A Study Of The Correlation Between Non-English Majors’ Foreign Language Reading Anxiety And Their Tolerance Of Ambiguity In Reading

In English language learning process, individual differences have caused by both affective and cognitivefactors. Foreign language reading anxiety, as one of the affective factors and tolerance of ambiguity, as one ofthe cognitive factors are often explored as two important factors affecting English language learningperformance. A lot of researchers who have made numerous research on anxiety and tolerance of ambiguityrespectively from different perspectives in the past. But in China, few research have taken into account theeffects of both anxiety and tolerance of ambiguity on English learning at the same time. So this thesis intends toprobe into the correlation between non-English majors foreign language reading anxiety (FLRA) and theirtolerance of ambiguity (TOA) in reading, and their impact on English reading performance.This study randomly chose91sophomores of non-English majors from Northwest Normal University as thesubjects, and adopted Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale developed by Saito, Second Language Toleranceof Ambiguity Scale developed by Ely and scores of English reading comprehension of CET-4to collect the data,aims to discuss the following three research questions:1) what is the current situation of non-English majors’level of English reading anxiety and tolerance of ambiguity in their English reading?2) is there a correlationbetween non-English majors’ English reading anxiety and their tolerance of ambiguity in English reading?3)what are the differences of foreign language reading anxiety, tolerance of ambiguity and reading comprehensionbetween arts and science students of non-English majors? Finally, SPSS13.0is employed to classify and analyzethe results obtained from the questionnaires.Based on the results and analysis of the data, the following conclusions are found:1) non-English majorsgenerally have a medium level of FLRA and TOA in reading, their reading anxiety mainly come from fivedimensions: the deficient English cultural knowledge, lack of interests and confidence, poorer reading ability andthe difficulty of the reading material. The medium degree of TOA mainly result from their insufficient input andfailure of cognitive construction.2) a significant and negative correlation between FLRA and TOA in reading,the higher the FLRA, the lower the TOA and vice versa.3) the difference of FLRA between arts and sciencestudents of non-English majors is not significant, namely science students are a little more anxious than artsstudents in doing English reading, which means that majors are not closely associated with non-English majorstudents’levels of FLRA. But the levels of TOA are statistically significantly different between arts and sciencestudents, arts students have higher TOA than that of science students. A significant difference does exist betweenthe arts group and the science group with regard to their English reading comprehension performance, the reading comprehension of arts students is higher than that of science students.Based on the findings, this research put forward the following pedagogical implications for the teaching ofEnglish reading comprehension. On one hand, teachers should pay much attention to the level of students’foreign language reading anxiety and tolerance of ambiguity, help students to minimize the negative effect ofFLRA and enhance the positive function of TOA in fulfilling English reading comprehension to achieve theeffective teaching and learning. On the other hand, English teachers should select reading materials which notonly equal to students’ English levels and arouse their learning interest, but also expand the students’ culturalbackground knowledge and guide them to facilitate their English reading comprehension abilities to enhancetheir reading confidence.