Foreign language learning burnout and English self-efficacy among first-year Saudi university EFL students: course performance and self-rated English proficiency

Background Research on English self-efficacy and foreign language learning burnout often begins with total scores, but this relation may look different when course performance and self-rated proficiency are considered. This cross-sectional study of 517 first-year Saudi university students taking a compulsory English course examined levels of burnout and English self-efficacy, gender and first-year track differences, zero-order associations among the study variables, and whether English self-efficacy remained associated with total burnout and its dimensions after coursework attainment and self-rated proficiency were considered. Methods Students completed Arabic versions of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-EFL Student Survey and the Questionnaire of Self-Efficacy in Learning a Foreign Language, and coursework attainment was obtained from official course records. Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted as measurement checks. Gender and first-year track differences were examined using Welch tests, and associations were analysed with zero-order correlations and four-block hierarchical regression models. Results Burnout scores were below the scale midpoint, whereas English self-efficacy was close to it. Gender differences were negligible and track differences were limited, although Health Sciences students reported higher English self-efficacy than students in the other three tracks. At the zero-order level, higher coursework attainment, self-rated proficiency, and English self-efficacy were each associated with lower total burnout. Coursework attainment also showed strong negative associations with all three burnout dimensions and was closely related to self-rated proficiency (ρ = 0.863). In the hierarchical models, a clear additional English self-efficacy association was observed only for Reduced Efficacy (Δ R ² = 0.0238, β = −0.218, 95% confidence interval [− 0.314, − 0.121], p < .001). Conclusions Coursework attainment showed strong associations with burnout outcomes, but its close relationship with self-rated proficiency and the cross-sectional design limit conclusions about relative importance or direction. The association between English self-efficacy and burnout was narrower after coursework attainment and self-rated proficiency were considered. The remaining clear association involved Reduced Efficacy, which itself concerns perceived effectiveness and shares some competence content with self-efficacy. The finding is therefore better interpreted as a limited residual association than as evidence of a broad self-efficacy relationship with burnout.