Impact Of Language Anxiety On The English Learners Of Health Schools

Since the 1970s, Humanistic approaches have been the focus oflanguage learning and teaching. More and more researchers have directedtheir attention to the impact of affective factors on language learning. It iscommonly acknowledged that affective factors are one of the importantfactors influencing foreign language learning process and outcomes.Among the affective factors, anxiety ranks high. Its importance has led tovarious researches and discussions both at home and abroad. The studiesin the 1970s were difficult to interpret contradictory results, especially therelationship between trait anxiety and course grades. Not until the mid1980s, did the researchers illustrate a negative correlation of secondlanguage anxiety with second language achievement and performance. Itis worth noticing that a large number of researches is concentrated on theimpact of language anxiety on learning achievement of universitylearners or middle school learners, whereas researches related tosecondary specialized school learners, especially the learners of healthschools with a large number of girls are comparatively less discussed.Therefore, this thesis intends to hold some discussions about the impactof language anxiety on the English learners of the health schools based onsecond language anxiety theory and Horwitz's language anxietymeasurement.The thesis consists of seven parts, including introduction andconclusion. The introductory part deals with the theoretical underpinningand explains why the writer has chosen this subject. Chapter One gives a brief review of researches done on languageanxiety as well as researchers' different views on language anxiety onlanguage learners with the classification and manifestations of languageanxiety included. Particular emphasis is put on the negative influence oflanguage anxiety on language learning and learners' potential andphysical and psychological fitness.Chapter Two is an analysis of the relationship of learners' languageanxiety in health schools and learners' learning achievements. The authoradopts Horwitz's Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale, which ismodified to the English Language Classroom Anxiety Scale according toresearch need to measure learners' language anxiety. SPSS software isused to record and process the related data. The research results show thatlanguage anxiety is negatively correlated to language learning. Namely,the higher learners' language anxiety is, the lower learners' learningachievement is.Chapter Three discusses factors causing language anxiety from threeaspects with the help of open-ended questionnaire and interviews. Firstly,the factors causing language anxiety are related to learners' affect such aspoor self-esteem, poor sense of competition, unscientific beliefs aboutlanguage learning, low tolerance of ambiguity, incorrect attribution ofsuccess and failure, etc. Secondly, teachers' unscientific beliefs, problemsin teacher and learner interactions and some classroom activities andprocedures are also related to learners' language anxiety. Languageanxiety is also related to other factors, such as improper evaluation oflanguage tests, over-expectation from parents and etc.Chapter Four posits the strategies to reduce learners' language anxiety. The writer holds that a relaxing and secure classroom atmosphereis the first step to reduce language anxiety and language teachers shouldtry to arouse learners' interest in English and English teachers. Secondly,cooperative learning can effectively reduce learners' language anxietyand therefore improves the quality of English teaching in an all-roundway. Moreover, according to present learners' characteristics of healthschools, multi-evaluation system is a proper way to motivate the learners'initiatives and improve their English.Chapter Five is a comparative study of the two experimental classesin schooling achievements, including learners' interest in English,participation of English activities in and out of the classroom. Theresearch shows that cooperative learning is a good way to reduce learners'language anxiety. Once the anxiety is reduced, learners can take greatinterest in English, spur their automatic learning and finally improve theirEnglish.In the conclusion part, the major points of the thesis is summarizedwith the problems and limitations proposed for further research andconsideration.