English Learning Anxiety Of Senior High School Students

Anxiety is considered to be one of the most important factors that affect languagelearning. The status of students’ foreign language anxiety changes with time, so do thefactors related to it. This study, involving two hundred and eighty six subject studentsand six English teachers from two senior high schools in Zhengzhou, concentrates onthe factors related to EFL students’ English learning anxiety in senior high schools atpresent, and the teaching strategies on the anxious situations, since English is taught asa foreign language in most of the schools in China. The study employed quantitativeanalysis and qualitative analysis, to be more specific, descriptive statistics andsemi-structured interview, to analyze the data and information gathered in theinvestigation. There are some significant findings. Firstly, EFL students’ Englishlearning anxiety levels are fairly high in senior high schools at present. More than halfof the students are very nervous in English learning. Secondly, female students are moreanxious than males. The same situation also appears in the three performances ofEnglish learning anxiety, including communication apprehension, fear of negativeevaluation and test anxiety. Thirdly, there are no significant differences between the twomajor students’ English learning anxiety levels. At last, test anxiety is the dominantanxiety of the EFL students in senior high schools.According to the data analysis and teachers’ opinion from the semi-structuredinterview, the study discusses the factors related to students’ English learning anxiety,including (1) students’ mental characteristic;(2) students’ unrealistic expectation andcompetition;(3) students’ gender;(4) students’ traditional learning status;(5) teachingmethod; and (6) teacher’s speech. Based on these factors, combining English teachingwith psychology, the study puts forward some strategies for English teachers to copewith or decrease the senior high school EFL students’ English learning anxiety. Firstly,English teachers can make effort to help students learn to cope with the existing anxioussituations, including communication apprehension, test anxiety and fear of negativeevaluation. Secondly, teachers should help students develop their mental competence.Thirdly, teachers should make the learning context as relaxed and friendly as possible by changing classroom patterns, and putting forward some proper activities. In addition,stratified teaching method could be employed to reduce students’ English learninganxiety.If the strategies are followed carefully and persistently, then the students’ Englishlearning anxiety are likely to be minimized, their English learning efficiencystrengthened as well. However, the situation is not always completely perfect. Thefactors related to English learning anxiety are so complex that need to be further studied.English teachers have to reflect on their classroom teaching in time, pay attention to thefactors related to students’ anxiety, and adjust their teaching properly.