Metacognition,Test Anxiety,and Oral Proficiency Performance In Evaluative Situations

A lot of researches are held on the oral proficiency as a skill and an important aspect in L2 learning, but the oral proficiency in evaluative situations is seldom studied. The latter is usually affected by test anxiety that is the neurological and psychological aspect in the framework of oral proficiency in test situations. But another aspect, that is, metaeognition as strategic competence, also plays an important role in the oral proficiency performance in evaluative situations. The present study attempts to prove the respective role of metacognition and test anxiety in oral English tests. Questionnaires for oral test anxiety and oral metacognition are developed and administered to 129 learners of English in Capital Normal University. The data reveal: oral test anxiety has negative effect on oral proficiency performance in evaluative situations and usually females have higher oral test anxiety. At the same time female students also have higher oral metacognitive level that may contribute to the better performance in oral English tests. The data also indicate that oral metacognition has a major effect on oral test anxiety, so when they influence oral proficiency in test situations at the same time, oral metacognition has advantage over oral test anxiety as manifested in the fact that female students usually have higher oral proficiency scores in oral English tests. The practical application for the paper lies in that it puts forward metacognitive strategies as a factor to promote students?performance in oral proficiency tests. The findings of the review and the results of study indicate that metacognitive strategies would be effective in lessening oral test anxiety and enhancing oral proficiency performance in test situations.