An Empirical Study On English Listening Anxiety Of Non-english-major College Students In China

Affective factors have attracted much attention recently, and anxiety, as one ofthe important affective factors, is frequently discussed. This paper aims to carry out anempirical study of the English listening anxiety of non-English major college studentsin China and find some feasible methods for the improvement of English listeningproficiency.Based on previous studies, this paper discusses such questions:(1) How is thegeneral state of English listening anxiety among non-English-major college students inChina?(2) What’s the relationship between English listening anxiety and Englishlistening proficiency?(3) What is the influence of English listening strategies onEnglish listening anxiety?(4) Do the learners’ individual factors (gender, major, yearsof learning English and practice time on listening per day) have any effect on Englishlistening anxiety?(5) What are the causes for English listening anxiety?The research data of this study are collected from the questionnaire survey of180non-English major college freshmen in Yancheng Teacher’s College. Finally,147valid questionnaires are obtained. The instruments include English Listening Test fromCET-4, English Listening Anxiety Scale, English Listening Strategy Scale, IndividualInformation Questionnaire and Questionnaire of Supplemental Questions. The data isanalyzed with the help of SPSS18.0, including reliability analysis, descriptive analysis,correlation analysis and independent samples t test.The findings indicate that: firstly, non-English-major college students in Chinaexperience a high level of English listening anxiety. Secondly, English listeninganxiety is negatively and significantly correlated with English listening proficiency.The English listening proficiency between low-anxiety group and high-anxiety groupshows a significant difference. Thirdly, English listening strategies also have a negativeand significant correlation with the anxiety. The students who use English listeningstrategies more frequently have lower listening anxiety. Fourthly, with regard to individual information variables, gender, major and years of learning English have nocorrelation with English listening anxiety. Fifthly, the causes for English listeninganxiety are classified into three aspects: causes from learners themselves, such as lowlistening proficiency, easily anxious character; causes from the listening activity andmaterial, such as one-off chance for listening, inadequate time for scanning items, fastspeed of listening, long length of the material; and causes from other external factors,such as environment and listening equipment.The practical meaning of this study is that English teachers should realize that formost students English listening anxiety does affect their listening proficiency. Therefore,English teachers should not only help students master listening strategies but also adoptsome effective methods to reduce adverse effects of anxiety in English listening.