A Correlation Study Of Language Anxiety,Tolerance Of Ambiguity And Reading Comprehension Achievements Of The English Majors

Along with the development of the times,the idea of humanistic psychology,Rogers advocated,is constantly enriched.More and more people are fully aware that learners play a significant role in the process of second language acquisition.Among them,the relationship among emotional factors,cognitive factors and language learning is more concerned by the scholars.Among all affective factors,anxiety is one of the most important emotional variables in the second language acquisition.Language Anxiety is regarded as a kind of anxiety in a special environment,and it has a certain connection with the use of language.It is a special phenomenon existing in foreign language learning.American psychologist Frenkel-Brunswik defined the Tolerance of Ambiguity as "an individual or a group will utilize his or their cognition to cope with ambiguous environmental stimuli when facing a series of unfamiliar,complex and inconsistent clues." In order to guarantee the learning results,learners must have a degree of tolerance of ambiguity.Reading comprehension is one of the most basic skills in language learning and it is the most direct and effective way for learners to acquire information.Reading ability is an important factor to measure the comprehensive ability of language.The study adopted quantitative research method to investigate the correlation among foreign language anxiety,tolerance of ambiguity and reading comprehension achievements of English majors.The subjects were 135 sophomores of the English majors from Tianjin University of Science and Technology.The research data were collected through Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale(FLRAS)developed by Saito,Ely' s Second Language Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale(SLTAS)and reading comprehension scores(authentic test scores from two semesters' Comprehensive English Course and English Extensive Reading Course).Then the author used the social science statistical software SPSS20.0 to analyze the data.This study is supposed to answer the following questions:(1)What is the state of language anxiety among English major students?(2)What is the state of English major students' level of tolerance of ambiguity?(3)Is there any correlation among language anxiety,tolerance of ambiguity and reading comprehension achievements?If so,what is the correlation?The research findings are listed as follows:(1)In general,the tendency of Language Anxiety among the subjects in the present study is in a medium state.(2)The majority of the subjects are at middle degree of TOA.(3)Language anxiety is negatively correlated with reading achievements;tolerance of ambiguity is positively correlated with reading achievements;and language anxiety is negatively correlated with tolerance of ambiguity.This study mainly explores the relationship among language anxiety and tolerance of ambiguity and reading comprehension achievements,which is instructive to the teaching and learning of English reading.The research result draws the attention of the English teachers to attach more importance to students' reading anxiety and tolerance of ambiguity,and through appropriate teaching strategies and methods to reduce the negative impact of language study,so as to enhance students' English reading abilities.