Chinese Reading Anxiety Research Of Ethnic Chinese Primary And Secondary School Students

Primary and secondary school students from Chinese families living abroad form an important group of overseas Chinese learners. Teaching Chinese to these students not only has important academic significance in the field of international Chinese language teaching and research, but also has far-reaching historical significance in the tradition inheritance of Chinese language and culture. Because of the family environment and constant contact with members of their immediate families, the ethnic Chinese primary and secondary students usually have certain proficiency in Chinese listening and speaking, so they consecrate more of their time to Chinese reading and writing. As the quality of their reading will have a great impact on the betterment of their writing capabilities, case studies of their reading learning skills are very important. In the field of second language acquisition, since the1970s, the study of Individual Differences factors gradually becomes one focus. The study of affective factors has attracted widespread attention. Anxiety is one of the most critical affective variables in Second Language Acquisition, and its effectiveness to the learning capacity of Second Language learners can not be ignored. The theme of this study is "Chinese reading anxiety research of ethnic Chinese students", focusing on the influence of anxiety to Chinese reading.The following questions are explored in this study:1) Does Chinese reading anxiety exist among ethnic Chinese students? If yes, to what degree? 2) What are the related factors to the existence of Chinese reading anxiety?3) What are the possible reasons of the existence of Chinese reading anxiety?4) What recommendations may be given on how to ease Chinese reading anxiety of ethnic Chinese students?The methods we used to do the study included:a questionnaire, classroom observation, and personal interviews. The questionnaire included a student’s background and Chinese learning information form, a Chinese Classroom Anxiety Scale modified from Horwitz’s Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale, and a Chinese Reading Anxiety Scale modified from Satio’s Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale. The study was conducted in a Chinese school in Montreal, Canada, where we collected158valid sample data. All the data was analyzed by SPSS20.Studies have shown a moderate degree of Chinese reading anxiety among ethnic Chinese primary and secondary students. Chinese reading anxiety related factors include:the student’s age, language spoken at home, weekly Chinese reading time, Chinese reading material preferences, the attitude towards learning Chinese, and a self-evaluation of Chinese reading capability. The main causes of Chinese reading anxiety among ethnic Chinese students are generally classified as three types:1) Inapplicable teaching methods, including:task-based reading, reading time limit, read the particulars of excessive length, and other reasons.2) Student’s lack of knowledge, like not being familiar with the cultural background and knowledge of the reading material.3) Students have low self-assessment and lack of confidence in their own reading ability.According to the causes mentioned above, this article suggests the following solutions to ease Chinese reading anxiety:1) The reading material should be closer to the local cultural environment and meet the students’ learning needs. Also the material should has more natural and appropriate language style.2) It is advocated to establish a relaxed teaching style, and to create an enjoyable teaching atmosphere and environment. 3) Some teaching methods like reading aloud, or reading with a time limit might make the students get higher degree of anxiety, so more interactive approach should be taken by the teacher to reduce classroom anxiety.More cultural background knowledge prompt and explanation, and reading training strategies are also recommended.4) The teachers and the parents should give more encouragement to help students maintain a reasonable amount of extensive reading, so to improve their reading abilities step by step.