Probing Affect With Chinese Learners of English: Self-Perception, Enjoyment, and Self-Assessment

• In Event: Ecologies and Identities in Second Language Learning

Abstract

Individual difference variables such as self-perception and affect play an important role in student ability and motivation as a foreign language learner (Dornyei, 2005; Walker, 2014; Young, 1999). Given the continuing growth of students learning English worldwide, it is of vital importance to examine how self-perception and affect towards English may impact learning for different populations of students. This empirical article examines the individual differences that beginning, intermediate, and advanced Chinese learners of English exhibit and the subsequent impact upon self-assessment (SA) of language skills. ANOVA results demonstrate the important role that self-perception, affect, and self-assessment play when learning English in China, and suggest that teachers might see reduced student motivation to learn English, particularly with more advanced students.

Author

• Lyndsie Marie Schultz, Washington University in St. Louis