A Study On The Correlation Between English Listening Anxiety And Perceptual Learning Styles Of Non-English Mjors

Recently, the focus on foreign language teaching has shifted from the way of how teachers teach to the way of how learners learn. Then one of the most important aspects of the research is about learners'factors which cause different learning achievement. Since learning style and language anxiety are two important parts, knowing and researching students' learning style and language anxiety apart from their relationship plays an important role on improving teaching quality. Despite the fruitful researches on English listening anxiety and perceptual learning style, seldom researches focus on the correlation between them. Therefore, the present study has research significance.The present study investigates the correlation between English listening anxiety and perceptual learning style.130 non-English majors of Grade 2009 and Grade 2010 in Guangxi Normal University are involved in this investigation. And this paper intends to answer the three questions in a systematic way:1. What is the general situation of listening anxiety of non-English majors?2. What are their learning style preferences?3. Is there any relationship between one's listening anxiety and perceptual learning style? How is it?The questionnaires are the revised versions of Kim's Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Scale and Reid's Perceptual Learning Style Preference Questionnaire. Proper modification is carried out in terms of the needs for survey. With the analysis of the collected data given by SPSS 11.5, the research outcomes are as follows:1. English listening anxiety is pervasive among non-English majors;2. There is a general tendency of the non-English majors learning style preferences towards the tactile learning style. And then, followed by tactile style, there are individual, auditory, kinesthetic, visual and group styles;3. There is a significant correlation between visual learning style and listening anxiety, and a negative correlation between the auditory style and listening anxiety. And it is also found that some students have more than one major learning style and some had no major style.The thesis puts forward some suggestions for college English teaching:1. Teachers need to identify students' learning style preferences to make English class teaching more effective;2. Teachers can alleviate learners' anxiety through stretching learners' perceptual learning styles to improve English listening achievement;Meanwhile, some suggestions for the undergraduates are as follows:1. Be aware of learning style preferences in order to adapt to different learning environments;2. Learners need to diversify their learning styles for various learning tasks.