A Study On Senior High School Students' English Learning Anxiety And Their Use Of Self-regulation Strategies

Krashen,an American linguist,believes that the acquisition of language is influenced by emotion which acts as a filter.The more dense the filter,the more obstructive the language acquisition.On the contrary,the more sparse the filter,the more accelerated the language acquisition.Therefore,anxiety is a very important factor in the process of learning language.In recent years,because of the study pressure,senior high school students who are going to take part in the college entrance examination have learning anxiety commonly.And as English is one of the required subjects for the college entrance exam,students also show strong English learning anxiety that influences English learning.As a result,how to help senior high school students relieve anxiety,especially to reduce English learning anxiety has become a problem to be solved.Based on the previous studies,this study adopts the theories of Horwitz's theory of foreign language learning anxiety and Wu Zengqiang's self-regulation strategies.And it is conducted on 219 senior high school students from four middle schools of Zhangzhou.Four aspects are involved in the paper: the situation of senior high school students' English learning anxiety and their use of self-regulation strategies,the differences of English learning anxiety among students with different English levels,the differences of the use of self-regulation strategies among students with different English levels and the correlation between English learning anxiety and the use of self-regulation strategies among students with different English levels.The paper is designed to provide some empirical basis for English teachers and senior high school students to improve second language teaching and learning.After the data analysis,some results are achieved.Firstly,senior high school students suffer English learning anxiety,but their use of self-regulation strategies doesn't go well.Secondly,there is a negative correlation between English achievements and English learning anxiety.And the correlation between English achievements and self-regulation strategies is also negative.Students whose English achievements are poor have a higher level of English learning anxiety,and they use self-regulation strategies more frequently than students whose English are excellent.Thirdly,the study indicates a positive correlation between English anxiety and self-regulation strategies.But it is bad for students to use passive self-regulation strategies which will not reduce English learning anxiety and have a negative influence on English learning in some way.On the contrary,positive self-regulation strategies will relieve English learning anxiety effectively and help students to do well in English.Finally,in order to make the research practical and meaningful,the author puts forward some suggestions to help senior high school students to use positive self-regulation strategies to reduce English learning anxiety and improve their English achievements.