A Study On Correlation Between Listening Anxiety And Listening Strategies Of English Majors

Since the 1970s, second language acquisition has gradually aroused people's interest, and great progress has been made in this field. Many teachers and researches have paid much attention to learners'affective variables, shifting from the focus on external factors of teaching and learning to internal factors of learners. Foreign language anxiety, as one of the most important affective variable, is a kind of complicated mental phenomenon specific to language learning. Horwitz et al. (1986) defined foreign language anxiety as"a distinct complex of language learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learning process". However, in the field of anxiety study, most researchers have focused their attention on general foreign learning anxiety. More specific anxiety like language-skill specific anxiety such as listening anxiety has been neglected.The present study based on Krashen's affective filter hypothesis, which simply states that a student's acquisition of a second language is directly related to his attitude toward acquiring it. This attitude may be influenced by several factors– societal opinion of the language and its students, positive or negative classroom experience, nervousness, sense of self-esteem.The present study aims to explore the relationship between the anxiety state and the listening strategies. It was focused on four major aspects: the present listening anxiety state of English majors; exploring the relationship between English listening anxiety and use of listening strategies; examining the gender differences in listening anxiety state and use of listening strategies; and comparing the difference in the use of listening strategies across the low, medium and high anxiety levels.This study adopts questionnaires for a survey on listening anxiety and listening strategies with 127 English majors from Jiangxi Educational College. The questionnaires included the learners'background information questionnaire (BIQ), foreign language listening anxiety scale (FLLAS) and listening strategies scale (LSS). The results of the present study revealed that learners'listening proficiency has no correlation with their listening anxiety. Their self rated English level and their interests have positive correlation with listening strategies, but they have negative correlation with listening anxiety. Learners'listening anxiety has negative correlation with their use of listening strategies. In terms of their use of listening strategies and listening anxiety state, there is no gender difference. As for the difference in the use of listening strategies among the three anxiety levels, significant difference exists between low anxiety level and medium anxiety level, low anxiety level and high anxiety level.Based on the results of the present study, the present study's implications are teacher should pay attention to learners'anxiety state and help them control their negative feeling. Teacher should analyze which factor may hinder learners form improving their listening level and give learners some suggestions. Taking into account negative correlation between listening anxiety and listening strategies, teachers should teach them some listening strategy so as to lower their anxiety level.