A Study Of Foreign Language Anxiety Of Non-English Majors In Higher Vocational College

Anxiety, as one of affective factors, prevails in language learning. It is "a distinct complex of self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings and behaviors related to classroom language learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learning process." Three kinds of anxiety are involved in foreign language learning:communication apprehension, test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation.Many researches have been conducted from different angles to study foreign language anxiety. However, there is less study on English learners in higher vocational college.Under such a background, this study does a comprehensive research on foreign language anxiety of students in higher vocational college. Both quantitative and qualitative researches are involved in the study. The instrument adopted in the quantitative research is the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale whose high credibility and validity have already been proved. Three hundred second-year non-English majors from Shandong Career Development College are involved in the study as subjects. Qualitative research involves the interview with10subjects randomly chosen out of the260students who are involved in the questionnaire as subjects. This study aims to find out whether there is language anxiety in English classroom. If there is, what’s the degree of foreign language anxiety? This study also aims to answer the question whether there is any difference in degree of anxiety between male students and female students. What the teaching situation that makes students anxious is and how the students’ English study is are also to be answered. The data of all the questionnaires were inputted into computer and analyzed by SPSS17.0.The results show that92%of the subjects have language anxiety. Among them,78.8%have a low level of anxiety and13.1%have a medium level of anxiety. There is no big difference in degree of foreign language anxiety between male students and female students. Speaking and listening are the most important factors that generate language anxiety. A large number of students see no point in learning English. Students don’t set themselves a clear goal in English learning. They show little interests in learning English. Lack of confidence and motivation are characteristic of students in higher vocational college. They hold that a qualified English teacher plays an important role in their English study.The study may provide a new viewpoint for teachers to have a new understanding toward students in higher vocational college so as to help students with their English study.