Formation Of English Self-concept Of Chinese Adolescents: The Role Of English Pronunciation And Significant Others

This study investigated the role of English pronunciation in the formation of English self-concept of Chinese adolescent learners in relation to significant others. The relationships between pronunciation and others' perceptions and affect have been mentioned in some literature, but have not been empirically tested. The present study constitutes an attempt to examine these relationships.The study consists of two parts: a questionnaire research and an interview study. The questionnaire research was implemented among seven second-year classes in a junior middle school. For each class, the questionnaires were administered in two sessions, each of which required the students and the English teacher to evaluate 5 classmates with a specially designed other-evaluation scale. The 5 subjects evaluated themselves with a self-evaluation scale and at the same time evaluated the other four. The interviews were conducted with 14 students from the same classes. Seven of them were good pronouncers and the other seven were poor pronouncers.Statistical analyses of the questionnaire and the interview data yield the following findings: First, consistent with previous research, English self-concept is highly correlated with English achievement. Second, the inferred English self-concept (others' perceptions) is highly correlated with the English self-concept and English achievement. Third, English pronunciation, pronunciation self-concept, inferred pronunciation self-concept, inferred English self-concept and English self-concept are all closely related. These findings suggest a chain of relationships between pronunciation (self-concept), others' perceptions and English self-concept and English achievement. Implications are discussed with regard to the affective problem and pronunciation teaching and learning in SLA.