A Study On Language Anxiety Of Ethnic Mongolian College Students As English Beginners In EFL Classroom

Foreign language anxiety has a negative effect on language learning process and is one of the best predictors in accounting for individual differences in language success.On the basis of previous researches, the thesis explores the effects of foreign language anxiety on ethnic Mongolian college students as English beginners with Horwitz and Cope's theoretical concept of foreign language anxiety. In the present study, language anxiety is explored, analyzed and discussed from the perspective of the learner with the help of the foreign language class anxiety scale (FLCAS) developed by Horwitz and Cope (Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope, 1986) and the statistical software of SPSS (11.0). The study mainly focuses on four aspects: different levels of anxiety of ethnic Mongolian students in EFL classroom, the possible reasons for these differences, the potential sources, and the effects of anxiety.The author of this study has found that among Mongolian speaking ethnic college students as English beginners, there do exist different English language anxiety levels. There is no significant gender difference; the science students display higher anxiety level than those of arts, especially in communication apprehension and test anxiety; first year students have higher level in test and general anxiety. A significant result of this study is that the Chinese language proficiency of ethnic Mongolian college students has significant negative correlation with EFL anxiety. In addition, the students with strong motivation and positive attitudes display less anxiety than those without them. Among the factors of language anxiety, general anxiety and communication apprehension are the most powerful anxiety components in learning outcomes of first year students and for second and third year students are test anxiety and communication apprehension. Besides, a significant and negative correlation was found to exist between anxiety factors and final exam performances, and for them all, there are significant differences in final exam achievements between the low anxiety group and the average / high anxiety group, indicating that anxiety tended to impair thelanguage-learning outcomes. With regard to the correlation between anxiety and the performances of different subsections of standard exam, anxiety in general has stronger association with oral test and listening for first year and second year students, while with oral test and writing for third year students.Since anxiety tends to have profound effects on foreign language learning and performance of these ethnic Mongolian students, the quantitative data provided by the study may be helpful for English language teachers in the universities and colleges of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to be more aware of the negative role that anxiety plays and recognize potential sources of anxiety in EFL classroom for ethnic Mongolian college students as English beginners. It is also helpful for ethnic Mongolian college students to take active and effective measures to overcome anxiety and make better achievements in EFL classroom.