English Self-Concept Of Chinese College English Majors

Self-concept, a person's perceptions and evaluations regarding himself or herself, has attracted more and more attention in the field of foreign language teaching because of its motivational nature that affects academic achievements. Nevertheless, research into self-concept within this field is limited due to the difficulty of identification and measurement.The present study constitutes an attempt to investigate the structure and characteristics of English self-concept of Chinese college English majors. Three issues were examined in the investigation: (a) the multidimensional and hierarchical nature of English self-concept of Chinese college English majors, (b) the relationship between specific and global components of English self-concept, and (c) grade and gender differences in English self-concept of Chinese college English majors.Using the self-constructed English self-concept questionnaire which had undergone rigorous tests of reliability and validity, a survey was conducted of 327 university English majors from Years 1 to 3 with respect to their skill and form-specific English self-concepts. Background information such as grade and gender was collected at the same time.The confirmatory factor analysis was carried out to testify the multidimensional and hierarchical structure of English self-concept of Chinese college English majors. The analysis identified six distinct skill- and form-specific components and a higher order factor which was equivalent to global English self-concept. In addition, speaking self-concept was found to be the most powerful predictor of global English self-concept, suggesting the greatest importance the university English majors attached to the learning of oral English.Furthermore, MANOVA lent support to the gender and grade effects on thesubjects' English self-concept. In line with the sex stereotypes, female informants had higher self-concept than the male informants in listening and speaking skills and overall academic abilities in English learning. With regard to the grade differences, a substantial decline was found in both global English self-concept and vocabulary self-concept in Grade 3. An interview with 10 junior participants showed that the decline occurred as a result of expectations exceeding perceived successes during this period.The findings of the present study contribute to a better understanding of Chinese EFL learners' self-concept in English learning, and an improvement of EFL instruction in China, although it is necessary to verify the conclusions in longitudinal studies and in studies with other types of EFL learners.