Correlation Between English Pronunciation Self-concept,Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety And English Achievement

Under the influence of the modem theory of humanism,researchers of foreign language education have been paying more and more attention to affective factors in second language acquisition,including self-concept and anxiety.The studies led by Professor Wang Churning have fully proved the importance of English pronunciation self-concept as one subcategory of self-concept in English learning.However,the participants in their studies include primary and secondary school students and college students,involving few from secondary vocational schools.In recent years,China has attached great importance to the secondary vocational education,with a view to cultivating the secondary vocational school students into application-oriented technical talents with proper English proficiency that suits the globalized development of industries,enterprises and institutions.However,the threshold enrollment of secondary vocational schools leads to low quality of students with weak English foundation,which is inconsistent with the social needs,and as a consequence,students often feel helpless and anxious in English learning.This study is aimed to first investigate the status quo of English pronunciation self-concept and foreign language classroom anxiety of secondary vocational students,then to analyze the correlation between English pronunciation self-concept,foreign language classroom anxiety and English achievement of secondary vocational students,and finally to explore the predictive ability of English pronunciation self-concept and foreign language classroom anxiety on English achievement.Hopefully this study helps identify some main factors affecting English achievement of secondary vocational students.The participants are 113 first-year students of a typical four-star secondary vocational school in Nantong,a coastal city in East China.Both quantitative and qualitative data are collected,using English pronunciation self-concept questionnaire and the foreign language classroom anxiety questionnaire to investigate the students' status quo,and the follow-up interviews to complement the quamtitative data.The statistical software SPSS 16.0 is used to analyze the correlation between the students' English pronunciation self-concept,foreign language classroom anxiety and English achievement.Data analyses yield the following findings:(1)on the whole,the English pronunciation self-concept of secondary vocational students is above average level,and they are in a moderate state of foreign language anxiety.There is no significant difference between male and female students' English pronunciation self-concept and foreign language classroom anxiety.(2)There is a significant positive correlation between English pronunciation self-concept and English achievement,a significant and weak negative correlation between foreign language classroom anxiety and English achievement,and a moderate negative correlation between English pronunciation self-concept and foreign language classroom anxiety.(3)The combination of English pronunciation self-concept and foreign language classroom anxiety in secondary vocational students can explain 32%of English scores.It shows that English achievement is not only affected by pronunciation self-concept and foreign language classroom anxiety,but also affected by a variety of factors.Based on the above findings,this study suggests that we should correctly understand the status quo of pronunciation self-concept and foreign language classroom anxiety of secondary vocational students,attach importance to pronunciation teaching,fully understand the psychological needs of students,and pay attention to individual differences of students.