A Research On The Correlation Between Non-English Majors' English Reading Anxiety And Tolerance Of Ambiguity

English reading plays an important part in foreign language learning,the ability of which has a direct impact on the achievement of English learning.However,the process of English reading is full of ambiguity.It is inevitable for learners to encounter different kinds of uncertainties.Faced with these phenomena,students are easily confused,resulting in the improvement of reading anxiety,which eventually leads to reading difficulties.Therefore,the present study makes an analysis of the correlation between non-English majors' English reading anxiety and tolerance of ambiguity,hoping to provide some scientific and effective suggestions for College English teaching and learning,and to help improve students' reading efficiency and reading ability.In this study,two questionnaires are used as the research instruments and the subjects are non-English majors from Guangxi Normal University.The author uses Krashen's Affective Hypothesis and Humanism as theoretical foundation to do this research.The Non-English Majors' English Reading Anxiety Questionnaire is developed from Saito's(1999)Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale.There are five dimensions in this questionnaire: reading difficulty,reading habits and methods,reading interests and self-confidence,reading attitudes and cultural identity.The Non-English Majors' Tolerance of Ambiguity Questionnaire is developed from Ely's(1995)Second Language Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale.It concludes three dimensions: tolerance of ambiguity in unfamiliar situation,tolerance of ambiguity in complicated situation and tolerance in contradictory situation.In order to get effective data,the author has tested the validity and reliability of the revised questionnaires,which are respectively 0.822 and 0.801.The three research questions addressed in the present study are:(1)What is the overall situation of non-English majors' English reading anxiety?(2)What is the overall situation of non-English majors' tolerance of ambiguity in English reading?(3)Is there any correlation between non-English majors' English reading anxiety and tolerance of ambiguity in English reading? If yes,how are they related with each other? Through the study,three research findings have been found:(1)Non-English majors' English reading anxiety is at a medium level.(2)The overall situation of non-English majors' tolerance of ambiguity is at a relative low level.(3)Non-English majors' English reading anxiety and tolerance of ambiguity are significantly related with each other.Based on these findings,some suggestions are proposed for teachers,non-English majors as well as colleges or universities to reduce the level of English reading anxiety and improve the level of tolerance of ambiguity.For teachers,they should make students aware of the existence of tolerance of ambiguity,train students to use appropriate reading strategies in different situations,enhancing cultural knowledge with English reading teaching,creating a harmonious and moderate teaching and learning atmosphere.As for non-English majors,they should lay a solid foundation of their basic language knowledge and cultivate a good reading motivation.For colleges,varies of reading activities should be held to arouse students' reading motivation and should improve the mode of reading assessment and pay more attention to teachers' professional development.