A Study Of The Correlation Among English Academic Self-efficacy, English Academic Emotion And English Academic Achievement Of Primary School Students

English academic self-efficacy,as a vital influencing factor of language learning,has been the spotlight in the eyes of western scholars since 1970 s.And researchers at home and abroad have paid more attention to English academic emotions since 1990 s.In the light of the literature review,there are numerous researches about academic self-efficacy,but less studies are related to English academic self-efficacy of the primary school students.Academic emotion is a relatively new topic in resent years,and related researches of academic emotions of primary school students can be described as rare.The main perspective of this thesis is focused on the the correlation among English academic self-efficacy,English academic emotions and English academic achievement of primary school students,but the author found no correlation study of the three on primary school students when retrieving the references.By exploring the correlation among the three,the purpose of this study is aimed at providing some feasible management and teaching advice for schools and teachers,expecting to improve the academic achievement of the primary students.If possible,the author hopes that this study could make a little contribution to enhance English teaching quality and improve the situation of learning difficulty for English learning in primary schools.Four major research questions are to be focused on:(1)Are there any differences in English academic self-efficacy and in academic emotions based on pupils' gender,grade and English academic performance level?(2)Are there any correlations among pupils' English academic self-efficacy,English academic emotion and English academic achievement?(3)Can the specific dimensions of primary students' English academic self-efficacy and English academic emotions predict their English academic achievements?(4)Does English academic self-efficacy have mediating effects on primary school students' English academic emotion and English academic achievement? In this study,291 students from grade 3 to grade 5 in HuangGuan primary school of Zibo were chosen to be the participants.The correlation among English academic self-efficacy,English academic emotions and English academicachievement of the students in the primary school was evaluated by means of questionnaires,in which several blanks and 54 questions are included concerning English academic self-efficacy,English academic emotion and English academic achievement of the students in the primary school.And then,SPSS 17.0(Statistical Package for Social Sciences)was employed to analyze the data obtained from these questionnaires.The major findings of this study are as follows.(1)(1)As for English academic self-efficacy differences based on pupils' gender,grade,and English academic performance,results are as follows.Firstly,the results show high English academic self-efficacy of primary school students.Secondly,girls' English academic self-efficacy is significantly higher than boys'.Thirdly,the differences of English academic self-efficacy of pupils among different grades are significant.With the increase of grade,the English academic self-efficacy of primary school students is declining.Finally,the English academic self-efficacy scores of students in high-achiever group are significantly higher than those in low-achiever group.(2)As for English academic emotion differences based on pupils' gender,grade,and English academic performance,results are as follows.Firstly,the primary school students experience more positive academic emotions and less negative academic emotions when learning English.Secondly,the academic emotions of primary school students fail to reach significance level based on gender,except for positive-high arousal emotion.Thirdly,the pupils investigated in this study show grade differences of the four kinds of academic emotions.And fourth grade is a turning point of academic emotional development,at which English academic emotions are beginning to change significantly.Finally,there is a significant difference in the mean of academic emotions(including the score of each sub-scale and the average score of each sub-scale)between pupils with higher scores and pupils with lower scores.(2)As for the correlation among pupils' English academic self-efficacy,English academic emotions and English academic achievement,results are as follows.Firstly,the overall English academic self-efficacy and three dimensions of it present obviously positive correlation with positive-high arousal and positive-low arousal emotions,while they show significant negative correlation with negative-high arousal and negative-low arousal emotions.Secondly,there exists significant positive correlation between English academic achievement and the overall English academic self-efficacy.Thirdly,there exists significant correlation between English academic achievement and four dimensions of English academic emotions.(3)The results of regression analysis show that English academic self-efficacy and academic emotion all have a significant predictive effect on academic achievement,so English academic self-efficacy and English academic emotion are both good predictors of English academic achievement.(4)The results of regression analysis also show that positive academic emotions and negative academic emotions play a partial intermediary role in the correlation between English academic self-efficacy and English academic achievement.Based on the above research,the author proposes some recommendations for schools and teachers on stimulating the primary school students to improve their English academic self-efficacy and instructing them to develop positive English academic emotions,so as to enhance their English academic achievement.At last,the author lists some limitations of the present study and gives some suggestions for further study.