (ISE) scale for undergraduate students majoring in consecutive interpreting: construction and preliminary validation

Abstract

Research findings from various professional areas of activity have demonstrated that self-efficacy, or personal belief in one’s capabilities is a good predictor of how one feels and behaves and what one can accomplish. Absent from this body of research are studies on Interpreting Self-Efficacy (ISE), a person’s belief about their interpreting competence. Informed by the tenets of Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory, this study aims to develop an ISE scale for undergraduate trainee interpreters in Korea. The ISE scale was developed following a statistically sound format. An initial pool of 63 items was generated based on a review of the literature on self-efficacy instruments and interpreting competence, and the draft scale was checked for face and content validity. Undergraduate students majoring in consecutive interpreting at three universities in Seoul participated (N = 413) in validating the scale. The preliminary scale was refined into 21 items through analysis of internal consistency reliability and exploratory factor analysis.