A Study Of Higher Vocational College Students' Reticence And Foreign Language Anxiety

Students' unwillingness to communicate in language classrooms as a problem is one of the major concerns which have been widely discussed. Most researches on reticence abroad are based on multi-culture classroom settings. There are many domestic researches on students'reticence and language anxiety, either qualitative or quantitative. However, relevant studies between reticence and language anxiety in English classrooms are few. The subjects are mostly undergraduates' non-English majors. Besides, few researches make attempt to study higher vocational college non-English majors' reticence and anxiety. Therefore, according to the current situation of reticence phenomenon in higher vocational college English classrooms, this thesis will set out to focus on the extent to which the students experience both reticence and language anxiety in English language classrooms of higher vocational colleges, further explore the existing relationship between the two and suggest possible strategies for reducing anxiety and breaking the reticence.The present study is undertaken in the form of questionnaires to look into reticence and foreign language anxiety in English classrooms of higher vocational colleges.135 first-year non-English majors from Hunan University of Technology participated in the questionnaire survey. The Unwillingness to Communicate Scale and Foreign Language Anxiety Scale were respectively used to measure the extent to which students experience reticence and language anxiety in English classrooms of high vocational colleges. The relationship between students'reticence and their FL anxiety were examined by Correlations Analysis. The quantitative results and analyses reveal that:1) many students express positive attitude towards speech communication in English classroom, and seem to be aware of the benefits of talking to people. However, actually, they don't participate in speech communication for many reasons such as low perceived English proficiency; 2) most students seem to experience mild to severe anxiety as the data is bit higher than expected. Most students feel anxious when they are being or preparing to be speech makers in English class and it harms students'performances; 3) there is a significant positive correlation between students'reticence and their classroom anxiety. That is, the students with high anxiety often keep reticence. And the reticence in foreign classes makes them more anxious about learning.Based on the findings of this questionnaire, this thesis will also explore the causes of learners'reticence and anxiety and put forwards some coping strategies from instructors'aspect, in a hope to create a low-anxiety and interactive classroom atmosphere, and hope to improve students' oral proficiency and performance in a most favorable affective state.