A Study On The Correlation Between English Listening Anxiety And Listening Strategies Of Senior High School Students In The Yi Ethnic Group

Anxiety,as an important affective variable,has been widely concerned by researchers.However,the studies on anxiety are mostly focused on reading anxiety,writing anxiety and speaking anxiety.And there are relatively a few related studies on listening anxiety.Besides,the research subjects in previous studies are mostly Han students,those of minority ethnic groups are paid little attention to.Therefore,this research takes Yi high school students from Sichuan province as research subjects to investigate the current situation of Yi high school students’ listening anxiety,the use of listening strategy and the correlation between English listening anxiety and listening strategy.Based on the research results,the author explores whether effective listening strategies can reduce English listening anxiety,and puts forward some suggestion for English listening teaching.There are four research questions in this study as follows:(1)What is the current situation of English listening anxiety of Yi senior high school students?(2)What is the current situation of English listening strategy use among Yi senior high school students?(3)Is there any significant difference in English listening anxiety level between male students and female students?(4)What is the correlation between English listening anxiety and English listening strategy use?The subjects in this study are 360 Yi high school students from Zhaojue High school and Zhaojue Minority High school in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture,Sichan province.Quantitative and qualitative research methods are employed in this study.Firstly,343 valid questionnaire data are collected,then these data are analyzed by using SPSS19.0(Statistical Product and Service Solutions).The major findings are as follows.(1)Yi high school students do suffer from listening anxiety.26% of Yi high school students experiencing low anxiety,47% of Yi high school students have medium listening anxiety,27% of Yi high school students encounter high listening anxiety.(2)The frequency of the overall listening strategies used by Yi senior high school students is medium.Yi senior high school students tend to use social/affective strategies,followed by cognitive strategies and metacognitive strategies.(3)There is a difference in listening anxiety degree between different genders among Yi senior high school students,and girls encounter more listening anxiety than boys do.(4)There is a significant negative correlation between English listening anxiety and English listening strategy(r =-0.221,P= 0.000),and metacognitive strategy shows the highest correlation with listening anxiety.Based on results of the research,the author comes up with some suggestions for alleviating students’ listening anxiety and cultivating listening strategies so as to promote English listening teaching.Firstly,English teachers should create a relaxing listening environment to reduce students’ listening anxiety,such as providing some proper listening materials,giving some necessary listening help,arranging some interesting listening activities,introducing some effective listening strategies,and so on.Secondly,students should choose the listening materials that are suitable for his or her listening ability and can make them feel successful,and increase his or her listening ability step by step.Besides,students should strengthen their English basic knowledge and use their own effective listening methods to alleviate listening anxiety.