A Study On The Correlation Between English Self-concept And English Speaking Strategies Used By Grade One Students In Senior High School

Positive English self-concept will improve students' learning confidence and enhance English achievement gradually.High-efficient use of English speaking strategies can advance individuals' English speaking proficiency.Therefore,exploring the correlations between English self-concept and the use of English speaking strategies is expected to provide more effective suggestions for Senior High School English teaching.Based on the constructivism theory,humanism theory and social interactionism theory and the analyses of researches abroad and at home,the author adopts questionnaires and interviews to conduct this study.Two hundred and eighty-three Grade One students from Liuzhou Senior High School join this investigation.The English self-concept's questionnaire includes four aspects:general academic,general English,English speaking and pronunciation self-concept.And the English speaking strategies'questionnaire contains six aspects:memory,cognitive,compensatory,metacognitive,affective and social strategies.The research attempts to find out the general condition of the students' English self-concept and the use of English speaking strategies,and then explore their relationship.The research demonstrates that:(1)General English self-concept,English speaking self-concept and pronunciation self-concept of the samples are at medium levels and the situation of general English self-concept is better than that of English speaking self-concept and pronunciation self-concept;(2)General academic self-concept and the above three self-concept do not have obvious correlations;(3)The students cannot use English speaking strategies well and comparatively speaking,social strategies are used the most;(4)Based on the detailed analysis of Pearson Correlation Coefficient,it is found that English self-concept and the use of English speaking strategies have close relationship;(5)Among the 24 groups' correlations between English self-concept and the use of English speaking strategies,the following seven groups have the closest relationship:the correlations between general English self-concept and the use of three strategies including metacognitive,affective and social strategies;the correlations between English speaking self-concept and the use of two strategies including metacognitive and affective strategies and the correlations between pronunciation self-concept and the use of two strategies including metacognitive and affective strategies.According to the study's results,the author gives suggestions for teaching and learning based on the closest correlations between English self-concept and the use of English speaking strategies,and also finds out the disadvantages in order to provide the future researches with helpful advice.