The Influence Of English Pronunciation Self-concept On Primary School English Learners

With the popularization of humanistic education and the vigorous development of constructivism,learners’ non-intellectual factors are paid more and more attention by the foreign language learning researchers.Among this non-intellectual factors,self-concept as one of the affective and its influence on second language acquisition have attracted numerous attention.This study will combine the "Second Language Pronunciation Hypothesis" proposed by the Chinese pronunciation self-concept researcher(Wang,2004)to explore the influence of English pronunciation self-concept on English learning of primary learners and to verify if the fruits that his studies have attained will also applicable when the much younger English learners are selected as the research objects.Secondly,as previous studies mostly involved the gender variable,however,there were obvious differences in the research results for different participants.So the researcher think it is necessary to add the sexual different of primary school English learners in the scope of research.Finally,the research methods of previous were generally single,a large number of studies have employed the questionnaire survey methods.This research has combined the results of the questionnaire and examination,8 students from the four classes were selected to conduct the interviews,and it can supplement and deepen the quantitative data.The English self-concept questionnaire used in this study was taken from(Xiao,2017)’s thesis of Jiangxi Normal University which was based on Ma 2008)’s self-concept scale,the correlation coefficient of this scale is between.82 and.90,it means the scale has good internal consistency.Then the research participants in this study were from an ordinary public primary school in Hukou County,Jiujiang City.They were the sixth grade students of first,second,third and fourth class,twenty students were selected from each class,with a total of 80.The students’ average age is from 11 to 12 years old,and all received systematic English learning from the third grade of primary school,so their English foundation is not much diverse.In addition,they are all native,the consistence of learning environment and background is high.The specific research questions are as follows:1.What is the existing circumstance of the primary school English learners’ pronunciation self-concept ?2.Is there a correlation between self-concept of pronunciation and primary school English learners’ English achievement?3.Are there any gender differences in pronunciation self-concept of primary school English learners?Here are the study results :1.The pronunciation self-concept of primary school English learners are above average.2.Primary school English learners’ English pronunciation self-concept and English scores are highly positive correlation.3.There is no significant gender difference in the English pronunciation self-concept of English learners in primary schools.The focus of this study is the relationship between English pronunciation self-concept and English performance.The results can not only reconfirm the previous research,but also supplement the findings in this field.At the same time,since most of the previous empirical studies about self-concept of English pronunciation used junior school,high school students or college students whose major were English or non-English as participants,the proportion that used elementary English learners as participants were relatively low,especially in the areas of China where basic education is weak,and the emotional experience of early learning will affect the individual’s future learning motivation enthusiasm.Therefore,the results of this study will also help English teachers pay more attention to the learning and practicing of pronunciation in the future’s teaching process.For primary school English learners,their self-concept can be developed and shaped.If they can form a better understanding of self-concept feature,it will help them establish a positive English pronunciation self-concept and eventually improve their English achievement.