A Study On The Effects Of English Self-concept And English Classroom Anxiety On English Achievement Of Junior Middle School Students

Affective factor, as one of the main factors which influence the second language acquisition, has always been the focus of many researches. So far, many studies have been conducted on English self-concept and English classroom anxiety both at home and abroad. Some researches indicated that healthy and positive English self-concept can keep learners in a good learning condition with confidence and motivation, and thus to improve their academic achievements. In addition, English classroom anxiety has a serious negative impact on learner’s English achievement. The higher level of English classroom anxiety the learner experiences, the lower academic achievement he or she gets in learning. Besides that, some other researchers found that the appropriate proportion of anxiety will be helpful to improve English learning to some extent. Moreover, the period of middle school is an important time for individual self-development. Affective factor plays a significant role in students’ learning, especially on the part of junior middle school students. So the present research is to further explore the relationship between English self-concept and English classroom anxiety, and the effects of them on English achievement. Moreover, the correlations between global English self-concept as well as domain-specific self-concepts and English classroom anxiety will be studied as well. The gender and grade differences of the correlations between the two affective factors will also be detected in the research.402 students are chosen from a middle school in Zhengzhou who are regarded as subjects of the research. Data of the present research is collected from various sources, mainly including questionnaires and supplemented by open-ended interviews. Then qualitative and quantitative analyses of the data are made in the following steps. The major findings of this thesis are clarified as follows:Firstly, there are gender and grade differences of the correlations between English self-concept and English classroom anxiety.As for gender differences, male students have higher level of English classroom anxiety than female students. On the contrary, the levels of global and domain-specific English self-concepts of female students are higher than those of male students. In addition, English grammar self-concept is the most negatively correlated with English classroom anxiety for male students. It is English writing self-concept that has the closest correlation with English classroom anxiety for female students.As for grade differences, the level of English classroom anxiety for Grade 8 students is the highest one among three grades students. In addition, the levels of global and domain-specific English self-concepts of Grade 8 students are lower than those of other groups. Relatively speaking, the students in Grade 9 have higher level of English self-concept than other students. On the one hand, for students in Grade 7 and Grade 8, global English self-concept and English speaking self-concept are the most important parts which have significantly negative correlations with their English classroom anxiety. On the other hand, English listening and vocabulary self-concepts of Grade 9 students bear the strongest relations to their English classroom anxiety.Secondly, there exists a significantly positive correlation between English self-concept and English achievement; there exists a significantly negative correlation between English classroom anxiety and English achievement; there exists a significantly negative correlation between English self-concept and English classroom anxiety.Thirdly, there is a direct interaction between English classroom anxiety and English achievement. However, they have more significantly direct interactions with English self-concept respectively. In a word, English self-concept plays a mediating role in the interaction between English classroom anxiety and English achievement among junior middle school students.Based on the findings above, it reveals that there are close relationships between English self-concept, English classroom anxiety and English achievement. English self-concept and classroom anxiety have direct effects on English achievement. What is more, the results also show that English self-concept has a mediating effect on the interaction between English classroom anxiety and English achievement. English self-concept serves as a bridge between the relief of learners’ classroom anxiety and the improvement of their English achievement. Meanwhile, it is easy to find that learners’ English classroom anxiety can be reduced to a moderate level by enhancing their English self-concept, and thus to minimize the negative impact of classroom anxiety on English learning.