An Experimental Study Of The Influence Of Jigsaw IV On Senior High School Students’ Reading Anxiety And Achievements

In 1999, Saito, Horwitz and Garza chose 383 students in American College to carry out a preliminary study of reading anxiety, which is shown: reading a foreign language can also produce anxiety and foreign language reading anxiety is a unique type of anxiety, which is different from general foreign language anxiety. Subsequently many deep researches on the relationship between foreign language reading anxiety and reading achievements have been conducted. The final findings show that: low reading anxiety and reading achievements have a weak positive correlation which is not significant; moderate and high reading anxiety and reading achievements have a significant negative correlation.With the development of New English Curriculum Standard in recent years, more and more attention has been paid to foreign language reading anxiety studies in senior high school and what is the finding is that senior high school students have high anxiety in English reading. Reading anxiety is negatively correlated with English reading achievements. Therefore, several strategies have been put forward to alleviate reading anxiety, among which cooperation learning method has been regarded as the most effective one.Even though cooperative learning method has been regarded as the most effective method to alleviate reading anxiety, it is impossible to apply all cooperative learning methods to teach. In order to explore effective teaching method, the author selected two natural classes in NO.5 middle school of Xing Tai to carry out an experiment. Teaching method Jigsaw IV, a very representative cooperative learning method, was implemented in the experimental class while the traditional teaching method was conducted in the control class.This study attempted to answer the following three questions: 1. How does senior high school students’ anxiety in the English reading? 2. Can Jigsaw IV used in the English reading class alleviate the senior high school students’ reading anxiety? 3. Can Jigsaw IV used in the English reading class improve the students’ reading achievements?The experiment lasted 16 weeks. The author used Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale, College Entrance English Examination, Interview and computer software SPSS as instruments. The results demonstrated: 1. Senior high school students do experience English reading anxiety, the degree of which is high in the range of anxiety. 2. English reading anxiety can be alleviated through teaching method Jigsaw IV. 3. Along with English reading anxiety level alleviated, students’ English achievements can be improved.According to the findings of the research, the author confirms that teaching method Jigsaw IV is not only feasible but also effective in alleviating senior high school students’ English reading anxiety and improving their reading ability. At the end of the thesis, the author also provides some effective directions to improve the overall teaching and learning of English reading.