A Study Of Speaking Anxiety Of English Postgraduates From The Perspective Of Dynamic Systems Theory

Along with the development of the global economy,English speaking ability plays a significant role in current economic construction,foreign cooperation and cultural education in China.However,foreign language anxiety,as one of the most important emotional factors which influence learners' language performance,always bothers many English learners in China.Since Horwitz and other researchers put forward the concept of “foreign language anxiety” in 1986,the scholars at home and abroad have made a lot of researches on foreign language anxiety from different subjects which included the general situation,main sources,coping measures,the correlations between foreign language anxiety and English learning proficiency.However,there are only few studies which investigated foreign language speaking anxiety of English major postgraduates,and most of the studies are explored only from a traditional reductionist perspective.Based on the previous background,the current study employs the methods of quantitative and qualitative analysis to conduct a systematic study of specially investigating the English speaking anxiety and mainly exploring the dynamic changes and the reasons of the speaking anxiety among the English major postgraduates based on the dynamic systems theory(DST).The current study aims to clarify the following questions:(1)As for English major postgraduates,are there any degrees of English speaking anxiety in the process of English learning?(2)What are the correlations between English speaking anxiety and the oral performance?(3)Dose the English speaking anxiety level of English major postgraduates constantly change over time?(4)What are the possible reasons of postgraduates' dynamic changes in English speaking anxiety? The participants in the current study are 102 English major postgraduates in Grade One from the foreign language department of Shandong Normal University(SDNU).The author of the current study adopts Horwitz's FLCAS to measure the participants' anxiety level and uses TEM-4 oral assessing standards to test their oral English proficiency.In order topreferably explore English speaking anxiety,there are 12 participants voluntarily offering to attend the following interview after the questionnaire survey.Through the analysis,conclusions can be drawn as follows.Firstly,to a certain extent,English major postgraduates still suffer the English speaking anxiety during the English learning process.And most of the participants suffer the middle anxiety and low anxiety,and meanwhile,only a small number of the participants suffer the high anxiety.Secondly,there are significantly negative correlations between English speaking anxiety and the oral performance according to the results in the current study.Thirdly,according to the results of FLCAS and oral test,it can be found that the overall level of English speaking anxiety can change over time.In the current study,the speaking anxiety obviously declines at the beginning stage and then remains relatively stable.On the one hand,the decreases in speaking anxiety are due to the following:(1)the improvement of English proficiency;(2)the participants has adapted to the learning environment and developed the proper learning habits;(3)the participants have more confidence in their performance;the encouragement and kind attitudes from the teachers and others.On the other hand,the stable state of speaking anxiety are due to the following:(1)the participants in Grade 2 have less time and chance to practice oral English than in Grade 1;(2)the participants always get to a repeller state during the learning process and the participants' language proficiency is discovered to be relatively stable but no development,which is called the fossilization.Based on the above findings in the current study,some suggestions for English teaching and learning have been raised as well.For English teaching,it is recommended that teachers should optimize the questioning methods in class,provide a relaxed and comfortable learning environment,create more chances for students to practice speaking English,make sure the comprehensible input in class.For English learning,students should boost their self-confidence,enhance the practice of English speaking,take a right attitude towards the evaluations from others,and etc.