Abstract
The purpose of this research is to study the role of learning English language skills in the job self-efficacy of English language translation students with the mediation of perceived value. The present study is applicable in terms of its purpose, correlational, and survey method. The statistical population of the present study includes all English language translation students, 151 people, of whom 108 were selected based on the Krejci and Morgan table. The collection tools in the present study include the English Language Skills Questionnaire by Marin et al. (2007), the Job Self-Efficacy Questionnaire by Betts and Tyler (1994), and the Perceived Value Questionnaire by Venkatesh and Davis (2000). The face validity of the tools was confirmed by 10 English language experts, and their reliability was obtained by calculating Cronbach's alpha as 0.74, 0.76, and 0.80, respectively, which indicates desirable reliability. SPSS and PLS software were used to analyze the findings. The results showed that English language skills have a positive and significant effect on job self-efficacy and perceived value. Also, perceived value played a significant mediating role in the relationship between English language skills and job self-efficacy. The findings indicate that improving students' English language skills through perceived value can lead to improving job self-efficacy. Therefore, paying attention to the development of perceived value and training based on students' standards plays a key role in improving the career success of language translation students.
Introduction
English language translation students are one of the pivotal links in the network of intercultural communication and knowledge transfer; as mediators of language and culture, they play a pivotal role in various sectors such as translation of specialized texts, media, international trade, and education; and the quality of education and competence of these students has a direct impact on the communication and scientific capabilities of society (Amado et al., 2023). In the era of globalization and the dominance of scientific resources in English, the professional abilities of future translators, including advanced language skills, research skills, and translation process management, are among the main conditions for effective entry into the labor market and responding to the needs of specialized fields (Ho et al., 2022). Therefore, focusing on the development of English skills in translation courses is not only an educational goal but also a strategic necessity to enhance employability. Language skills (four main skills: reading, listening, speaking, and writing) underpin key translation capabilities such as understanding the source text and producing the target text while maintaining semantic and cultural components; research shows that improving language skills, especially when combined with practical and process-oriented exercises, improves the quality of translation performance (Lu et al., 2022). A complementary construct that is important in explaining how language skills translate into job self-efficacy is perceived value: this construct indicates how important and useful a skill or training course is to an individual’s career and life goals. Recent studies in higher education have shown that perceived value is directly related to students’ motivation to learn, academic effort, and career decisions; in other words, when a student sees the practical value of a skill in their career path, they are more likely to invest time and cognitive effort in strengthening it (Amado et al., 2023; Alnaeem et al., 2024). In specific translation studies, empirical evidence suggests that research processes such as “online information search” and the experience of success in solving translation tasks can improve the quality of translation performance by increasing translating self-efficacy; In other words, language skills have the greatest impact on job self-efficacy when they are accompanied by increased self-efficacy and increased perception of the value of those skills (Lu et al., 2022; Yang et al., 2021). Given the above explanations, the researcher seeks to answer the question: what role does learning English language skills play in the job self-efficacy of English language translation students, mediated by perceived value?
Theoretical Framework
English Language Skills
Learning speaking skills goes beyond knowing grammatical and semantic rules. Because language learners must acquire knowledge of how native speakers of that language speak in structured interactions between people, this is itself influenced by a wide range of factors. Therefore, mastering speech skills means mastering pronunciation of words, sentence structures, coherence and organization of topics, social norms, and communication strategies. At the same time, speech is accompanied by limited processing capacities due to limitations in working memory, so there is a continuous need to acquire approaches to automatically constructing sentences during speech production (Salehi Abargoui et al., 2024).
Career Self-Efficacy
Career self-efficacy is defined as the belief in one's ability to have successful experiences, such as choosing a career, and is considered an important factor in individuals' professional growth (Damheri et al., 2023).
Perceived Value
Perception is the process of understanding and interpreting information that an individual receives from their environment. This information includes data, events, and previous experiences. Higher education administrators shape their decisions based on their perceptions of the current and future state of higher education. Values ​​also play an important role in individual decision-making. Values ​​are defined as the principles and criteria that an individual follows in their lives to make choices and decisions. Higher education administrators also have their own values ​​about issues such as ethics, justice, quality of education, and student development, which influence their decisions (Ahmadpour et al., 2023).
Seyed Javadin & Zahirifard (2025) investigated the effect of e-banking advertising on customer brand loyalty with an emphasis on the mediating role of perceived value in Bank Shahr. The findings of this study show that e-advertising has a positive and significant effect on customer brand loyalty, and perceived value also plays a mediating role in the relationship between e-banking advertising and customer brand loyalty.
Gunawan et al. (2024) investigated young people's perceptions of the future of employability: testing a social cognitive job model. Using the social-cognitive job model, they showed that the perception of the future of employment and the value of learned skills have a direct effect on young people's job self-efficacy. According to their findings, when students understand the value of their language skills in relation to future employment, they show a greater willingness to invest in education and career.
Research Methodology
The present study is applie in terms of purpose, correlational, and survey method. The statistical population of the present study included all English language translation students, 151 of whom 108 were selected based on the Krejci and Morgan table. The collection tools in the present study included the English Language Skills Questionnaire by Marin et al. (2007), the Job Self-Efficacy Questionnaire by Betts and Tyler (1994), and the Perceived Value Questionnaire by Venkatesh and Davis (2000). The face validity of the tools was confirmed by 10 English language experts, and their reliability was obtained by calculating Cronbach's alpha as 0.74, 0.76, and 0.80, respectively, which indicates desirable reliability.
Research findings
SPSS and PLS software were used to analyze the findings. The results showed that English language skills have a positive and significant effect on job self-efficacy and perceived value. Also, perceived value played a significant mediating role in the relationship between English language skills and job self-efficacy. The findings indicate that improving students' English language skills through perceived value can lead to improved job self-efficacy. Therefore, paying attention to the development of perceived value and training based on students' standards plays a key role in improving the career success of language translation students.
Conclusion
The present study aimed to investigate the role of learning English language skills in the career self-efficacy of English translation (consistent with the results of Seyed Javadin & Zahirifard (2025), Gunawan et al. (2024), Chang et al. (2024), Alnaeem et al. (2024), Ho et al. (2023), Amado et al. (2023), Lu et al. (2022), and Zhou et al. (2022). Yang et al. (2021) have stated that the ability to effectively use a second language, especially in translation environments, is not only a cognitive skill but also a psychological factor that affects students' self-efficacy beliefs.
Overall, the findings of this study show that English language skills directly and positively affect the job self-efficacy of English language translation students, and English language skills also increase students' perceived value, and this perceived value plays an important mediating role in strengthening job self-efficacy. Ultimately, developing language skills along with strengthening perceived value can effectively provide a path to improving students' professional capabilities and employability.