Correlational Study Of Tolerance Of Ambiguity And English Reading Anxiety On Non-English Major Students

English learning is a process in which it constantly generates high ambiguity.Tolerance of ambiguity (TOA) exists in each facet of English learning. While learningEnglish, students may encounter different kinds of ambiguities. They may possiblyget confused and then lead to anxiety, and finally result in learning obstacles. In orderto ensure the effect of learning, learners have to undertake certain level of ambiguity.As an important component of English learning, reading has been attached muchattention in English teaching process. Plenty of researches reveal that anxiety is one ofthe prominent factors influencing foreign language learning including English reading.Recently, despite the rich independent researches on TOA and English readinganxiety (ERA), researches regarding the correlation between the two factors are rarelyconducted. Also, scarce researches are found concerning how the two factors run itsway in learning performance. This thesis intends to probe into the correlation betweenTOA and ERA and their impact on reading performance.The research questions are:(1) What is the current situation of non-English major language learners’ level ofTOA in Chinese university?(2) What is the current situation of ERA among non-English language learners inChinese university?(3) Is there a correlation between TOA and ERA?(4) How do TOA and ERA affect the reading comprehension?Based on relevant literature of TOA and ERA, a quantitative research has beenexplored in the present thesis.62Chinese non-English major students from ShenyangNormal University are chosen as the subjects. The Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale (TOAS) and Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS) as well as readingcomprehension test are selected as the instruments. Besides, statistical analyses aremade with SPSS (Statistical Product and Service Solutions), version18.0. Meanwhile,the researcher has designed her own practical programmes based on Interactive Modelof Reading and Schema Theory. After teaching instruction for a semester, thequestionnaires and another reading test are used again among the same group ofsubjects expecting to confirm the conclusion drawn at the beginning of the semester.The conclusions are described as follows:(1) The non-English majors in the research occupy the moderate level of TOA.(2) The non-English majors in the research experience comparatively pervasivereading anxiety and the level of ERA varies among them.(3) The students’ level of TOA has a negative correlation with their level of ERA.In other words, the higher the level of TOA is, the lower the level of ERA is.(4) The students’ level of TOA has a significantly positive correlation withreading performance. In addition, the students’ level of ERA has a weakly negativecorrelation with reading performance. By improving students’ level of TOA, theirlevel of ERA will be declined and reading performance will be improved.The thesis explores a tentative investigation of the conclusions mentioned above.It reveals the correlation between TOA and ERA and affirms their roles in Englishreading. According to these implications, the author puts forward with some pieces ofadvice toward teaching activities, aiming to draw attention from both teachers andstudents on relevant issues. The findings of the present research may provide insightsinto both language teaching method and language learning process.