College Students' EFL Listening Anxiety And Self-efficacy And Their Prediction On The Listening Performance

Listening is an important skill that language learners need to master,and is also the basis for effective communication.In foreign language learning,listening,as an important source of language input,plays an important role in the development of other language skills.At the same time,foreign language listening comprehension is a complex process,which involves the accepting,processing and understanding of information presented in the text.Therefore,this process will inevitably be influenced by listener factors and listening text factors.Among them,anxiety,as one of the affective factors,has attracted scholars' attention in education due to the development of humanism psychology.It is widely believed that anxiety acts as a barrier to foreign language learning.In the research of how to help learners out of anxiety,scholars have found that anxiety can be reduced through the influence on relevant factors.Self-efficacy,as a motivational variable in language learning,has an important impact on individual's affection.Studies have shown that the improvement of self-efficacy can help to reduce anxiety.However,in the field of foreign language learning,studies of anxiety and self-efficacy mainly focused on the reading skill and writing skill.The research on listening anxiety and listening self-efficacy needs to be explored.Meanwhile,Gansu Province,located in the northwestern inland of China,plays an important role in Belt and Road Initiative.Improving students' English listening proficiency in this region will be able to serve this transnational strategic plan in the long run.However,the English learning resources available to the students in this region are relatively limited compared with the eastern region in China,and students have fewer opportunities to practice and use their English listening skills.In addition,because the listening part of the college entrance examination has not been included in the total score by now,students in this region do not attach enough importance to English listening learning in high school.For freshmen who have just entered the university,they are faced with the requirements of college English listening learning.Therefore,more attention should be paid to the emotional state of these students in English listening learning.In view of this,this study is intended to select non-English major freshmen in Gansu province as participants to examine the following three questions:(1)What are the current situations of non-English major freshmen's English listening anxiety and English listening self-efficacy in Gansu Province?(2)How do students' English listening anxiety,listening self-efficacy and listening achievement correlate with each other?(3)Can English listening anxiety and English listening self-efficacy predict students' listening achievement effectively? Which variable is stronger in predicting students' listening achievement?In this study,256 Gansu non-English major freshmen from Lanzhou Jiaotong University were selected as participants.The students' listening achievements were tested with the listening section of 2018 National Matriculation English Test,Volume 1.The English Listening Anxiety Scale and English Listening Self-efficacy Scale were used to collect data,supplemented by the interview to provide evidence for the quantitative research results.The data collected were analyzed by SPSS 16.0,and then the following findings are made:(1)The overall listening anxiety level of non-English major freshmen in Gansu province is at a medium degree.Among the three dimensions,the degree of the listening test anxiety,including listening test process anxiety and results anxiety,is the highest.And students' English listening self-efficacy is at a low-medium level;however,among the three subscales,students' sense of effort hold a high-medium level.(2)There is a significantly negative correlation between English listening achievement and English listening anxiety.Among the three dimensions of listening anxiety,listening classroom anxiety holds a highest correlation with listening achievement.Meanwhile,there is a significant positive correlation between students' English listening achievement and listening self-efficacy.Among the three subscales,the sense of competence has the largest impact.What's more,there is a significant negative correlation between the overall listening anxiety and the overall listening self-efficacy.Also,there are significantly negative correlation between the three dimensions of listening anxiety and listening self-efficacy.(3)English listening anxiety,together with English listening self-efficacy can predict students' English listening achievement,but English listening self-efficacy is a stronger predictor.English listening self-efficacy can not only independently predict students' English listening achievement,but also has a mediating effect on listening performance by influencing English listening anxiety.According to the above research findings,some implications can be drawn for English listening teaching in Gansu Province.First of all,teachers should be aware of the negative influence of anxiety on students' English listening learning and try to reduce it.Teachers should encourage students not to overweight the test results but lay stress on the learning itself.In English listening teaching,teachers should try different teaching methods,such as cooperative learning,to create a relaxing classroom learning environment for students.They may choose interesting English movies for students to see.That way,not only the listening skills has been practiced,but also their interest in English listening has been improved.At thesame time,teachers should help students develop good listening habits and master effective listening strategies.Secondly,since listening self-efficacy has a strong prediction on listening achievements,and improve students' listening self-efficacy will be helpful to reduce students' listening anxiety,teachers should take measures to improve students' self-efficacy.The selection of listening materials may be based on the principle of “i+1” to help students obtain a sense of achievement in listening learning.And teachers can help students establish reasonable learning goals,and also guide students to attribute correctly.Through the improvement of self-efficacy,students can reduce their listening anxiety and improve their listening performance eventually.