The Effectiveness Of Cognitive Behavioral Treatment On Reducing Listening Anxiety And Improving Listening Achievement-an Empirical Study

As a psychological phenomenon, anxiety studies have long been under closeexamination in the field of psychology. Among the many remedies to anxiety, cognitivebehavioral therapy (CBT) is one of the most popular treatments. The cognitive componentsof language anxiety include unfeasible goals and unrealistic expectations, anunderestimation of one’s language ability, wrong beliefs about language learning andperfection. Several scholars at home and abroad have suggested employing cognitivebehavioral therapies in the treatment of language anxiety. Yet, few studies have beencarried out to test the effectiveness in such a contention.The current study aims to apply CBT that is composed of relaxation exercises,systematic desensitization and cognitive structuring to the treatment of language anxietyand determine its effectiveness in improving learners’ listening performance.The subjects of the study consist of two classes of non-English major freshmanstudents in Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The researcher serves as the English teacher forboth two classes for one semester and there is no significant discrepancy in their listeningability judging from their daily classroom performance. Moreover, the results of a pretestof CET4listening part also reveal no significant difference in their listening proficiency.The two classes were randomly assigned, one as the control group and the other asexperimental group and were both required to finish the Foreign Language ListeningAnxiety Scale. The scale designed by Elkhafaifi (2005) was intended to test the subjects’level of listening anxiety. The scores of each item selected by the subjects, together withthe total and average individual scores were then recorded and processed in SPSS. Theresults of the scale yielded an average anxiety score of3.21(total score is5), indicating arelatively high level of listening anxiety. Then, the experimental group received thetreatment before a listening test while the control group was directly given a listening test.Statistics about the test scores and questionnaire results are recorded, processed, andanalyzed.After the experiment, the results indicated that77%of the subjects felt a reduction ofanxiety after the treatment and80%of the subjects believed the cognitive behavioraltreatment did help them reduce listening anxiety. The test scores of the two classes showed no significant difference between the two score means indicating cognitive behavioraltreatment did not significantly improve the subjects’ listening performance. Yet, a moredetailed analysis revealed that several students with the highest anxiety level made tangibleprogress compared to other students in the experimental group. The study also found thatthe major cause of subjects’ listening anxiety is traced back to a low self-belief in theirlistening ability. In that respect, the study suggests future research focusing on thecognitive restructuring of false or underestimated self-image and belief inhigh-listening-anxiety subjects.The findings of the current study, we hope, will make contributions to the theoreticalfoundations of second language acquisition. Meanwhile, they will have some practicalimplications for listening teaching and learning.