A Study Of Anxiety In English Listening Of Non-english Majors

The studies in the past four decades repeatedly confirmed that foreign language anxiety is one of the best predictors in accounting for individual differences in language learning success, and that it is proved to be one of the most essential and influential affective factors. With the improvement of foreign language teaching, the focus of teaching research has shifted from how to teach to how to learn. Many researchers are paying more attention to affective factors in education. A great deal of research has been devoted to the study of foreign language anxiety in recent years. It is found out that anxiety is negatively and significantly related to listening of the non-English majors. This study takes a step further in the direction of exploring the influence of English listening anxiety on foreign language study. Based on such a background, the author of this thesis attempts to carry out an empirical and systematical study of the English listening anxiety of non-English majors, hoping to make contributions to the practical instructions of listening teaching and learning from the perspective of affective variables.Based on the fruitful previous studies, this thesis' major purposes include:first, to study the state of university non-English majors'English listening anxiety and its influence on listening proficiency; second, to explore the main factors leading to listening anxiety and the correlations of listening anxiety factors; third, to find out the influence of listening strategies on listening anxiety. It is aimed at finding the potential sources of English listening anxiety in Chinese context through the study on the three questions. Therefore, this thesis sets out to focus on the study of English listening anxiety of non-English majors, investigate the influence anxiety has on listening comprehension, further discuss the potential sources of English listening anxiety and suggest possible coping strategies.The data of the study were collected via a questionnaire survey of 180 non-English major in Linyi Normal University. The questionnaires were administered in regular classes by their teachers and filled in anonymously. Before the survey, all the subjects were reminded that all the information they provided in the questionnaires would have nothing to do with their course grades and they were encouraged to reveal their feelings of awkwardness or discomfort frankly. All the 180 subjects handed in their questionnaires and all of them are valid. The instruments are Chinese-version Background Information Questionnaire (BIQ), Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Scale, Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Coping Strategy Scale and listening proficiency test of CET-4. With the help of Statistical Passage for Social Science (SPSS 11.5), descriptive statistics, comparison of means, Pearson correlation analysis and reliability analysis were operated with the target samples. The results of the study showed that most university non-English majors do experience a moderate level of English listening anxiety and the two aspects of anxiety-facilitating anxiety and debilitating anxiety are significantly correlated. Facilitating anxiety and listening proficiency are positively correlated, and debilitating anxiety and listening proficiency are negatively related. Among all the anxiety factors, tension from listeners'personal characteristics, which involves listeners'background knowledge, learning style, etc., is revealed to be the main factor contributing to listening anxiety. Lack of confidence in listening is recognized as the most significant predictor of listening proficiency level. English listening anxiety is demonstrated to have significant relationships with interest, self-rated listening proficiency and self-reported listening anxiety, but no significant relationships between English listening anxiety and time, listening anxiety and motivation are found. Low-anxiety group is found to differ significantly from high-anxiety group in the use of the overall listening strategies. Low-anxiety group uses the listening strategies, especially metacognitive strategies more frequently than the high-anxiety Statistic analysis also shows an influence of learners' background factors on listening proficiency and a certain correlation with listening anxiety.It is suggested that foreign language teachers in China should take into account the students'affective demands and pay more attention to the negative correlation between listening anxiety and listening achievements. The teachers should try to help English learners master listening learning strategies and diminish anxiety. It is also expected that the learners should take the initiative to communicate with teachers and overcome foreign language anxiety.