A Case Study Of Language Anxiety Of Chinese Foreign Language Majors

Since 1970s, many researchers have realized that the success of foreign language learning depends largely on language learners themselves, and their attention has shifted from teachers to learners ever since. Ellis (1994) proposes a framework to the study of individual differences, and learners' affective factors are included in it as a key element which will affect language learning outcomes. According to Krashen's theory, there exists "a mental block" caused by affective factors which prevents language learners from fully utilizing the comprehensible input in language learning process. Krashen calls it as "affective filter". According to him, learner's affective factors function as a "filter" which could affect the intake of the comprehensible input. Comprehensible input is necessary for successful foreign language learning, but it is not a sufficient condition. Affective factors can have a strong influence on foreign language learning. Anxiety is one of the important affective factors, and it is considered hindering foreign language learning.But previous studies concerning the effect of language anxiety fail to draw a consistent conclusion. Some studies show that language anxiety has a negative effect on second/foreign language learning, while others indicate that language anxiety has a positive or even no effect on language learning achievement. Chastain's (1975) study shows that language anxiety has different effects on different target language learning. The majority of the studies are mainly done in western countries where the target language is learned as a second language. In China, taking advantage of the theories and achievements of language anxiety in western countries, many researchers have conducted research on the relationship of anxiety to English learning achievement in recent years, and the results are also mixed and confusing. In addition, few studies have been done on other foreign languages except English. Using Horwitz and her colleagues' construction of foreign language anxiety as theoretical foundation, the present study aims to exam the anxiety level experienced by English majors and German majors, the effect of language anxiety on foreign language learning, and factors that may increase anxiety level in a foreign language classroom. The research questions of the present study are as follows:1. What's the general state of anxiety experienced by foreign language learners?2. Is there any significant relationship between language anxiety and foreign language learning achievement measured by final grades?3. Is there any difference in language anxiety level between English majors and German majors?4. Is there any difference in language anxiety level between male and female students or between first-year and second-year college students?5. What are the potential sources of foreign language anxiety?Both quantitative and qualitative methods are adopted in the study. The subjects in this study are 103 English and German majors from grade one and grade two in Zhengzhou University. The instrument used in the quantitative study is the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) developed by Horwitz et al. (1986), which is a highly reliable and widely used instrument in the research of language anxiety. Students' scores in final examination are used as measures of their foreign language proficiency. All the data collected are analyzed with statistics software. The qualitative part is a semi-structured interview with eight volunteers from the participants to have a further study on the sources of language anxiety from the perspective of foreign language learners.The results of the present study show: (1) The majority of the students' anxiety level is relatively high. 41% of the students' anxiety score is above 99, indicating a high level of anxiety. (2) Generally speaking, there is a moderately negative correlation between language anxiety and both English and German learning achievement. (3) Another important finding is that there is no significant difference between English majors and German majors in anxiety level. But the mean anxiety score of English majors (97.69) is much higher than that of German majors (92.50), which deserves attention. (4) There is no significant difference in anxiety level with regard to gender or grade. (5) The major potential sources of language anxiety found in this study are: low self-esteem, competitiveness, lack of group membership, incomprehension, being called on to answer questions/fear of negative evaluation, learners' unrealistic language beliefs, testing, cultural and linguistic differences between foreign teachers and Chinese students, negative past language learning experiences, and too much material covered in one class/semester.The finding is important both in theory and in practice. Theoretically, it could deepen one's understanding of the correlation between language anxiety and foreign language learning in Chinese context. In practice, it could help teachers to understand the destructive effect that classroom anxiety can have on students' performance and the potential sources of language anxiety. Students could also benefit from this study in better understanding the nature of foreign language anxiety and finding suitable ways to cope with it.