The Relationship Between English Achievements, Learning Attributions And Self-concept In English--A Survey Of The Non-English Majors In The Universities Of Technology

With the development of China internationalization, more and more people concern about English and English teaching. In contrast with primary and secondary education, college education emphasizes the importance and the influence of learners'individual factors on their achievement. Therefore, English teaching in colleges are facing more and more challenges. Self-concept refers to an individual's perception of himself or herself. And attribution can be briefly defined the analysis of how people process past experiences of success and failure. Both of them are the important areas that can be explored in order to have a better understanding of individuals in psychology and SLA. Recently they are attracting more and more researchers'concerns in the foreign language teaching field.Based on the theoretical foundations of self-concept theories and attribution theory, the present study attempts to explore the interactions among the English achievement, learning attributions and English self-concept of the Non-English Majors in the universities of technology, thus seeks for some effective approaches to help them improve their English achievement in teachers'perspective.The present study adopts a quantitative approach and designs specially a set of English learning questionnaires which include a questionnaire on English self-concept and an attribution questionnaire for successful or unsuccessful English learning. A survey was conducted on 127 non-English majors of Materials Science and Engineering School and Economics School in Shenyang University of Technology (SUT). They were divided into three groups according to their achievements in their first three semesters: high-achievement group, medium-achievement group and low-achievement group.The data collected are subjected to confirmatory factor, multiple regression, correlation, t-test and ANOVA analysis by using SPSS 15.0 Version.The statistical results of the present study yield the following findings:(1) Global English self-concept and the domain-specific English self-concepts are interrelated strongly and influence each other. Among them, the strongest correlation is found between speaking self-concept and listening self-concept, and grammar self-concept is found to be the most powerful predictor of global English self-concept.(2) English self-concept of the Non-English Majors in the universities of technology correlates with their English achievement closely. High-achievement students have higher English self-concept, medium-achievement students have moderate English self-concept and low-achievement students have lower English self-concept.(3) English self-concept of the Non-English Majors in the universities of technology and their English achievements are strongly positively interrelated. Students with high English self-concept are likely to get better English achievement and those with low English self-concept are likely to get worse English achievement..(4) English self-concept of the Non-English Majors in the universities of technology and their learning attributions for successes and failures in English are strongly correlated. Ability,previous learning outcome and interest, as attributions for success, are found to have stronger correlations with their English self-concept; however, learning environment, as one of attributions for success, is negatively correlated with self-concept in English. Interest and previous learning outcome, when regarded as attributions for failure, are found to have stronger correlations with their English self-concept.(5) In the universities of technology, students with different level of English proficiency attribute successes and failures in different ways. High-achievement students incline to attribute their successes to some internal and stable factors, such as ability, interest; however, those with poor English proficiency are likely to regard them as main attributions of their failures. The discrepancy also results in their different attitudes towards their future learning, hence brings totally differently subsequent learning outcomes. And we also find a lack of awareness of the significance of learning strategy use exists in the students.(6) For the non-majors of the universities of technology, their English self-concept, their learning attributions and their achievement are interrelated intimately. Under different circumstances (successful/ unsuccessful performance), students'different attributions for successes and failures may result in different influences on their English self-concept, thus on their subsequent achievements. In the analysis of successful attribution, achievement, ability, previous learning outcome, interest, teacher and teaching factors, effort, and luck are found to be related positively to global English self-concept. Therefore, method, learning environment, and task difficulty are found to be related negatively to global English self-concept. In the analysis of unsuccessful attribution, achievement, effort, teacher and teaching factors, learning environment and luck are found to be related positively to global English self-concept. However, ability, interest, method, previous learning outcome, and task difficulty are related negatively to global English self-concept. Ability and interest are found to be most related to the English self-concept of the students, whatever they are regarded attributions for success or for failure.The findings of the present study are valuable for English teaching and learning in the context of the universities of technology. From the results, we can not only get the general idea about English self-concept and learning attributions for successes and failures of the non-English majors of the universities of technology, but know the great influences on English achievement by these two variables. And the interactions between English achievement, learning attributions and self-concept in English of the Non-English Majors in the universities of technology are fully demonstrated. English teachers should pay much attention to lead students realize the significance of English self-concept on their learning and try to help them cultivate their positive English self-concept. Some measures should be taken in English teaching process, for example, we can encourage those with poor English proficiency to be involved in the activities in class to make them have confidence in English learning, lead them gradually to change their negative learning attributions and result in their positive English self-concept. Thus students can be motivated better in English learning and improve their learning outcome.