A Study On The English-class Questioning Anxiety And Learning Strategies In A High School

Foreign language-teaching researchers have been focusing on foreign language anxiety and learning strategies in recent years. It was discovered that not only these two factors had an effect on English proficiency of students, but also there existed be a relationship between the two factors. This study investigates the English-class questioning anxiety and learning strategy use in high schools, trying to find their interactive effect on English achievement. On the one hand, this will make teachers learn more about the role of high-school students'foreign language anxiety and learning strategy use in foreign language teaching. On the other hand, it will make students overcome the anxiety and use learning strategies properly, which can improve their academic performance in English.In this study, a survey in Xiangtan No.3 High school is conducted to examine the relationship among the English-class questioning anxiety, learning strategy use and English achievement. Two Questionnaires are employed as the instruments in the study, in which 600 senior students participated. One is modified according to the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) developed by Oxford (1990). The other is modified based on the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), which is developed by Horwitz et al.(1986). With the help of the SPSS (13.0) software, the author collects, collates, and analyzes the data, getting the survey results as follows:First, the English-class questioning anxiety is negatively correlated with the students'English achievement, that is, the higher the anxiety level is, the lower the students'English grades are, whereas the lower the anxiety level is, the higher the students'English grades are. Second, a positive correlation between the English learning strategy use and English achievement is significant. In other words, the more frequently the students use learning strategies, the higher the students'English grades are. Vice versa, the fewer the students use learning strategies, the lower the students'English grades are. Third, the anxiety level of English-class questioning and learning strategy use has an interactive effect on English achievement. When the level of students English-class questioning is different, the effect of learning strategy use on English achievement will change; and when the use of learning strategies is different, the effect of English-class questioning anxiety on English achievement will also change.This study will lay the practical and theoretical foundation for the English teaching in high schools. It is hoped that the findings of this study will help English teachers further understand the effects of English-class questioning anxiety and learning strategy use in foreign language teaching, which may enable them to help the students overcome weaknesses and learn English better.