A Study On English Writing Anxiety Of Junior Three Students In Rural Areas

With the development of social economy and the deepening of the educational system reform,it is widely recognized that English plays an important role in one's education,employment and future development.In our country,National English curriculum standards of compulsory education(2011 edition)formulated by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China have made it clear that cultivating students' emotional attitude is one of the most important teaching and learning objectives,and it cannot be neglected.From then on,students' emotional attitude has caught more attention.Emotional attitude is a complex concept,including motivation,interest,confidence,anxiety and so on.Among these emotional variables,anxiety is an important one which can produce a significant influence on the English learning.Looking back on the literatures both the domestic and foreign,there have been many studies focused on foreign language anxiety.But these studies tend to focus on the overall research,and the research subjects were mainly students in college,vocational college and high school.And very few studies on rural junior three students have been carried out.Junior three students in rural areas is a rather special group.Firstly,most of them began to learn English when they were in junior school,which is much later than students in urban area.Secondly,their mental and physical development is right in a critical transitional period.Personal consciousness comes into being and self-control ability is relatively weak.Thirdly,junior three students are facing the pressure of high school entrance examination,and the number of the courses and the difficulty of the learning tasks are on the increase.Finally,compared with urban areas,they have a poor competitive faculty and learning environment.What's more,some students are left-behind children,and they lack enough care from their parents,which makes them apt to have mental problems.Due to their poor English foundation,family condition,academic environment and introverted personality,they are more easily anxious in English writing.Henan,as a big agricultural province,lays emphasis not only on economic development,but also on education.Therefore,it is quite necessary for people to pay more attention to this group.This study is based on the Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory(SLWAI)developed by C heng(2004)and the current of the junior three students in rural areas,the author made the questionnaires about English writing anxiety of junior three students in rural areas,and chooses some students randomly in rural areas to have a quest ionnaire survey and interview in order to answer the following questions:1)What's the overall situation of rural junior three students' English writing anxiety?2)What factors affect junior three students' writing anxiety in rural areas?3)What methods can be used to reduce students' English writing anxiety?According to the questionnaire survey of 326 junior three students from three junior middle schools in Zhengyang County of Henan province,18 students,parents and 15 teachers were randomly selected for interviews.Finally,the collected questionnaires and interview results are analyzed and summarized.And the author draws the major findings which can be summarized as follows:1)Junior three students in rural areas of Henan province generally experience English writing anxiety,and most of them are in the moderate level of English writing anxiety.2)There are some significant differences between male and female students.From an overall perspective,the degree of boys' English writing anxiety is generally higher than that of girls.But they have different performances on different origins of anxiety.3)Different origins of English writing anxiety have different effects on the English writing of junior three students in rural areas.4)Influential factors of rural students' English writing anxiety mainly consist of student factors,school and teacher factors,family and society factors.On the basis of the research results,some relevant measures are suggested to reduce the rural junior three students' English writing anxiety,and provide some reference for the English writing teaching of the rural areas in Henan province,so as to promote the English writing level of students in these rural areas.