A Study On The Correlation Between English Classroom Anxiety And English Self-concept Among Rural Junior Middle School Students

English classroom anxiety and English self-concept are two important affective factors that influence second language acquisition.At present,scholars at home and abroad have done a lot of studies on the two factors.Some researches suggest that English self-concept is significantly positively correlated with academic achievement,while English classroom anxiety has a negative correlation with academic achievement.However,there have not been many researches on the relationship between the two variables in this field so far,especially on rural junior middle school students.Therefore,it is imperative to study the correlation between English classroom anxiety and self-concept among rural junior middle school students.In this study,301 students from Yong Gu Junior Middle School in Lin Fen District are chosen as the subjects.With quantitative and qualitative methodologies,this study is aimed to explore the correlation between English classroom anxiety and self-concept among rural junior middle school students by questionnaires and an interview.The research questions are listed as follows:1.What is the current status of junior middle school students' English classroom anxiety and English self-concept in rural areas?2.What is the correlation between rural middle school students' English classroom anxiety and English self-concept? Are they negatively related? If yes,to what extent?3.Are there gender,Grade,and achievement differences in the relationship between rural junior middle school students' English self-concept and English classroom anxiety?4.Which English self-concepts can well predict English classroom anxiety?In this study,SPSS 17.0 is used to analyze the data of the questionnaires,and the results of the interview are also studied.The major findings are as follows:First of all,rural junior middle school students are suffering from high English classroom anxiety,while their English self-concepts are not on a high level.In addition,there is a significantly negative correlation between English classroom anxiety and English self-concept.Global English self-concept and English pronunciation selfconcept have the closest relationship with English classroom anxiety.Furthermore,there are significant gender,Grade and achievement differences in the correlation between English classroom anxiety and English self-concept.For gender differences,male students experience higher anxiety than female students and they are not very confident in English learning.Male students' English pronunciation self-concept is the most negatively related to English classroom anxiety,while as for female students,it is the global English self-concept that has the highest correlation with English classroom anxiety.As to Grade differences,students in Grade 8 are more anxious than students in the other two Grades.Besides,Grade 7 learners have the highest English self-concept,and their English grammar self-concept is the most negatively related to English classroom anxiety.As for Grade 8 and Grade 9 students,it is their English speaking self-concept and global English self-concept that respectively has the highest correlation with English classroom anxiety.When it comes to achievement differences,students in high-score group are more confident,thus they experience lower anxiety.However,high-score group students' English classroom anxiety has a closer correlation with English self-concept than low-score group students'.On one hand,high-score group students' English grammar self-concept has the highest correlation with their anxiety.On the other hand,for students in low-score group,it is English pronunciation self-concept that most negatively related to their anxiety.Finally,some English self-concepts can predict English classroom anxiety to some extent.For one thing,global English self-concept can account for 40.3% of the changes of English classroom anxiety.For the other thing,English pronunciation,speaking,and grammar self-concepts can also be regarded as predictors and they can explain 47.0% of the changes of English classroom anxiety.Based on the findings above,some theoretical and practical significance,as well as the suggestions for teachers and students are presented at the end of the study,which are aimed to improve the English teaching and learning in rural junior middle schools.