A Research On English Academic Self-concept Of Non-English Majors

Affective factors play an important role in students' foreign language learning.Self-concept,an important variable of affective factors,has been focused and discussed gradually in the field of language teaching.Being an important branch of self-concept,academic self-concept refers to students' stable perception and evaluation of their academic ability and knowledge.It can significantly predict individuals' academic achievements and mental health.At present,most of the researches on English academic self-concept in China is concentrated on the students in middle and primary school,while fewer studies have been carried out to research students in college and universities.Choosing 232 non-English majors in a normal university in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region as research subjects,the present study adopts questionnaire and interview for the collection of data.The following questions are mainly discussed in the study:(1)What is the overall situation of English academic self-concept among non-English majors?(2)Does difference of English academic self-concept exist in terms of personality,class level and majors among non-English majors?(3)What is the correlation between English academic self-concept and academic achievements?Analysis of the data and the interview questions yields the following findings:(1)English academic self-concept of non-English majors is at the medium level.(2)Personality,class level and majors difference of non-English majors have important effects on their English academic self-concept,and the influence on some of the specific English academic self-concept is significant.(3)There is positive correlation between English academic self-concept and English academic achievements.Among all the subordinate of English academic self-concept,pronunciation and reading self-concept are significantly related to English academic self-concept.Based on these findings,some suggestion are given and presented.For personality difference,English teachers should:(1)adopt the matching strategy and give full play to the advantages of personality;(2)use mismatching teaching strategies and make up for the disadvantages of personality.For class level difference,English teachers should:(1)give assignment on the basis of students' learning situation to strengthen confidence of students from class B;(2)design teaching courseware which is suitable for class A and class B.For major difference,English teachers should:(1)organize English reading activities to cultivate the critical thinking ability of science majors,and debate competition to enhance the logical thinking ability of liberal arts majors;(2)assign homework based on major difference.