Correlational Study Of Chinese EFL College Students' Foreign Language Reading Anxiety And English Learning Achievement

In foreign language learning, numerous learner variables are generally said to influence the success or failure of language learning. Among these, foreign language anxiety has often been cited as one of the most important affective variables. The past two decades has witnessed a virtual explosion of research into the topic of foreign language anxiety. Numerous research studies have consistently yielded moderate negative correlations between foreign language anxiety and foreign language performance, and the pervasive effects that anxiety has on the language-learning process has frequently reported. However, due to widespread adoption of the general model of foreign language anxiety and the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale proposed and developed by Horwitz et al (1986), some important theoretical concerns have been raised. For example, foreign language learners do not necessarily experience anxiety mostly related to oral performance. Aspects of language learning other than speaking are also anxiety-provoking for some individuals. So the adequacy of using the FLCAS is suspected. At the turn of the century, attempts have been made to examine this issue. Saito, Horwitz and Garza (1999) had developed the Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS) to assess whether foreign language reading anxiety was a construct distinct from general foreign language anxiety. It varies from one language to another. Horwitz (2001) called it a new trend in language anxiety research that attempts to identify more specifically the sources of anxiety and the relationship of anxiety to various second language proficiencies.Although several studies related to foreign language reading anxiety were conducted in the western countries and Taiwan, very few, if any, have been found in Mainland China. In addition, all the available researches on reading anxiety are cross-sectional in nature; no longitudinal studies have been conducted in the world. Furthermore, Because Saito et al. (1999) reported that foreign language reading anxiety varies according to the target language, it is of great theoretical and pedagogical importance to understand how anxiety reactions in reading affect learners of English as a foreign language in China. Therefore, the main focus of this study was to explore the relationship between college students' reading anxiety and their English achievement and other important variables, such as gender difference, gradedifference, expectation of English learning and satisfaction with previous English achievement among college students who learn English as a foreign language in Chinese universities and colleges.In this study, two samples were selected by means of stratified random cluster sampling. The former consisted of 377 non-English major freshmen and sophomores who learned college English as a required course. The latter comprised 211 college students who are freshmen in the former sample. Data for the study were collected by using questionnaires and English achievement measures. With help of SPSS 11.0, descriptive statistics, comparison of means, Pearson correlation analysis, independent sample T tests, principal components analysis and reliability analysis were computed with the target samples.The quantitative findings indicated that reading in English is indeed anxiety provoking to some non-English major college students in China. Reading anxiety is a specific anxiety type distinguishable from the more general types of foreign language anxiety that have been linked to oral performance. The Chinese version of both FLRAS and FLCAS are found to be highly reliable and valid to measure the reading anxiety level of students learning English as a foreign language in China-specific college settings. Reading anxiety is multidimensional. In addition, there are significant gender differences in terms of foreign language reading anxiety and English achievement. Male students tend to have significant higher level of reading anxiety than females while the latter obtain significantly higher score in two global foreign language tests...