A Correlational Study Of Foreign Language Reading Anxiety And Word Guessing

Recently, many researchers have deeply studied the relationship between affective factors and foreign language learning. Anxiety as an important affective variable has got more and more attention in the field of second language acquisition. Although nowadays English teaching emphasizes listening and speaking, reading is an optimal way of getting information and understanding the outside world. Foreign language reading anxiety is the affective variable that directly relates to reading process. Vocabulary acquisition in reading emphasizes learners'ability of learning new words in context consciously, and word guessing is an effective way of dealing with vocabulary. Inspired by the fruitfulness of research results in foreign language reading anxiety at home and abroad, the author attempts to conduct an investigation into foreign language reading anxiety of non-English majors and the correlation between foreign language reading anxiety and achievements of word guessing in reading comprehension.This thesis reviews the literature pertaining to anxiety theories, types of anxiety, language anxiety and reading anxiety and then introduces the theories of Howitz et al, Krashen's affective filter, studies on foreign language reading anxiety, and theories about incidental vocabulary acquisition and tactics of word guessing in reading comprehension.Based on the investigation of 187 non-English majors randomly chosen in a college in Harbin, the author puts forward the following research questions:1. Does foreign language reading anxiety correlate to achievements of word guessing in foreign language reading comprehension?2. To what extent does anxiety about vocabulary correlate to achievements of word guessing in foreign language reading comprehension? 3. How do the other items (values) in the Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale correlate to achievements of word guessing in foreign language reading anxiety, compared with the items about vocabulary?4. Does foreign language reading anxiety have some influence on the attitude towards unfamiliar words in foreign language reading comprehension?By using SPSS11.0 computer software to analyze the qualitative data, the following conclusions are made. Firstly, there is a significant negative correlation between foreign language reading anxiety and achievements of word guessing in reading comprehension. Anxiety about vocabulary is the main factor in foreign language reading anxiety, but the correlation between anxiety about vocabulary and word guessing is not the most significant one. By contrast, other factors in foreign language reading anxiety have relatively high correlation coefficients with achievements of word guessing. And foreign language reading anxiety has its influence on the attitude towards unfamiliar words in reading comprehension.The author finally summarizes the results of this investigation and puts forward some instructive strategies and ideas for foreign language teaching. This thesis ends up with a summary of limitations of this study and suggestions for future research.