Beliefs About Language Learning And Language Anxiety In Language Learning

With the development of humanism and cognitive science, more people turn their attention to the learners in second language learning and teaching. They attach more significance to the learner's emotional needs in addition to their intellectual needs. Anxiety is one of the affective factors that most pervasively obstruct the learning process. It is associated with negative feelings such as uneasiness, frustration, self-doubt, apprehension and tension. In order to reduce the amount of foreign language anxiety in the classroom, investigating potential sources of foreign language anxiety is important. Some researchers (Horwitz, and Young) suggested learner beliefs about language learning should be a major contributor to language anxiety.This study investigated the beliefs about language learning and foreign language anxiety of High School students learning English in Hubei province. Meanwhile, it attempted to find out different viewpoints held by the high- and low- level of anxiety groups. The relationship between students'beliefs and levels of anxiety were also studied. A total of 252 high school students of three Grades from Tuanfeng Middle School of Hubei province participated in this study. Students'anxiety levels were measured by the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS). Students'beliefs about language learning were investigated by the revised Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory (BALLI). Students were also asked to complete a background questionnaire. All the questionnaires were in Chinese for the purpose of avoiding the possibility of misunderstanding.Several conclusions are made based on the findings of this study. First, most high school students in this study have already formed some explicit beliefs about English and English learning. Their attitudes towards teaching and learning strategy tend to be more positive than other beliefs. And they begin to hold some meta-cognitive strategy beliefs in learning process. Meanwhile, they have clear purposes for foreign language learning, and their aims mainly derive from instrumental reasons though they have some kind of integrative motivations. However, in terms of the notions of language nature, most students still stress the importance of pronunciation and vocabulary, yet they do not weigh too much on grammar and have a kind of trend to communication and usage functions.Secondly, in general, the participants in this study have medium level of foreign language anxiety based on their FLCAS scores. Five items in which the students have the highest level of anxiety are represented (item 1, 10, 8, 33 and 3) and five items in which the subjects have the lowest level of anxiety are also analyzed (item 12, 26, 5, 17, 19). The results show that communication trouble in foreign language learning easily leads to anxiety in the study. Students in China are less confident of their communication ability.Thirdly, with respect to the comparison of the high level and low level anxiety groups on beliefs about language learning, Independent T-test demonstrates variations between the two groups. Significant differences appear in response to their preconceptions about language difficulty,language aptitude and language learning strategy as well. The data indicate that the high anxiety level group holds more passive and negative assumptions than their counterpart. Yet there are a number of instances where low-anxiety level group hold similar beliefs with the high level group on the other two categories. In a word, low-anxiety level group usually holds broad and insightful views about language learning. In contrast, high-anxiety level group generally forms restricted and counterproductive views.Lastly, the relationship between students'beliefs and their anxiety, the three categories---beliefs about language aptitude, beliefs about language difficulty and beliefs about language learning strategies---have strong correlations with anxiety. And the most powerful predictor for students'foreign language anxiety was the belief about language learning difficulty.These results could further testify Young's findings that learner beliefs about language learning may be a major contributor to it---foreign language anxiety. Meanwhile, language teachers can try to lower students'higher level of anxiety by helping them build up correct beliefs towards foreign language learning.