An Investigation On Underachievers' English Learning Anxiety In Rural Senior High Schools

Foreign language learning anxiety is one of the affective factors that exert great impact on learners' language learning.Many scholars and researchers have done extensive researches on foreign language learning anxiety,including English learning anxiety,and have yielded abundant fruit from the research.However,the research subjects of most researches are college students,overseas students or adults,while the researches on junior and senior high school students'learning anxiety,on underachiever's English learning anxiety in rural senior high school in particular,are still far from enough.Therefore,this thesis makes an investigation on underachiever's English learning anxiety in rural senior high school in order to know the current situation of their English learning anxiety,the possible factors that produce learning anxiety,and then put forward relevant suggestions and countermeasures to reduce their learning anxiety.Guided by affective filter hypothesis,input theory and humanistic psychology,research questions addressed in this thesis are:1.What is the general anxiety level of rural senior high school underachievers' English learning anxiety?2.What are the differences of rural senior high school underachievers' English learning anxiety in terms of the learning anxiety components?Which learning anxiety component ranks the highest and which ranks the lowest?3.What are the possible factors that influence rural senior high school underachievers'English learning anxiety?What are the countermeasures to alleviate their English learning anxiety?The research subjects of this thesis are 128 underachievers in Senior Two from Jiangwang senior high school.Questionnaire and interview are major research instruments adopted to collect data.The questionnaire of this thesis is adapted from Horwitz's Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale(FLCAS),which aims to analyze the overall situation of underachievers' learning anxiety in rural senior high school and possible factors influencing their learning anxiety.The interview is the supplement of the questionnaire.According to the interview,the thesis further explores the possible factors that cause anxiety and seeks suggestions from research subjects.Based on the analysis of research results,the thesis draws the following conclusions:1)English learning anxiety among underachievers in rural senior high school is very common.41.7%underachievers believe they suffer from high degree of English learning anxiety,while only 19.2%underachievers suffer from low level of English learning anxiety.2)Through the analysis of the data,underachievers suffer from communication apprehension the most,while fear of negative evaluation is lowest in anxiety level.3)According to the results of questionnaire and interview,the author summarizes three major factors that may influence underachievers' English learning anxiety:school and teacher factor,student factor and family factor.Based on the theoretical foundations and results of the thesis,the thesis provides some pedagogical implications.First of all,English teachers should pay more attention on students'emotional needs rather than only emphasize their learning achievements.Besides,they should respect and show more concerns for underachievers.Secondly,teacher should fully understand the characteristics of underachievers in rural senior high schools and then adjust their teaching methods accordingly,so that teachers are able to improve underachievers' English learning effectively.Thirdly,teacher should optimize their questioning strategy in order to alleviate students' English learning anxiety.Generally speaking,there are three limitations of the thesis.First of all,the sample size of this thesis is relatively small.Secondly,the factors that influence underachievers' learning anxiety in rural senior high school concluded in this thesis may be not comprehensive and sufficient.There are still many other possible factors that the author hasn't found yet.Thirdly,suggestions for alleviating student's learning anxiety are based on the factors concluded in the thesis,which are not comprehensive.In addition,these measures haven't been applied in practical teaching and learning yet.The effectiveness of these suggestions still remains to be proven.