A Study On The English Learning Anxiety Of Non-english Majors In A Vocational School

Recently, with the change of the English teaching belief, people-oriented andstudent-centered teaching methods are accepted by most teachers and students. Meanwhile,people pay closer attention to the influence of emotional factors of students in Englishlearning and teaching. We can find the obvious anxiety among the non-English majors invocational schools in the learning of English. The anxiety not only brings negative effectsto English learning, but also affects the mental and physical health of students. It isnecessary to study English learning anxiety, and to explore the strategies to ease theanxiety of English learning in vocational schools, which will do much help to raise theefficiency of English teaching and learning. The study aims to discuss the English learninganxiety of non-English majors in a vocational school, the correlation between the Englishlearning anxiety and the academic record of foreign language learning, etc. which aim toenhance the English language ability of students. Four research questions are addressedbelow according to the aims of the study.（1）To what extent of anxiety do the occupational students have in English learning?（2）What is the correlation between the English learning anxiety and the academic recordsof the students?（3）What are the differences on the learning anxiety between the students with highscores and the students with low scores?（4）What are the strategies to lower the English learning anxiety of non-English majors ina vocational school?The research methods used in the study are the two questionnaires and one academictest. The subjects of the study are91students and10teachers from one vocational schoolof Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China. After the detailed discussion, some major findings aresummarized in the following. Firstly, the English learning anxiety of the vocational students is generally at a commonlevel. Although the English learning anxiety of the students does exist obviously, thestudents with the high level of English learning anxiety account for only3.3percent of allthe91students.Secondly, the English learning anxiety is significantly negatively correlated to the testscores of the students.Thirdly, the anxiety differences between the students with high test scores and the oneswith low scores are significant. The findings of the study show that the vocational studentswith high scores experience the higher degree of English learning anxiety, and the studentswith low scores experience the lower degree.Fourthly, after the analysis and discussion of the questionnaire, some suggestions areput forward to lower the learning anxiety of non-English majors in vocational schools.All of the above findings of the study are expected to serve efficiently to help theEnglish teachers and students in their English teaching and learning.