A Study On The English Pronunciation Self-concept Of Junior High School Students

English Pronunciation Self-concept refers to one’s self-perception and judgmentabout his/her own English pronunciation performance and pronunciation learningability in the process of English pronunciation learning, which is formed by others’feedback on his/her pronunciation performance and by contrasting with others’pronunciation level. Present research has found a relatively obvious correlationbetween learner’s English Pronunciation Self-concept (EPSC) and Englishachievement. Namely, positive EPSC can enhance the confidence and motivation oflearners in learning English and thereby improve their English achievements whilenegative EPSC can frustrate learners’ confidence and hinder their English study to alarge extent. At the same time, the research literature has also presented differences ofEPSC in gender, grade (age) and school-type. Therefore, English teachers shouldunderstand and know about the characteristics of students’ EPSC in process of Englishteaching and consciously guide the students to form positive EPSC so as to motivatetheir English study. So far little empirical research has explored the EPSC of studentsin junior high school. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on the EPSC of junior highschool students and tap into the relationship between EPSC and English achievement.This research has investigated (a) the overall situation of the EPSC in junior highschool and the differences of gender, grade (age) and school-type in EPSC amongjunior high school students;(b) the relationship between students’ EPSC and theirEnglish achievement;(c) the different correlations between students’ EPSC and theirEnglish achievement for different genders, different grades and different school-types.The study employs the questionnaire survey as methodology to examine the EPSC andEnglish achievements of180participants of different genders, in different grades fromtwo different junior high schools in Dezhou City. In addition, it also uses the statisticalsoftware SPSS19.0for the statistical analysis.The major findings are as follows. First of all, the overall level of junior high school students in EPSC is relatively low. The average score of180students is only11.51, which indicates that there is still much room for the students to improve theirEPSC. There are significant differences of EPSC in terms of gender and grade, whileno significant difference of EPSC exists in terms of school-type. Specifically, girlstudents develop better EPSC than boy students. The average scores of girls in the fouraspects of EPSC respectively are3.1,3.0,3.0and3.1while those of boys inabove-mentioned aspects respectively are2.5,2.3,2.4and3.2. The EPSC of juniorhigh school students shows the trend of “up-down-up” with the growth of grade. Theaverage scores of grade one students in the four aspects of EPSC respectively are2.8,2.6,2.6and3.3. The average scores of grade two students in the four aspects of EPSCrespectively are2.7,2.6,2.5and3.3, while those of grade three students respectivelyare3.0,2.9,2.9and3.5. The EPSC of junior high school students in urban area isslightly higher than that of junior high school students in rural area. The average scoresof Experimental Middle School students in the four aspects of EPSC respectively are2.9,2.8,2.7and3.3. The average scores of No.5Middle School students in the fouraspects of EPSC respectively are2.8,2.5,2.6and3.3.Secondly, a significant positivecorrelation exists between180students’ EPSC and their English achievement, which isindicated by the correlation coefficient of0.426. Gender, grade (age) and school-typehave a great effect on the correlation coefficient between the EPSC and Englishachievement. In terms of correlation coefficient between two variables, the score ofboy students is0.403, which is much higher than that of girl students, i.e.0.363. Thecorrelation coefficient between students’ EPSC and English score increases first, andthen decreases with grade growth. The correlation coefficient between EPSC andEnglish achievement for grade one students is0.340, while the correlation coefficientfor grade two and grade three students respectively are0.477and0.369. School-typecan also affect the correlation coefficient between the EPSC and English achievement.The correlation coefficient between EPSC and English achievement for ExperimentalMiddle School students is0.399, while the correlation coefficient for No.5MiddleSchool students is0.466, which indicates that the EPSC of junior high school students in rural area has a closer relationship with English score than that of junior high schoolstudents in urban area.