Research On The Differences Of English Self-concept And The Correlation Between English Self-concept And English Achievement

There are a good many studies about self-concept in the field of foreign languagewhile studies in foreign language teaching in senior middle school are limited, still less inhigh school in the Chinese context.The present study constitutes an attempt to investigate the characteristics of Englishself-concept and its differences among Chinese high school students. It consists of threeparts:(a) the relationship between specific and global components of English self-concept,grade and gender differences in English self-concept of high school students;(b) the rolethat teachers play as significant others;(c) Big-Fish-Little-Pond-Effect on the Englishself-concept of high school students correlation, Anova and Regression are used in the dataanalysis.Using the self-constructed English self-concept questionnaire which had undergonerigorous tests of reliability and validity, a survey was conducted of300high schoolstudents from senior1to Senior3. Background information such as grade, gender and therelationship with their English teachers was collected at the same time.The largest correlation was found between the grammar self-concept and globalEnglish self-concept, which seems to suggest that in high school, students pay moreattention to studying grammar. The next strongest correlation existed between the speakingand global English self-concept, indicating that English self-concept of high schoolstudents has a strong bearing on the self-perception of one’s achievements in speakingability.Besides, Anova analysis show that female students had higher self-concept than themale ones in writing skills and overall academic abilities in English learning, which is inline with the sex stereotypes. What’s more, significant differences could only be found ingrammar self-concept across three grades suggesting that high school students attach greatimportance to language forms after3years of study in high school. The class type effects on students’ English self-concepts were significant, showingthat different class-type causes different perceptions of the participants themselves.Students from the non-academically selective class have higher English self-concept thanthose from academically selective class. It provides support to the Big-Fish-Little-Pond-Effect theory.As to the significant others, teachers-students relationship has strong correlation withstudents’ English self-concept. English teachers have more influence on their students’English self-concept. The regression analysis suggest grammar self-concept and speakingconcept contribute more than others in predicting general English self-concept.The results of the studies have provided an explanation of some phenomena observedin English teaching and learning. And it makes it clear that traditional teaching methodsstill play a more important role.