A Study On The Relationship Between Foreign Language Anxiety And The Use Of Learning Strategies

Since the focus of research in foreign language teaching has shifted from "how to teach" to "how to learn" in the early 1970s, many language researchers have been investigating learners' variables in the language learning process. Foreign language anxiety is just one of the learners' variables that have been given the most attention by language researchers. There is a great deal of research on the relationship between foreign language anxiety and foreign/second language achievements, but the results are inconsistent. Some research shows that foreign language anxiety has negative effects on foreign/second language achievements, while some shows that foreign language anxiety has positive or even no effects on foreign/second language achievements.Language learning strategy is another topic that many researchers are interested in. Evidence shows that the use of language learning strategies is closely related with foreign/second language achievements and many studies confirmed that learning strategies play a positive role in language learning.All the above studies just show that both language anxiety and learning strategies have a great effect on language performance. Ellis (1999) proposed a framework for investigating individual learner differences, which also demonstrated this. In this framework, three sets of variables are identified. The first set consists of individual differences, the second of different learning strategies and the third of language learning outcomes. These three sets of factors are interrelated in complex ways. Language anxiety is just one variable in individual differences. However, most research to date on...