Toward a hierarchical, multidimensional English self-concept.

Abstract

In this study, the authors examined the hierarchical and multidimensional nature of English self-concept. University students (N = 321) responded to survey items on listening, speaking, reading, and writing self-concepts and a global English self-concept adapted from H. W. Marsh's (1990Marsh's ( , 1992 Academic Self-Description Questionnaire. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) found 4 distinct English skill-specific self-concept constructs, demonstrating the multidimensional nature of self-concepts in different skill areas. Hierarchical CFA found that self-concepts of the 4 English skills can be represented by either a higher order English self-concept factor or by a global English Self-concept factor. The correlation between the higher order and global English factors was .97, indicating that they cannot be distinguished as two separate constructs. Within a specific subject domain such as English, academic self-concept can be both hierarchical and multidimensional.In the present study we attempted to examine the multifaceted and hierarchical nature of self-concept within the specific subject domain of English. There have been two major studies of the structure of self-concept (Marsh & Shavelson, 1985;Shavelson, Hubner, & Stanton, 1976). Shavelson et al. proposed a self-concept model that could empirically be scrutinized. According to their model, there is a general self posited at the apex of the self-concept hierarchy, which is divided into academic and nonacademic facets. Under the nonacademic facet are social, physical, and emotional self-concepts in contrast to the academic facet with self-concepts for various academic domains such as English and math. There are self-concepts further down the hierarchy that are even more specific. Since the advent of this model, research on self-concept has shifted to an emphasis on construct validation and its delineation of the hierarchical and multidimensional nature of the self. Marsh and Shavelson (1985) further scrutinized the self-concept model and found that the self-concept structure was, in reality, more complicated than the one originally proposed in the Shavelson et al. (1976) model. Specifically, they found that the multifacets described in the original model were so distinct and diverse by late adolescence that the hierarchy was necessarily weak. Marsh and Hocevar (1985) then demonstrated that students' verbal and mathematical self-concepts are typically so distinct (with a near-zero correlation) that the two constructs could not be incorporated into a general academic self-concept. To ex-

Investigating Pre-service EFL Teachers’ Self-concepts within the Framework of Teaching Practicum in Turkish Context

“…Their findings suggest that a single verbal self-concept could not adequately represent multilingual students and they call for research to account for differing distinct self-concepts specific to each language. Taken together, this parallels work by Lau et al (1999) in the way that the findings from the two studies confirm the multifaceted nature of self-concept.…”

“…To this end, research into self-concept has now started attracting attention of researchers in the domain of language learning although such interest has been limited (Mercer, 2011;Lau et al 1999;Yeung & Wong, 2004;Kumazawa, 2013). In one such study, Mercer (2011) asserted that one's self-concept in language learning may exhibit complexities.…”

“…Drawing on EFL learner self-concept, Lau et al (1999) in their work proposed that the four basic skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) could be adequately represented by a single, global EFL learner self-concept. In term of its methodological approach employed, their work was conducted using a fixed-item questionnaire adapted from Marsh's Academic Self-Description Questionnaire (ASDQ).…”

Measuring Self-Perceptions of Oral Narrative Competencies and Anxiety in the EFL Context

“…Accordingly, the L2 self-concept construct could be differentiated with regard to distinct subcomponents referring to the perception of listening, speaking, reading, and writing performance (Holder, 2005;Laine, 1988;Lau, Yeung, Jin & Low, 1999;Mori, 2002;Rahimi & Abedini, 2009). As theoretically expected, similar results could be found with regard to L2 anxiety.…”

A organização do autoconceito: análise da estrutura hierárquica em adolescentes

“…Por exemplo, Koumi (2000) num estudo com alunos gregos do ensino secundário, identifica dois factores de ordem superior, na estrutura hierárquica do autoconceito académico: o autoconceito das disciplinas nucleares (constituído pelo autoconceito matemático, autoconceito a grego, autoconceito a geografia, autoconceito a inglês e autoconceito escolar global) e o autoconceito das disciplinas não nucleares (constituído pelo autoconceito musical e o autoconceito físico), sendo que o autoconceito matemático e o autoconceito verbal apresentam uma correlação elevada entre si (0,40). Estes dados parecem sugerir que a organização do autoconceito académico reflecte a forma como se organiza o ensino nos diferentes países e a estrutura curricular que propõem ao longo da escolaridade (Lau, Yeung, Jin, & Low, 1999;Yeung et al, 2000).…”