Study on the Relationship between Self-Control and CET-4 from the Perspective of Positive Psychology

Abstract

In recent years, the perspective of positive psychology has been highlighted in the new trend of second language acquisition research. Self-control is one of the important variables that affect the success of second language acquisition by foreign language learners. Guided by June P. Tangney's theory of self-control, this study explores the relationship between self-control and CET-4 scores of 189 Chinese non-English majors. Its main contents include investigating the level of students' current self-control abilities; whether there are individual differences and gender differences; whether there is an imbalance in the five self-control dimensions; whether there is a correlation between students' self-control abilities and CET-4 test scores. The results show that: 1) Students' self-control abilities are at the middle and slightly higher level, and there are great individual differences; In addition, reliability shows the highest score, but work Ethic is the lowest. 2) Students' self-control, self-discipline, deliberate/non-impulsive action, health habits and work ethic are significantly and positively correlated with their CET-4 scores. 3)There is no significant gender difference between self-control and CET-4. This experiment proves that there is a correlated relationship between self-control and CET-4. Students may better understand their own self-control abilities, which can help them apply useful strategies to improve foreign language learning performance, thereby increasing the effectiveness of second language acquisition.