A Survey Of Foreign Language Anxiety And Its Affecting Variables Of Chinese Tertiary-level EFL Learners

As the subjective feeling of apprehension,tension and worry when learners express themselves in the target language,anxiety is one of the most important affective variables affecting foreign language learning.It is generally believed that the study of foreign language anxiety began in the early 1970 s.Compared to the research achievements abroad,the domestic study on foreign language anxiety is a latecomer,beginning in the late 1980 s,and now enters the fast period,especially from 2007 to2016 with a distinct improvement in both quality and quantity.There are four features of the research:(1)the number of research papers present a dynamic rise on the whole;(2)the undergraduates take up the dominant percentage of the subjects;(3)it involves ontological,correlational,comprehensive,researches into affecting variables,applied research and experimental teaching;and(4)empirical studies far outweighs theoretical studies in methodology.Currently,with the help of the theories and research methods in different disciplines,foreign researchers have greatly enriched the achievements and development of foreign language anxiety.This paper gives a comprehensive overview of the research on foreign language anxiety abroad from the perspectives of its overall trend,research subjects,contents,research nature,and the authors' disciplinary background,in hope of conducting more in-depth domestic research.In light of the research literature available,an initial system has been established abroad characterized by “diverse methods,multiple angles,innovative ideas,and rich contents”.Based on the papers on foreign language anxiety published both at home and abroad,a contrastive analysis is adopted.Above all,this thesis tends to explore the relationship between foreign language anxiety and gender,major and language proficiency,under the guidance of the theories of both educational psychology and second language acquisition.The present paper is an empirical study on the basis of a brief literature review and comparison of foreign language anxiety at home and abroad.The research subjects randomly elected here are 631 Chinese tertiary-level EFL learners.The instruments employed here are revised questionnaire scales and a follow-up structured interview.The first step is a pre-test that is made to achieve a suitable reliability and validity of Foreign Language Anxiety Scale and Affecting Variables of Foreign Language Anxiety Scale.Then,the empirical studies are conducted.Based on the research results,a discussion is held on foreign language anxiety,including its relationship with the gender,major and language proficiency.Furthermore,the attention is paid to the differences among these affecting variables between undergraduates and postgraduates.There are five major findings in this study.Firstly,the mean value of foreign language anxiety is above average,up to 3.00,indicating a middle degree of anxiety.There are mainly three types of foreign language anxiety,namely,language skills anxiety,test anxiety,and fear of negative evaluation(ranked according to their mean value),of which the language skills anxiety involves listening,speaking,reading and writing anxieties(also ranked according to their mean value).Secondly,the t-test result represents that existing statistically significant difference in foreign language anxiety and its three dimensions between male and female students(P<0.05),and the female is less anxious than the male.At the same time,a statistically significant difference between English majors and non-English majors is found as well,and non-English majors are more anxious than English ones(P<0.05).The significant difference is also found in this study between different levels of language proficiency(P<0.05).As for the research on the correlations between foreign language anxiety and language proficiency,students with different levels of language proficiency have negative relationship in language skills anxiety,test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation.That is to say,the lower the language level performs,the higher the level of foreign language anxiety is.Thirdly,the variables that affect foreign language anxiety of tertiary-level EFL learners include four categories: students,teachers,peers and others.Foreign language anxiety is influenced most by the variables of students,followed by teachers and others,with peers the least influenced.Fourthly,all the four categories of variables are found significantly different(P<0.05)in gender.The anxiety of the males is higher than that of the females in the three categories of students,teachers and peers,while the anxiety of the females is higher in other categories.On the other hand,we have also found statistically significant difference in affecting variables between different levels oflanguage proficiency(P<0.05),but no significant difference is found between English majors and non-English majors(P>0.05).Finally,generally,the graduates are more anxious than the undergraduates,but no statistically significant difference has been found between them.In terms of variables affecting foreign language anxiety,only variables of the teachers and peers are found significantly different,while variables of the students and others have no significant difference between the graduates and the undergraduates.This study plays an important guiding role in students' learning,as well as teachers' English teaching.Firstly,by understanding related theories,the learners get to know their current situation of foreign language anxiety,so that they can set a feasible goal to lower the anxiety.Secondly,English teachers should teach students on the basis of the individual differences,fully taking students' gender,major,and language proficiency into consideration.In the process of teaching,teachers should keep a good attitude,improve professional quality,enhance personal charm,and create a relaxed atmosphere in classroom.At the same time,the universities should make an approperiate arrangement for English course to cultivate their intercultural awareness,reduce foreign language anxiety,lay a good emotional foundation for favourable English teaching effect,and achieve second language acquisition and all-round development of students.In terms of the theoretical value,this paper has constructed and tested the reasonable reliability and validity of Foreign Language Anxiety Scale and Affecting Factors Foreign Language Anxiety Scale.Secondly,this paper combines with the related theories of educational psychology and second language acquisition,and adapts foreign language anxiety scale according to the actual situation of our country,which makes the research more in line with Chinese students.In application value,this research,by collecting the data with the methods of mathematical statistics and carrying out the analysis and discussion,is of great significance to the understanding of the current situation of students' anxiety,and provides important and meaningful enlightenment for English learning and teaching.