A Study Of Correlation Between Anxiety And English Listening Proficiency Of College Students

With the development of second language acquisition, the emphasis of pedagogical researches have shifted from learners’exterior factors to their interior factors. Foreign studies in the past three decades have repeatedly confirmed that the foreign language anxiety level is an effective predicator in accounting for language learning success and it proved to be one of the most influencial affective factors. Although Chinese researchers have already relized the negative role foreign language anxiety plays in English learning, relevant investigations are rather few. Based on this, the present study attempts to carry out an empirical and systematical study on the English listening anxiety of non-English majors with the aim of contributing to the practical instructions of listening teaching and learning from the perspective of affective variables.Combining quantitative method with qualitative method, this study adopts the"Background Information Questionnaire", the "English Listening Anxiety Scale" and the "English Listening Learning Strategies Scale" as quantitative research questonnaires. Concerning the qualitative method,50subjects out of the total139participants for an individual interview are randomly selected. Based on the research data, the study uses SPSS(16.0) to conduct analyses of the correlaton between the English listening anxiety and the English listening proficiency (based on results from CET-4listening), which reaches the conclusion that anxiety correlates significantly with the English listening proficiency and also has a negative influence on listening comprehension. Meanwhile, the anxiety level also significantly correlates with the subjects’background factors as well as the use of listening coping strategies. According to the research results, the study further explains the nature of listening anxiety, analyzes the main sources of listening anxiety and discusses in detail about the correlation between the English listening anxiety and the English listening proficiency.By means of questionnaires survey, listening-skill-specific test and self-rated proficiency interview, with the data analyses conducted by the Statistical Package for Social Science SPSS(16.0), final conclusion is reached that listening anxiety correlated negatively with the listening performance and that anxiety may expose significant influence on foreign language listening proficiency. The possible sources of listening anxiety include the characteristics of listening comprehension, lietening material as well as listening tasks and the bad habits of English listeners. According to the findings of this study, it is suggested that foreign language teachers can adopt appropriate pedagogical strategies to help students have a correct understanding of anxiety, thus transform the debilitating anxiety to facilitating anxiety. Besides, there still exist certain limitations of the study with respect to its pedagogical generalization and actual application, but the research findings will make due contribution to the foreign language pedagogical reform and theoretical development.