A Study Of The Foreign Language Learning Anxiety Among The Senior High School Students Left Behind

Foreign language learning anxiety(FLLA)is one of the most important affective factors that influence learners‘ language learning.Many researchers did a lot of researches on it and got abundant achievements from them.However,most of the researches focus on the foreign language learning anxiety of college students,overseas students,junior students.While the researches on left behind students‘ foreign language learning anxiety are far from enough,especially few studies have been carried out on the foreign language learning anxiety of the left behind senior students in rural areas.This experimental study,on the basis of Krashen‘s affective filter hypothesis and Humanistic psychology,is carried out by qualitative and quantitative ways to make an investigation on left behind students‘ English learning anxiety(ELA)in rural senior schools.It aims to explore the current status of left behind senior students‘ English learning anxiety,the possible factors that causing English learning anxiety,and then give some relevant measures to help the left behind senior students to overcome English learning anxiety as well as improve their English learning interests.The research is designed to study and explore three questions:(1)What is the current status of the left-behind senior students‘ English learning anxiety?(2)What‘s the situation of the left-behind senior students‘ English learning anxiety in terms of different anxiety components?(3)What are the possible factors causing their English learning anxiety?The research findings are as follows:(1)English learning anxiety among left-behind senior students in rural areas is very common.And the left-behind students suffer from a higher level of English learning anxiety than the non-left-behind ones whose parents are both at home.(2)Among the four anxiety components,these left behind senior students suffer from communication apprehension the most.(3)According to the results,three main factors that may have an impact on left behind senior students‘ English learning anxiety are summarized,they are school and teacher factor,personal factor and family factor.At the same time,after summarizing the finding above,the author points out the limitations of the study and then puts forward some suggestions for further research.The limitations are as follows:(1)The sample is not representative enough,for all of the subjects are chosen from the same grade of the same school,so it is difficult to represent all the left behind students in senior high school in rural areas.(2)The present study only gives away the questionnaires to the students and has an interview with them,it doesn‘t investigate the research questions from the perspective of English teachers.(3)The author puts forward some suggestions to alleviate left behind senior students‘ English learning anxiety,but these methods haven‘t been applied in the practical teaching and learning,so the effectiveness and availability of them lack confirmation and they need to be proven and tested in the teaching and learning process.(4)Foreign language learning is a complex process which contains many affecting factors.In this study,the author just discusses the English learning anxiety of the rural senior students based on whether they are left behind or not,but neglects some other variables such as parents‘ education background,family background,region and so on.