English Language Anxiety And Cooperative Learning

Since 1970s, affective factors in foreign language learning have gained much attention. It is more and more realized that the success of second language acquisition depends largely on the learner him/herself. A large number of studies have shown that anxiety, which is fear or apprehension occurring when a learner is expected to perform in a second or foreign language, seems to be the most pervasive obstruction in foreign language learning. Language anxiety affects all the three stages (i.e. the input stage, the processing stage, and the output stage) of cognitive processing in second language acquisition or learning. Besides, anxiety has a close relationship with the learners' motivation, attitude, self-evaluation and language proficiency.English researchers and teachers in China, on the one hand, have taken advantages of the theories and achievements of language anxiety in western countries and have proposed different coping styles to reduce foreign language anxiety. On the other hand, researches, abroad or home, have already shown that students have benefited a lot from cooperative learning (CL). It is widely acknowledged that CL creates a more positive affective climate and a favorable environment in the classroom. To be more specific, it is helpful in increasing motivation, self-confidence and self-esteem, in promoting learner participation and interaction, and in providing comprehensible input and output, etc. Meanwhile, researches focusing on the damaging effects of foreign language anxiety also indicate that CL as a classroom procedure can lower English language anxiety in classroom.In order to find a more effective classroom procedure to lower English language anxiety and to promote English language learning, the present author first made a survey to obtain the basic information about foreign language learners' anxiety level and their affective need in classroom English language learning. Based on this survey, the hypotheses were raised:(1) Can cooperative learning (CL) meet Chinese learners' affective needs ?(2) Is cooperative learning a more effective classroom procedure to reduce English language anxiety and enhance English achievement?...