University Students’ Achievement Goal Orientations And Foreign Language Anxiety

Recent research has found that the way students multiple goals are organized andcoordinated is substantially associated with levels of anxiety. To identify achievementgoal orientations, learner and school characteristics that are related to high levels ofanxiety may be helpful to develop effective interventions for foreign language anxiety.This study presents the results of an investigation conducted with Chinese universitystudents, examining school, gender and major differences in achievement goalorientations and foreign language anxiety as well as the relationship between the twovariables. Measures of questionnaires were used to collect research data.200universitystudents were chosen at random to participate in the pilot study. The data collected wasprocessed by SPSS to conduct explorative factor analysis. After deleting some items andmaking some adjustments of the original questionnaires, the formal questionnaire wasestablished. According to the result of factor analysis, three factors of achievement goalorientations were defined as performance approach orientation, mastery orientation andperformance avoidance orientation; three factors of foreign language anxiety werelabeled as fear of negative evaluation, English speech anxiety and fear of failing Englishclass and test. Over400university students participated in the formal investigation. Thedata collected was used to conduct descriptive analysis, analysis of variance andcorrelation analysis. The results show several significant findings:1. Compared with students from ordinary universities, students from key universitiesare more oriented towards performance approach orientation and mastery orientationand perceive lower levels of fear of negative evaluation and English speech anxiety.Those who come from ordinary universities are more oriented towards performanceavoidance orientation and report lower levels of anxiety concerning failing Englishclass and test.2. Females are more oriented towards performance approach orientation and masteryorientation and possess higher levels of foreign language anxiety than males. Malesare more oriented towards performance avoidance orientation and perceive higher levels of anxiety of failing English class and test.3. Students of arts are more oriented than students of science towards masteryorientation and reported higher levels of fear of negative evaluation. Meanwhile, theyreport lower levels of English speech anxiety and fear of failing English class and testthan students of science.4. Overall, achievement goal orientation is correlated with foreign language anxiety.Performance approach orientation is significantly and positively correlated with fearof negative evaluation, English speech anxiety and fear of failing English class andtest. Mastery orientation is negatively correlated with fear of negative evaluation andEnglish speech anxiety. Performance avoidance orientation is significantly andpositively correlated with fear of negative evaluation and English speech anxiety.Furthermore, results are discussed and interpreted on the basis of conversationalinterviews with the subjects, taking institutional backgrounds, role socialization theoryand self-esteem theory into account. Hopefully, this research would help languageinstructors to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the general situation ofuniversity students achievement goal orientations and foreign language anxiety as wellas the their relationship, contributing to a better understanding of the ways in which thedevelopment of foreign language anxiety could be controlled and alleviated.