Relationship Between Chinese-Speaking Learners' Self-Concept And Achievement In English Learning

Self-concept, an individual's perceptions and conceptions about himself or herself, has been a hot topic in the field of foreign language learning research. The correlation between academic self-concept and learning achievement in English has been evidenced out by many researches. However, few researches have been conducted to analyze the differences among dimensions of self-concept in English learning.Thus, the present study explored the differences among the different dimensions of the Chinese-speaking college students' English learning self-concept, in respect of their correlation with and their predictive power for the students' English learning achievements in both general and the four specific language learning skills.37 second-year students from School of Politics and Public Management in Southwest University formed the sample of valid subjects. The subjects' data were elicited from a questionnaire about learning self-concept, an English proficiency test and an oral English test. And the data were examined in correlational analysis and regression analysis.The results showed that the Chinese EFL learners' three dimensions of self-concept cognised self, social self and ideal self, differed in degree of correlation with their English learning achievements. In terms of their predictive power for the students' English learning achievements, only some of the examined dimensions of English self-concept worked reliably, although the other dimensions also possessed significant correlation with English learning achievement.For general English learning, the three dimensions of self-concept were hierarchically correlated with achievement, with cognised self at the top and ideal self and social self equally ranking second. Cognised self for English learning in general, however, was the only significant predictor for students' English learning achievement.Besides, the detailed analyses on the specific language skills showed that for English listening, firstly, cognised self and ideal self were at the same level with social self not included in the correlational hierarchy. Ideal self in English listening was the only significant factor in predicting students' English listening achievement. Secondly, for English speaking, the three dimensions of self-concept all possessed significant correlation with achievement, yet not in equal place in that social self ranked first while the others ranked second. Social self and ideal self worked together to efficiently predict students' achievement in English speaking. Thirdly, for English reading, Cognised self was the only variable significantly correlated with reading achievement, and it was also the only significant predictor for achievement. And finally, for English writing, cognised self occupied the apex and ideal self the bottom in the correlational hierarchy. The two worked jointly to predict students' achievement in English writing.The findings are significant in that they can help teachers, in practice, to change their teaching methodology to positively influence students' psychological states, and subsequently, improve students' achievement in language learning. It is also helpful for students to modify their judgments on themselves in order to reach a perfect self-identity, which is a crucial factor in one's lifelong development.