Research On English Classroom Anxiety

With the development of humanistic psychology, foreign language scholars and researchers start to pay great attention to learners'English classroom anxiety and English learning strategies. Foreign language teaching switches from being teacher-centered to student-centered. How to help learners improve their foreign language learning becomes increasingly important. Previous studies have proved that English learning strategies and English classroom anxiety could influence English achievement. But there is no final conclusion of the relationship among them. With the hope of providing some effective teaching suggestions, this thesis takes No.1 Middle School of Xuwen for example to study the correlation among English classroom anxiety, English learning strategies and English achievement.This thesis discusses the following questions:(1) Do students experience English classroom anxiety? Is there gender difference? (2) What are the possible causes of English classroom anxiety? (3) What is the relationship between English classroom anxiety and English achievement? Is it positive or negative? (4) What is the relationship between English learning strategy and English achievement? (5) What is the relationship between English classroom anxiety and English learning strategy?The writer adopts both quantitative and qualitative methods to carry out this study.130 students from No.1 Middle School of Xuwen in Guangdong take part in the research as subjects. Horwitz et al's Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale and Oxford's Strategy Inventory for Language Learning are the main research instruments. The two scales have been proved to have great reliability and validity. The participants'English scores of the final examination in 2010 are also collected. This thesis uses SPSS to process data. Besides, the writer also holds interviews with some of the participants and class advisers to analyze possible causes.The major findings are as follows:1) the participants are more or less interfered with English classroom anxiety. And most of the participants are at the average level. Female participants have higher English classroom anxiety than male participants.2) Questions from the teacher, unprepared oral tasks, tests, personalities and family backgrounds are possible causes of English classroom anxiety.3) The correlation between English classroom anxiety and English achievement is negative and not significant.4) The correlation between English learning strategy and English achievement is positive and significant. The more frequently the students use learning strategies, the better English scores they get.5) The correlation between English classroom anxiety and English learning strategy is not significant.This study reveals that students of No.1 Middle School of Xuwen do experience English classroom anxiety, but most of them are at average level. Thus teachers should create a harmonious teaching environment, help students rebuild self-confidence and teach some English learning strategies to improve students'English learning achievement. At the same time, the school could cooperate with parents to improve students'scores.This thesis covers five chapters:chapter one is introduction which includes background, purpose and significance of this study and framework of this thesis. Chapter two is literature review which presents some relevant definitions and previous researches. Chapter three describes subjects, instruments and procedures, while chapter four includes results and analysis of this research. And the last chapter is conclusion which involves major findings, implications, limitations of this study and suggestions for future researches.