A Study On The Correlation Between English Listening Anxiety And Listening Strategies Of College English Learners

Language researchers believe that listening, among the four foreign language learning skills, might be the most anxiety-provoking and problematic for foreign language learners. Many researchers also reveal that English learners experience high-degree listening anxiety that impedes their English learning.For the purpose of eliminating listening anxiety and enhancing listening comprehension, specific and favorable listening strategies have to be appropriately adopted. However, the studies on the relationship between listening anxiety and listening strategies are relatively scarce. This thesis mainly explores English listening comprehension anxiety experienced by College English students, their use of listening strategies and the two-two relationships.The participants selected for this study are 101 third-year non-English majors in Jilin University and Changchun University of Science and Technology. The instruments of FLLAS and ELCS are adopted to examine the relationship between English listening anxiety and English listening strategies. This study utilizes a series of data analysis methods including descriptive analysis, t-tests, Pearson correlation analysis and multiple comparisons with the help of SPSS 14.0.The results suggest that listening comprehension anxiety is a pervasive phenomenon among the College English students. There is no obvious difference in listening anxiety level between male and female students, but males demonstrate a bit more anxiety than females. The students use metacognitive, cognitive, social/affective listening strategies on a medium level. There exists a significant negative correlation between listening anxiety and the use of listening strategies, especially metacognitive and cognitive listening strategies. Students'listening achievement is positively correlated with the use of listening strategies and metacognitive listening strategies play the most important role.In view of the pervasiveness of listening anxiety during students'listening process, it is our English teachers'responsibility to create a relaxed and supportive learning environment to reduce the students'anxiety. Meanwhile, teachers should guide the students to learn and use some effective listening strategies to minimize the impacts of listening anxiety on English learning.