A Correlational Study Of Senior Secondary School Students’ English Self-concept And Engagement

Self-concept refers to a person’s view,cognition,perception and evaluation of himself.It is a multi-level,multi-dimensional,relatively stable and changing structural model(Wang Chuming,2004b).At present,the study of combining the self-concept with English teaching is one of the popular topics,especially in the study of students’ learning.However,there are few studies focusing on the correlational study of English self-concept and classroom engagement of senior school students.In order to fill in the gaps of this study,this current study selects 653 students in Grade 1 and Grade 2 of five high schools and conducts the research by questionnaire and interview,and aims to explore(1)what is the level of English self-concept of the students,(2)what is the level of classroom engagement of the students and(3)what kind of relationship exists between English self-concept and classroom engagement.Through the analysis of the collected data,the main findings are as follows:(1)the level of English self-concept of senior secondary school students is at a medium high level.(2)the level of classroom engagement of senior secondary school students is at a high level.Among them,the highest media value is Cognitive Engagement,followed by Behavioral Engagement,while Agentic Engagement and Emotional Engagement are ranked the third and fourth respectively.(3)There is a significant but weak positive correlation between English self-concept and classroom engagement among senior secondary school students.There is a positive correlation between the English self-concept and the four dimensions of classroom engagement of senior secondary school students,and the correlation coefficient between English self-concept and agentic engagement is the highest.The confidence of learning English will be enhanced because of the high subjective initiative of students,and it will improve students’ self-concept to learn English.Based on above,this study puts forward some teaching suggestions.Firstly,teachers should help students believe that they can learn English well,and increase students’ internal motivation and interaction in the process of English teaching.Secondly,teachers should create a relaxed learning environment to promote the relationship between teachers and students.And finally,teachers should find more suitable learning strategies to improve students’ classroom engagement.