A Study On Left-behind Junior Students' Foreign Language Learning Anxiety

Since the 1960s,foreign language educators and researchers home and abroad have started to pay attention to the influence of the affective variables including language learning anxiety on foreign language learning. Horwitz et al believe that foreign language anxiety is a series of special psychological activities such as self-perception, attitudes towards foreign language learning, feelings of foreign language learning and language learning behaviors which are caused by the unique foreign language learning process in classroom language teaching and learning. In the west the fruitful research of learning strategies has also greatly promoted the Chinese scholars in this field to study. But few studies have been carried out on the left-behind junior students'foreign language learning anxiety in China.The thesis firstly reviewed the previous and current researches on foreign language learning anxiety both at home and aboard. Then the questionnaire of FLCAS which was designed by Horwitz et al was introduced to investigate the English learning anxiety level of the 280 junior students in the junior school of ShangTuShi town, AnHui province and among which 120 are left-behind junior students. The investigation was intended to answer the following questions:1 What's the status of English learning anxiety of the left-behind junior middle school students?2 Is there any significant difference between the left-behind junior middle school students and non-left-behind ones?3 What are the possible factors that may influence the foreign language learning anxiety level of left-behind junior middle school students?4 What are the pedagogical implications of these factors?The result of the questionnaire study shows that:1 The left-behind junior middle school students have relatively high level of foreign language learning anxiety.2 There is significant difference between the foreign language learning anxiety level of left-behind junior middle school students and that of non-left-behinds.3 Of the three components of foreign language learning anxiety, left-behind junior middle school students are significantly different from those non-left-behinds in levels of communication appendence and negative evaluation. No significant difference is found in the level of test anxiety.According to the above results and the results of classroom observation and interviews with the teachers and the left-behind students, this thesis tried to find out the factors that may influence the foreign language learning anxiety level of left-behind students. Finally the put forward ways and suggestions to help lower down the foreign language learning anxiety level of the left-behind junior middle school students.