The Study On The English Speaking Anxiety Of Higher Vocational School Students

Emotion, as a significant factor influencing foreign language teaching, has drawn great attention from numerous linguists and teachers.Many scholars has researched extensively and thoroughly on one of the emotional factors—Foreign Language Anxiety, with various definitions and classifications. However, their research conclusions are inconsistent, because diversified anxieties have distinct effects on students of different levels and students in different schools. Nonetheless, it is universally acknowledged that foreign language speaking is the most closely correlated with anxiety.The present study, based on the inductive researches of related literature on Foreign Language Anxiety, aims to investigate 97 five-year vocational students from two classes of Wuxi Teachers'College, focusing on their speaking anxiety in English class and the causes of it. On the basis of FLCAS (foreign language classroom anxiety scale),this thesis has worked out a speaking anxiety scale as a researching reference, to probe into the speaking anxiety of vocational students with the help of SPSS tool. The research attempts to solve the following problems:1.whether vocational students have speaking anxiety; 2.what factors make students have their speaking anxiety; 3. how can the teacher bring up the student's oral English communication initiative.This thesis altogether consists of five chapters. Chapter One mainly proposes the background,purposes and significance of the study, the methods of the study, trying to define and classify the key terms; Chapter Two is a literature review on the research of Foreign Language Anxiety and speaking anxiety. It states the theoretical basis of this thesis.The core part lies in Chapter Three and Chapter Four.Chapter Three investigates the speaking anxiety of vocational students through questionnaire and the interview. Chapter Four analyzes and discusses the data of the questionnaire and the content of the interview. Chapter Five draws a conclusion of the study:the overall level of speaking anxiety of vocational students is not high; different causes of anxiety have different effects on students;the level of speaking anxiety has no distinctive discrepancy in gender; it demands the help of teachers and classmates to overcome speaking anxiety. Chapter Five provides relevant strategies according to the anxiety problems.1.Students are encouraged to study cooperatively to improve their studying efficiency.2.Teachers are required to stimulate students'learning interest, to enrich their teaching content; they should explore the comprehensive input in classroom expressions, and the flexibility of asking questions and classroom activities; they should try to enlarge students' vocabulary effectively, to establish an assessment system of a positive effect, and to build a harmonious relationship with students. The last chapter reflects the whole study. Chapter Six initiates with the survey samples, analyzing tools and research results of the study, to reflect on its weakness and areas for future improvement and further exploration.