A Research On College Non-English Majors' TOA And FLRA

Despite the rich researches on both language learning anxiety and tolerance of ambiguity by foreign language learners, researches concerning the relationship between the two factors are relatively scarce. This thesis intends to project a small picture of non-English majors' foreign language reading anxiety and tolerance of ambiguity. It is focused on three major aspects: non-English majors' foreign language reading anxiety state, their level of tolerance of ambiguity and the relationship between foreign language reading anxiety and tolerance of ambiguity.The participants selected for the research were 131 non-English majors from four intact classes. The modified Chinese version of Ely's Foreign Language Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale was employed to elicit data regarding students' tolerance of ambiguity. On the basis of Satio's Foreign Language Reading Comprehension Anxiety Scale, another self-designed questionnaire, Foreign Language Reading Comprehension Anxiety Scale, was administered to assess the students' reading anxiety. A series of data analysis methods were adopted in this research: descriptive statistics were used to give details on the frequencies, means of the tolerance of ambiguity and reading anxiety respectively; Pearson correlations were used to determine the strength of relationship.In order to have a better understanding of tolerance of ambiguity and reading anxiety and their relationship, qualitative research method was also introduced. Some casual talks with students were conducted to give supplementary data to the quantitative research.The findings obtained from the analysis the participants' data are as follows: 1) In general, the non-English majors in the research experienced comparatively pervasive reading anxiety. 2) The non-English majors in the research also experienced comparatively pervasive intolerance of ambiguity. 3) Students' reading anxiety had a significant negative correlation with their tolerance of ambiguity. Pedagogical implications of this research are listed as follows: 1) Be aware of students' fear and problems about foreign language learning and reading comprehension. 2) Teachers should have a better understanding of the individual differences in cognitive styles such as TOA/ITOA in order to get more insights into both the reading process and reading teaching method. 3) The finding that reading anxiety was negatively correlated with tolerance of ambiguity implies that tolerance of ambiguity may play an important role in lowering reading anxiety. 4) Background knowledge plays an important role in FL reading comprehension, and it is strongly recommended offering American and British Culture course to non-English majors. In addition, more lectures on culture and diverse topics are suggested to broaden their academic envision. 5) The reader's background knowledge of the text organization is beneficial for understanding the overall idea of a text without paying attention to the meaning of every word or sentence. 6) Reading techniques identified as effective should be taught explicitly so that reading instruction can be strategy-oriented and students' nascent reading ability can be further enhanced.The present research is only a tentative one. Before the thesis goes to the conclusion, some proposals are put forward so as to offer a modest spur to trigger more valuable contributions in this field.