Análisis del proceso de esmerilado

Self-concept refers to the way we think about ourselves and this is unique, dynamic, and always developing. According to Purkey (1988), self-concept generally refers to the totality of a complex, organized, and dynamic system of learned beliefs, attitudes and opinions that each person holds to be true about his or her personal existence (cited in Kostić-Bobanović and Ambrosi-Randi, 2008, p. 284). Lawrence (2006) defines self-concept as:

… the sum total of an individual’s mental and physical characteristics and his evaluation of them. As such it has three aspects: the cognitive (thinking); the affective (feeling); and the behavioural (action) (p.2).

As these definitions suggest, self-concept is a broad term, often subsuming three sub- categories: self-image, ideal self and self-esteem. According to Lawrence (2006), self- image refers to ‘the individual’s awareness of his mental and physical characteristics’ (p.3). The development of self-image starts with parents who play a crucial role in shaping the first image of the child. The image, made verbally or non-verbally, is the image in which a child perceives him/herself of being loved or not, clever or not, and so on. School life, of course, adds more experiences and a child may come to believe that she is a capable learner or not or, for example, that she is popular amongst her classroom peers or not. Self- image, as Lawrence (2006) points out, includes physical image or body image, which is the way in which an individual perceives her appearance, function and abilities. The ideal-self, on the other hand, refers to what an individual would like to be. As a child perceives what she is, she is also learning that there are ideal characteristics, behaviours, and skills that her parents and/or teachers highly evaluate and would like that child to have. Beside the family and the school, society has power in shaping self-image and the ideal-self of the child. Comments made by family and other people on the child’s shape, size, style, behaviours,

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manners and so forth alert the child to standards and values in her society. As the child grows, she compares herself with peers in and out of schools and peers’ comparison often occurs most significantly during adolescence when it has a particularly powerful influence on the development of the self.

Self-esteem is probably the most important component of self-concept but it has a complex nature because of its overlap with self-concept. For centuries, self-esteem has been a complex issue in psychology. Although many psychologists have attempted to define self- esteem, it seems quite difficult to grasp such a complicated concept in a single agreed definition (Rubio, 2007). However, Cast and Burke (2002) state that self-esteem ‘refers most generally to an individual's overall positive evaluation of the self’ (p.1042). Rubio (2007), in addition, defines self-esteem as:

… a psychological and social phenomenon in which an individual evaluates his competence and own self according to some values, which may result in

different emotional states, and which becomes developmentally stable but is still open to variation depending on personal circumstances (p.5).

As I explained earlier, self-image is the mental image the person perceives about herself when she compares herself to others or to her perception of the ideal. Through the psychological literature, Rubio (2007) concludes that the theoretical construct of self- esteem includes six main components: competence, worthiness, cognition, affect, stability and openness. These dimensions have been used by psychologists such as Coopersmith (1959), White (1959), Rosenberg (1965, 1979), Branden (1969), and Mruk (1999). Studies of self-esteem show that all dimensions are important

to a certain degree and all might influence an individual, depending on her particular traits and circumstances. So, my students will have different images about themselves depending on their personal traits, the way their self-esteem develops and their own contexts.

The development of self-esteem, as many psychologists (e.g. Rosenberg,1965;

Coopersmith,1967; Mruk, 1999) illustrate, can be influenced by many factors but one of the most significant factors is parents and their degrees of warmth, respect, expectations and, also, birth order may be an influence. These variables can influence self-esteem positively or negatively and, besides parents, school can play a crucial role in self-esteem development especially during the early stages when a child starts evaluating her

performance in the class. Reasoner (1992) has developed a model with five constituents of self-esteem in the classroom: Security (knowing that I am safe, physically and

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Purpose (knowing what I want to do and achieve) and Competence (knowing I can) (cited in Arnold 2011, p.17). In language classes, teachers can develop these five elements at the same time as they work to improve students’ language skills. Arnold believes that language teaching activities that focus on self-esteem are important and can be successful because they have strong personal meaning for students. As a teacher, I can work as a prompter and keep telling students that they can do difficult tasks if they want to do them. This step is preceded by making a comfortable atmosphere in which my students feel secure and have a sense of belonging to the class. I would also try to avoid negative evaluation in order to raise students’ self-confidence as this plays an important role in FL and will now be discussed.