| Self-efficacy refers to an individual’s cognition of one’s ability,which is closely related to learning attitudes and emotions.Foreign language reading anxiety is a negative emotion in foreign language reading.They play an important role in second language acquisition.Reading is an important part of high school students’ English learning process,which is easily affected by learners’ emotional factors.A good emotional state not only help learners maintain a positive learning attitude,but also reduce their anxiety.However,through reading existing literature,the author finds that there is a lack of research on the correlation between high school students ’self-efficacy,foreign language reading anxiety and foreign language reading performance in China.There are not enough studies on individual differences of learners.The scope of research in this direction needs to be further expanded.Therefore,based on the two theories of affective filtering and self-efficacy,this study investigates the relationship among self-efficacy,foreign language reading anxiety and reading performance of high school students.In addition,it also studies how do self-efficacy and foreign language reading anxiety affect reading performance.The three research questions of this study are as follows.Question 1: What is the status quo of high school students’ self-efficacy and foreign language reading anxiety?Question 2: What is the correlation between high school students’ self-efficacy,foreign language reading anxiety and reading performance?Question 3: How do high school students’ self-efficacy and foreign language reading anxiety affect reading performance?The research subjects selected in this study are 203 senior one students from a senior high school in Jinzhong City,Shanxi Province.Using the English Reading Self-efficacy Scale compiled by Li,Chen and Jiang(2006)in The book Strategic Style Attribution and the Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale(Saito)(1999),combined with the students’ English reading scores in the mid-term test,SPSS24.0descriptive analysis,Pearson correlation analysis and the mediating effect analysis were used to explore the relationship between high school students ’ self-efficacy in English reading,reading anxiety and reading performance.The results show that:(1)Both high school students’ self-efficacy and foreign language reading anxiety are at medium le vel.In the three dimensions of self-efficacy,the highest level is the sense of difficulty-coping,the lowest level is the sense of course ability,and the level of self-confidence is in the middle.Among the four dimensions of foreign language reading anxiety,the highest level is emotional anxiety,and the lowe st level is anxiety about unfamiliar culture.(2)High school students’ self-efficacy,foreign language reading anxiety and reading performance are significantly correlated.There is a positive correlation between self-efficacy and reading performance,as well as a significant negative correlation between foreign language reading anxiety and reading performance,and a significant negative correlation between self-efficacy and foreign language reading anxiety.(3)Self-efficacy and foreign language reading anxiety had significant effects on reading performance respectively,in which self-efficacy could predict 33.6% of reading performance,foreign language reading anxiety could predict 21.7% of reading performance,and self-efficacy had stronger predictive ability.The results of the mediating effect analysis show that self-efficacy plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between foreign language reading anxiety and reading performance,that is to say,the relationship between foreign language reading anxiety and reading performance is partly realized by self-efficacy.The findings of this research have implications for both English teachers and foreign language learners.It is of great importance for teachers to help students relieve their anxiety and enhance their self-confidence about English reading.For example,teachers can choose reading materials of moderate difficulty for students to stimulate their interest in English reading.Learners with certain confidence in English reading can relieve reading anxiety and improve their reading performance. |
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