A Study Of The Effect Of ESA Teaching Model On Non-english Majors’ English Classroom Anxiety In Vocational College

Nowadays,English classroom anxiety is common in non-English majors of vocational colleges.An important reason for this phenomenon is that traditional teaching method mainly focuses on teacher’s explanation and summative evaluation but ignores students’ participation and formative evaluation.To improve English classroom anxiety effectively,the initiative and enthusiasm of students should be mobilized.Based on the flexible use of Engage,Study and Activate,ESA teaching model provides students with chance of individual development,meanwhile,the role of teachers and students change accordingly.In ESA teaching model,students should be regarded as the center of teaching activities and all kinds of activities must accord with students’ need,interest and knowledge level.Besides,teachers are no longer the dominators but facilitators and collaborators of the teaching process.In order to study the effect of ESA teaching model on non-English majors’ English classroom anxiety in vocational college,a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative was employed.The author carried out a 16 week teaching experiment in Shandong College of Electronic Technology.The participants were freshmen from two classes of Accounting major.One of the classes was randomly selected as the experiment class which was instructed under ESA teaching model,and the other was control class,employing traditional teaching method.The study focuses on the following questions:(1)Does ESA teaching model have an effect on English classroom anxiety of vocational students?(2)Are there any differences among the effect that ESA teaching model has on three dimensions of English classroom anxiety?(3)Are there any differences among the effect that ESA teaching model has on English classroom anxiety of different proficiency groups?Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale(FLCAS)designed by Horwitz(1986),the Practical English Test for Colleges(PRETCO),and SPSS V22.0 were adopted during the experimental process.Based on the quantitative analysis of the data obtained from questionnaire and the qualitative analysis of interview,the conclusions can be summarized as follows:1.ESA teaching model has an effect on English classroom anxiety of vocational students.2.For three dimensions of English classroom anxiety,the communication apprehension and fear of negative evaluation improved more significantly than test anxiety.3.Compared to those with high and low English proficiency,English classroom anxiety of middle proficiency group shows more significant improvement.To sum up,the study proves that ESA teaching model can alleviate students’ English classroom anxiety.Based on the study,the author proposes some suggestions for English teaching in vocational college as well as some limitations about this study.At the same time,some recommendations for further study are presented.