English Self-Concept Of Chinese College Non-English Majors:Its Relations To Self-Attributions To Success And Failure In English Learning

Self-concept, "the totality of the individual's thoughts, feelings having reference to oneself as an object and a basic requirement for successful cognitive and affective activities,"(Rosenbery, 1979), influenced by significant others, requirement and attributions for one's own behavior, has drawn more and more attention in the field of foreign language teaching. Little research, however, has been done on the relationship between self-concept and self-attributions for success and failure in the domain of foreign language learning. The present study constitutes an attempt to examine the English self-concept of Chinese college non-English majors from the perspective of attribution theory. Four issues were examined in the study: (1) the relationship between specific and global facets of English self-concept; (2) the relationship between English self-concept and English achievement among Chinese college non-English majors; (3) the correlation between self-concept and self-attributions for success and failure in English learning; (4) the correlations between English achievement of Chinese college non-English majors and their self-attributions for success and failure in English learning. The study includes 2-questionnaire research, the rigorously tested English self-concept questionnaire and attribution questionnaire for successful or unsuccessful English learning. A survey was implemented among 124 Chinese college non-English majors from grade 1 to grade 3 concerning English self-concepts, their attributions for successful and unsuccessful English learning. Data were administered by SPSS 12.0 version with exploratory factor analysis, t-tests, confirmatory factor analysis and so on. Statistical analysis of the collected data yields the following findings: (1) Listening, grammar and reading self-concepts are three more important components of English self-concept of Chinese college non-English majors, which predict global English self-concept; (2) English achievement and English self-concept of Chinese college non-English majors are strongly correlated; (3) English self-concept of Chinese college non-English majors and their self-attributions for success and failure in English learning...