A Study On Effect Of English Proficiency And Academic Majors On Postgraduates, English Learning Anxiety

Language anxiety is a prevalent phenomenon in second language learning.Overthe last30years, many foreign language educators have hypothesized that anxietyimpacts on foreign language learning. In fact, researchers have found that manylearners suffer from language learning anxiety in the language classroom (Aida,1994;Bailey, Onwuegbuzie&Daley,2000; Chen&Lin,2009). On the basis of the relevantstudies on foreign language learning anxiety both at home and abroad, this studyexplored the foreign language learning anxiety of the non-English majorpostgraduates in a university.This study employed both quantitative data and qualitative data. All the data werecollected by the foreign language classroom anxiety scale questionnaire and thesemi-structured interview, so as to address the research question. A total of186students participated in this study. They were selected from various colleges in JiangxiNormal University. Of all the subjects,110were liberal arts students and76werescience students. In addition,8students were chosen to take part in face-to-faceinterview. After all the data were collected, I employed SPSS17.0to analyze thefindings.The survey revealed that (1) a considerable number of students felt moderateanxious when learning English in class;(2) the mean anxiety scores for the highproficiency postgraduates were higher than the mean anxiety scores for the lowproficiency postgraduates, although there were a few instances when the lowproficiency learners actually had higher anxiety score. In addition, these students feltthe most anxious when they responded to negative evaluation. They felt the leastanxious during test anxiety;(3) the liberal arts postgraduates reported higher anxietyscores than science students in this study;(4) there was a significant difference inlanguage learning anxiety between high proficiency and low proficiency learners, andthis is equally true between liberal arts and science postgraduates;(5) there was apositive correlation between language anxiety and course achievement. Students withhigh levels of anxiety exhibit higher course achievement in comparison to studentswith low levels of language anxiety.Based on the research findings, several pedagogical suggestions for languageteachings are offered. Firstly, language instructors should help students to be aware of foreign language learning anxiety. Secondly, it is important for English instructors toconstruct harmonious classroom environment to reduce students’ anxiety. Thirdly,developing students’ confidence can be an effective way to decrease their FLA.Fourthly, cooperative learning activities should be promoted in classroom so that allthe language learners of different proficiency learners can benefit from it. Finally,teachers should adopt reasonable and proper error-correction and evaluation method,and try to create a relaxing classroom atmosphere.