A Study On English Listening Anxiety Of Junior High School Students

Junior high school English teaching in China has been paying much attention to reading,writing and grammar for many years but has neglected listening and speaking.However,listening as the basis of the four major language abilities has the largest portion in listening,speaking,reading and writing.As C hina increasingly integrates itself into the international community,the function of English as a communication tool rather than an examination subject becomes much clearer.This requires that English teaching in junior high schools must pay attention to the training of the student’s listening and speaking abilities.However,the teaching methods formerly used in classrooms over the years have resulted in junior high school students in underdeveloped areas to lack good listening comprehension,and it has caused the students to develop higher degrees of listening anxiety in the listening classes.Listening anxiety can cause fear or nervousness within students,and it has a negative impact on the student’s learning.To alleviate the anxious feeling,based on Krashen’s hypothesis of affective filtering and meta-cognition related theories,this study reviewed the research results of scholars at home and abroad.This study utilizes a questionnaire and interviews as research instruments.It also takes 195 junior high school students and two English teachers from Yucai Middle School in Jinxiang,Jining as research subjects.All data statistics were analyzed by using SPSS 20.0.Therefore,the study integrates the data got from questionnaire to analyze the potential causes of junior high school students’ listening anxiety and put forward some relevant countermeasures.This study indicated the following causes of junior high school students’ listening anxiety through investigation and analysis:(1)Poor basic English knowledge,inc luding small vocabulary,a lack of grammar knowledge and nonstandard pronunciation.(2)Lack of cultural background knowledge.(3)Bad listening habits and listening strategies.(4)Lack of intrinsic motivation,interest,and confidence in listening.Aiming at the above issues,relevant teaching enlightenments are proposed to alleviate students’ listening anxiety:(1)C hanging the old teaching methods for basic English knowledge.(2)Emphasizing the teaching of cultural background knowledge and broadening students’ horizons.(3)Using the relevant theories of meta-cognition to train students in listening habits and listening strategies.(4)Conducting relevant psychological counseling to stimulate students’ intrinsic motivation and interest in listening learning and aiding them to build confidence.All these methods will help junior high school teachers improve the effectiveness of listening teaching and promote students’ listening ability.