Influence Of Teachers' Feedback On College Students' Anxiety In English Learning

In recent years, with the growing concern about individual differences, many teachers and researchers have paid more and more attention to learners'affective variables. It is generally acknowledged that affective factors play a rather important role in foreign language learning and teaching. Anxiety, as one of the most important affective variables, has prevailed in second language learning and it attracts more and more academic concerns of second language teaching field. A tough problem that has long been perplexing college English teachers is students'anxiety in English learning. Anxiety is one of the most pervasive obstructions in second language learning, and the relationship between anxiety and performance is an inverted-U relationship. That is to say, too high or too low anxiety will have a bad effect on English learning.In China, English learning is mainly carried out in the classroom, so how teachers communicate with their students in class would not only affect the mood of the students, but also determine the outcome of the students English learning to a great degree. English teachers are an important factor in English classroom; since they use their language to initiate and access the performance of the students in the classroom. More and more researches focus on the effect of teachers'classroom feedback on students'affect status.The theoretical foundations of the present study include Affective Filter Hypothesis, Humanism Psychology, prior studies related to both affective factors and teachers'feedback. Based on the review and summarization of the previous research on the second language learning and teachers'feedback both in China and abroad, the present study employed questionnaires, semi-structured interview and classroom observationand investigated 198 non-English major freshmen enrolled in 2009 from China University of Geosciences. On the basis of the results of the qualitative and quantitative researches, the findings indicate that second language anxiety indeed exists among Chinese students in the context of English classroom, varying at levels of anxiety. The general level of anxiety of 90s students are lower than the students'in the previous studies. While they are more sensitive to the teachers'feedback. Although the teachers adopt a wide range of methods to provide feedback, it leaves something to be desired. Most learners admit that the way of their teachers'feedback would contribute to their affective change, would even cause their anxiety in English learning. Learners with high, moderate and low anxiety have different preferences to teachers'feedback. It is significant for teachers to use more appropriate and positive feedback in order to avoid learners'anxiety. Thereby, several teachers' feedback techniques favorable for learners'affective development are put forward. The present research is expected to arouse the awareness of appropriate use of teachers'feedback and to be beneficial to English teaching and English teacher training.