A Correlational Study Between English Learning Autonomy And Test Anxiety Of Senior Three Students

This study attempts to investigate the relationship between middle schoolstudents′English learning autonomy and test anxiety, and it is hoped that theresearch between autonomy and the subscales of test anxiety. Worry andemotionality might shed some lights on learners self-study and teachers instruction.In recent years，the focus of language teaching reform has transformed fromteachers instruction to students learning.“Cultivating students ability ofautonomous learning in English”has been regarded as the main target by theMinistry of Education in China. More and more researchers focused on the studyof English learning autonomy and language learning effect as well as relatedfactors.The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between middleschool students’English autonomous learning and examination anxiety, making usclarify the relationship between the two. Which may reduce the students’exampressure and guide the learners’autonomous learning as well as teachers teachingpractice. In addition, Senior Grade 3 students can benefit from the findings of thisresearch , using some ways of alleviating exam anxiety and effective treatment ofnegative emotions.Questionnaires for English learning autonomy and test anxiety, which are ofqualified validity and reliability, are administered to 145 subjects from ZiboNo.1Middle School and Boshan Experimental School. One is a key school in Shandongprovince, the other is an ordinary one. Based on related theories, the researcherconducted both qualitative (interview) and quantitative (questionnaire) analyses toinvestigate those correlations. In order to make the students of different levelsbetter understand these items listed in the questionnaire, all the items in thequestionnaire are designed in Chinese, which is conducive to collect more reliabledates.Firstly, this study conducted a literature review on learning autonomy, test anxiety, the relationship between learner autonomy and test anxiety. It gives ageneral introduction to the definition, forming process, determinants, effects onstudents and counseling strategies of test anxiety. Then, in reference to variousrelative domestic and foreign resources and on a general survey on teacher andstudents, the author developed the English Learning Autonomy Questionnaire forsenior three students, which was based on interviews on teachers and students.Supported by the open questionnaire and factor analysis method, the questionnairehas good reliability and validity.Secondly, based on a sample of 145 students in Senior Grade 3 of two highschools in Boshan was administrated with this questionnaire, the result shows thatthere are 5 factors influence the test anxiety of students in Senior Grade 3, they areas follows: the worry about others evaluation, inferiority, deficiency of learningstrategies, the worry about future, and the test situations in turn.Then, on the base of analysis of the factors of test anxiety of students inSenior Grade 3, and with the reference of domestic and abroad literatures andexpertise, the study designed an intervention program to reduce test anxiety. Theprogram includes applying intervention of using Rational-Emotive Therapy to thefactor of worry about others evaluation and factor of interiority; applyingintervention of using learning strategies counseling to the factor of deficiency oflearning strategies; applying intervention of Relaxation therapy and SystematicDesensitization to the factor of test situations, and holding a meeting of studentsparents to control outside factors of test anxiety. Based on the program, 145 SeniorGrade 3 students from Zibo No.1 Middle School and Boshan Experimental Schoolwere chosen to be experimental objects, and they were divided into two groups,that one is experimental group, and the other is control group. Then, the studyapplied pretest-posttest equivalent-group experimental design to examine thedifference; the decreasing extent of test anxiety scores of the experimental group ismore than control group. It seems that the intervention can decrease the testanxiety level of experimental group significantly, and it suggests that the intervention is effective on decrease of test anxiety and it can decrease the testanxiety of students in Senior Grade 3 to a certain extent.This study presents the results of statistical analysis by SPSS 13.0 and briefexplanations of those statistics. Pearson correlation was conducted to investigatethe relationship between English learning autonomy and test anxiety. At the sametime, information from individual interviews of the two samples was consulted fordeep analysis of the data. It also presents the results of statistical processing.English learning autonomy is significantly linearly related to test anxiety in general,and worry, subscale of test anxiety. While as to another subscale of test anxiety, nosignificant correlation has been found. Some other factors exert influence on thedevelopment of English learning autonomy, except test anxiety, such as training ofcooperative learning, learner-centered teaching method. All those possible factorsfunction in the course of English learning autonomy development. As factors otherthan test anxiety have been excluded in this study, test anxiety correlates withEnglish learning autonomy only at a low significant level.With the aid of SPSS 13.0 (Static Package for Social Science 13.0) on dataprocessing, Pearson correlation analysis was performed. The statistical analysisreveals: firstly, there is significant correlation between students’English learningautonomy and test anxiety; English learning autonomy and test anxiety arepositively correlated at the significant level .05. Secondly, no significantcorrelation has been found between English learning autonomy and emotionality.Thirdly, there is a significant correlation between students’English learningautonomy and worry; English learning autonomy and worry are positivelycorrelated at the significant level .01.Pedagogical implications of this research lie in that teachers should not onlyencourage students to be autonomous in their English learning, but also try to helpthem handle negative emotions and make good use of those that might bebeneficial for their self-study. First of all, even though the result of this researchhas found positive correlation between test anxiety and English learning autonomy, teachers should not have prejudice against autonomous learning. Autonomouslearning has already been testified as effective on many aspects of languagelearning. Secondly, teachers should be cautious when encouraging students to beautonomous; they should help students with the proper ways of self-evaluation.Thirdly, students should be taught affective knowledge, which may help themsmooth over negative emotions, such as worry and anxiety. They should know thatnegative emotions are not bad all the time; they could turn them into positiveaffects, such as motivation.