Influential Psycholinguistic Factors in the Development of Linguistic Competence in English as a Foreign Language

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of cognitive and metacognitive psycholinguistic factors on English linguistic competence among university students enrolled in a Language Center at a national university in Peru. The sample consisted of 153 students selected through convenience non-probabilistic sampling from a pre-intermediate level. A virtual form instrument was designed for data collection, which was validated through factorial analysis, showing a good model fit with two factors and good internal consistency. This study employed multiple linear regression (MLR) as the statistical method to investigate the relationship between psychosocial factors and linguistic competence. The results showed high statistical significance in the global model test, suggesting that the analyzed factors explain 21.8% of the variability in linguistic competence. The analysis of effect sizes, with ε² values of 0.161 and 0.023 for cognitive and metacognitive factors, respectively, supports the stronger influence of cognitive factors on linguistic competence. This study highlights the importance of considering psycholinguistic factors in developing linguistic competence and provides a basis for further research.