A Study On The Relationship Of Foreign Language Anxiety To English Proficiency And Gender For Non-English Majors In A Chinese University

With the advent of humanistic psychology in the 1960s, the research on language teaching and learning has shifted from teacher-centered to learner-centered. More and more researchers and language teachers have recognized the importance of affective factors. Of all these factors, language learning anxiety has received more and more attention. The purpose of the research in this area is to have a full and deep understanding of the language learning anxiety experienced by university students so as to find ways to alleviate their language learning anxiety.200 non-English majors in a Chinese university participated in this study. The study utilizes Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) as a research questionnaire to explore students'foreign language anxiety. The questionnaire consisted of two sections: (1) personal information; and (2) FLCAS items designed by Horwitz, et al. (1986). In addition, interviews were conducted with 10 of the participants to supplement the quantitative research. The study aimed to explore the students'language learning anxiety from four aspects: 1) the levels of the students'foreign language anxiety in English classrooms; 2) the differences in foreign language learning anxiety between students of high level proficiency and low level proficiency; 3) the differences in language anxiety between males and females; 4) the relationship between language achievement and foreign language learning anxiety. The data collected from the investigation were analyzed by SPSS 13.0.The study revealed several findings regarding the language learning anxiety of this group of university students. Firstly, most students in this study showed more or less foreign language anxiety. There was a significantly negative correlation between language proficiency and foreign language anxiety. Secondly, as to the language learning anxiety of the students with different levels of proficiency, significant differences existed between the students of high language proficiency and those of low language proficiency level in their foreign language anxiety. Those students with high proficiency felt less anxious than those with low proficiency. Thirdly, the study also indicated that both male and female students experienced rather high anxiety in English learning. But there was no significant difference between females and males in their language learning anxiety. Fourthly, analysis of the data from the interviewees showed that there were five sources of foreign language anxiety: speaking in front of others, incomprehensible input, unscientific beliefs about English learning, classroom atmosphere and tests.On the basis of the findings, the author drew some pedagogical implications to help students alleviate their learning anxiety. Firstly, teachers should foster learners'confidence in English learning and help them hold scientific language belief and learning strategies to guide and help their English learning. Besides, teachers should also provide more comprehensible input in accordance with students'English level. Last,teachers should create good classroom atmosphere for their learning. Only in such ways will teachers be able to help their students learn English more effectively.