A Tentative Study On The Anxiety In English Learning Of Senior High Students

In recent years, language researchers and scholars both at home and abroad have adopted a variety of methodologies in different contexts to study the relationship between language anxiety and language learning theoretically and practically. In light of the theory of affective factors and the researches on language anxiety both at home and abroad, the author puts forward the following questions:1) With regard to anxiety level, what is the difference between students of different genders?2) Are the students from different grades show the same level of anxiety?3) What is the difference between students from different classes (mainstream class or gifted class)?4) With regard to anxiety level, what is the difference between the students majoring in arts and those majoring in science?5) What is the correlation between foreign language anxiety and foreign language achievements?6) What are the possible factors contributing to students’anxiety in learning English?The participants in this study were250senior high students from the Senior High School attached to Tianjin University. The author first administered Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) to the participants. In order to get a more detailed report, a factor analysis of FLCAS was performed, from which five factors were reached as follows, fear of being asked in class, fear of falling behind others, dislike of attending English classes, fear of communicating with English speakers, fear of interacting with the teacher. The present study has not only observed the overall anxiety level of the participants, but also had a closer look at the difference related to different components of language anxiety. The author also adopts an interview as a supplemental understanding of the study. The study finds that there is a negative correlation between anxiety level and language achievement. The anxiety score of mainstream classes differs significantly from that of the gifted ones, and students from mainstream classes seem to be more anxious; the overall anxiety score shows no significant difference in the aspects of gender, grade and majors while the anxiety score of single anxiety component differs significantly in the previously mentioned aspects. The author has found that peer pressure, personal regulation, and classroom circumstances are three sources of their anxiety.