A Study Of The Effect Of Self-concept On English Learning In Secondary Vocational Schools

Cognitive elements(such as intelligence, learning abilities, learning style, etc.) and affective elements(such as learning motivation, anxiety, etc.) are both indispensable to second language acquisition. Self-concept is an important affective factor that has attracted many researchers’ attention in language teaching. Students in secondary vocational schools were ignored in secondary middle schools even in primary schools. They have little interest and motivation in English Learning. They often feel helpless and uneasy in English classes. Therefore, teachers in secondary vocational schools must change this difficult situation from students’ inner affective needs. Self-concept plays an important role in English Learning. Positive English self-concept makes students devote more time and efforts to English learning and their English achievement will be improved gradually.This thesis firstly outlines the research background, and the necessity and significance of developing students’ English self-concept in secondary vocational schools. Secondly, it expounds the related concepts of self-concept, academic self-concept and English self-concept, the related factors of developing academic self-concept and the research of the effect that academic self-concept has on English achievement both at home and abroad. At the first stage of the experiment, a questionnaire concerning students’ English self-concept is conducted among the students the author teaches and the scores from the final unified English examination of the last term is used as the pre-test of the experiment, with the purpose of understanding the current situation of students’ English self-concept and English achievement. Then, the results of the questionnaire are analyzed to find out the current situation of students’ English general self-concept, English pronunciation self-concept, English speaking self-concept and English-teacher relation self-concept so as to carry out effective training in the experimental class. Positive English self-concept can be stimulated in the following ways: 1. develop students’ non-intelligence factors; 2. pay attention to the effect of significant others; 3. encourage students to treat the comparison with other students positively; 4. stimulate students’ interest and motivation in English; 5. encourage students to attribute reasonably. At the later stage of the experiment, students at different levels are interviewed to understand their feelings and experience regarding the training of English self-concept and their scores from the term unified English examination are used as the post-test of the experiment. Through the interview and contrastive analysis of the pre-test and post-test, it can be concluded that the students who have taken the training of English self-concept make much more progress than those having the traditional teaching instruction. Through one-semester training, students promote their interest and motivation in English. And their English achievements are improved. The experimental results verify the effectiveness of the training methods of developing students’ English self-concept.