An Investigation Into Students' English Learning Anxiety In A Senior Middle School

With the advent of humanistic psychology, many foreign language researchers and teachers have turned their attention from focusing on language teaching approaches to exploring individual difference in students' learning process. It has been generally acknowledged that foreign language learning is associated with learners' affective variables. Of all the affective variables, anxiety is considered as a significant predictor of foreign language performance. However, little research has been conducted on the influence of language learning anxiety on students' English learning performance in senior middle schools.This paper reported on a study concerning the investigation of general situation of foreign language anxiety experienced by students from 3 classes of grade one in Wanzai No.2 middle school. It attempts to explore the general state of English learning anxiety experienced by 1st year senior middle school students and reveal the relationship between students' English learning anxiety and their English achievement. Meanwhile, it also tries to find out the effects of gender and English proficiency levels on students' language learning anxiety. To obtain a reliable data for these research questions, I asked the participants to fill out a questionnaire and then selected six of the survey respondents randomly for the semi-structured interviews.By using SPSS 17.0, I conducted the Descriptive analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, and Independent sample t-test.The present study has produced several findings concerning students' English learning anxiety. First, students from 3 classes of grade one experience a moderate level of anxiety in their English learning, and they particularly suffer from fear of negative evaluation and communication apprehension. Secondly, the correlation analysis indicates a negative relationship between language learning anxiety and English achievement(r=-.0187, p< 0.05). Thirdly, male students suffer from higher anxiety level in English learning than female students. However, no significantdifference in the English learning anxiety is found between males and females. Finally,there are significant differences in the English learning anxiety between students of high proficiency levels and those of low proficiency levels. High proficient students are prone to be less anxious than low proficient students during their English learning process.Based on the findings from the questionnaire and interview, some suggestions for better English teaching and learning in senior middle schools are proposed. First,English teachers ought to properly help their students change their beliefs to English learning and build up their self-confidence. Next, teachers should create a positive and relaxed learning context and provide comprehensible input in class. They should also optimize the approaches to error correction in class. Finally, cooperative learning is suggested to mitigate students' anxiety and help them gain better learning outcomes.