A Study Of Foreign Language Listening Anxiety In Higher Vocational College Students

The study of anxiety in foreign language learning has attracted great attention of researchers in recent years. However, most studies mainly focused on general foreign language anxiety while language-skill specific anxiety has been neglected. The studies on listening anxiety are especially limited. The thesis attempts to carry out the study of foreign language listening anxiety in higher vocational college students, aiming at exploring listening anxiety level experienced by higher vocational college students, factors affecting listening anxiety and the relationship between listening anxiety and the use of listening coping strategies.The paper adopts two instruments including questionnaires and interviews for a survey on listening anxiety with 148 second-year higher vocational college students from Shandong Trade Union Administrative Cadre College as the subjects. The study utilizes a series of data analysis methods including descriptive analysis, Pearson correlation analysis and multiple comparisons with the help of SPSS14.0.By analyzing the Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Questionnaire and Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Coping Strategies Questionnaire, we can conclude that students in higher vocational college do experience foreign language listening anxiety at a relatively higher level. Foreign language listening comprehension anxiety mainly arises from individual characteristics, listening process characteristics and text characteristics. Among these factors, listeners'individual characteristics are found to be the most influential factor affecting listening anxiety. Students use metacognitive, cognitive and social/affective strategies at a medium level with metacognitive strategies used most frequently. There exists a significant negative correlation between listening anxiety and the use of listening strategies. From the interview, it can be concluded that the affective factors as motivation, interest, self-confidence are important factors resulting in listening anxiety and should be given due attention in the listening class.Considering the pervasiveness of foreign language listening anxiety in higher vocational college students, the research gives some pedagogical implications for the teachers to help the students take effective measures to reduce their listening anxiety.