English Pronunciation Self-concept: Its Effects On Chinese-speaking EFL Learners

Self-concept refers to an individual's perceptions and conceptions about himself which give rise to his sense of personal identity. (William & Burden, 1997) Positive self-concept is usually linked with feelings of self-worth and self-acceptance. Self-concept has been widely recognized as an important factor that contributes to educational outcomes as well as an important outcome in its own right (Marsh, 1993). An understanding of students' academic self-concepts is of a vital concern in educational psychology because self-concept is found to possess a predictive, and in some cases, causal value over other educational outcomes. The affective studies in SLA are incomplete without taking self-concept into account.The present study addressed the issue of how students' pronunciation self-concept exerted influence within EFL learning context. By the pronunciation self-concept is meant a person's self-perception and self-evaluation of his or her English pronunciation. A validated new measure was developed to tap 9 domains of adolescent EFL learners' self-concepts. This new scale was administered to a total of 387 participants from 8 junior high classes. The data collected were subjected to correlational, ANOVA and regression analyses. Results show that pronunciation self-concept correlated significantly with English achievement and English-related self-concepts under investigation. Positive pronunciation self-concept facilitated foreign language learning. Further, pronunciation self-concept could account for most of the variance of the general-English self-concept. These results are interpreted in terms of the significance of the EFL pronunciation self-concept and its mediating and motivating power.Overall, the present study confirmed the effects of the pronunciation self-concept in helping students develop a positive self-image as EFL learners and becoming successful in English learning.