The Research On The Correlation Between Metacognitive Strategies And English Reading Anxiety Of Non-english Majors

In the trend of global economic integration, the relationships among countriesare becoming increasingly close, the status of English as an international languageis becoming more significant. In China, most non-English majors have to pass theCET4, and the reading parts occupy lots of scores in the examination. ReducingERA can be treated as a breakthrough to improve students’ English reading scores.Metacognitive strategies training can be used into practice.This study explores the correlation of non-English majors’ English readinganxiety and metacognitive strategies, overviews the studies at home and abroad inthis field, and also adds the variable of the English reading scores, in order toreduce students’ English reading anxiety and improve their English reading scoresby metacognitive strategies training. The specific research questions are asfollows:(1) What is the current situation of the non-English majors’ English readinganxiety?(2) What is the current situation of the non-English majors’ usage ofmetacognitive strategies in reading?(3) Are there any correlations between metacognitive strategies and Englishreading anxiety?(4) Can metacognitive strategies training improve non-English majors’metacognitive strategies, reduce their English reading anxiety and even improvetheir English reading scores?This study is based on the theory of metacognitive strategies and English reading anxiety.83sophomores from Shenyang Normal University are selected asthe research participants. In order to get the values of students’ English readinganxiety and metacognitive strategies, we use Saito’s Foreign Language ReadingAnxiety Scale and Yin Xiaojuan’s modified version as the tools, and the Englishreading comprehension test in the experiment. By the10weeks’ metacognitivestrategies training, we get the changing situation of relevant variables of pre, postexperiments and the students’ English reading scores, and then do the independentsamples and paired sample test by SPSS (18.0) software. This research examinesthe situations of the non-English majors’ English reading anxiety and metacognitivestrategies in Chinese university and the correlation between the FLRAS and MSQ.The major findings from the analysis of83participants’ data are listed as follows:(1) According to the analysis of the data, the level of the most students’English reading anxiety is moderate.(2) The results of the test show that the students have a certain degree ofmetacognitive strategies, but the using level needs to be improved.(3) There is a negative correlation between MSQ and FLRAS. It means thatthe less the students use metacognitive strategies, the higher degree of Englishreading anxiety they have.(4) The metacognitive strategies training can improve students’metacognitive strategies using level, reduce their English reading anxiety, andimprove their English Reading Scores.This study verifies the hypotheses and operation that MS training can reducestudents’ ERA levels, and it can also have influences on English reading.Meanwhile, it enlightens the English reading teaching. By applying the MSeffectively, students will improve their English reading level, and their readingconfidence will be enhanced as well.