An Investigation Into Anxiety Of Junior Middle School Students In English Listening Comprehension

More and more researchers and English teachers have paid close attention to learners' affective factors in recent years.Various studies have shown that language anxiety is regarded as a unique and complex affective factor in the process of language learning,and it is one of the important factors that can predict the effect of language learners' later learning.Therefore,this paper intends to conduct a systematic empirical study on foreign language anxiety in the listening class of junior middle school students in suburban areas in order to promote the improvement of teachers' English listening teaching level and provide new vitality for future relevant research.The research method of this paper mainly uses the method of combining theory with empirical research to study the following three problems:Firstly,what is the current situation of English listening anxiety level of junior high school students?Second,what are the possible reasons for junior middle school students' English listening anxiety?Thirdly,what methods should teachers take to decrease students' listening anxiety?The data of this study is from 110 junior middle school students of Grade 8 in a Middle School in Chengdu,Sichuan Province.This study mainly adopts a combination of theoretical and empirical methods.In this study,Howitz et al.designed the foreign language classroom anxiety scale.The English researcher of Jinjiang District designed the English listening performance tests and English listening proficiency tests.The study is conducted mainly through teaching experiments,classroom observation and individual interviews.After obtaining the data,The author put it into the computer and analyze it with SPSS18.0.The research shows that: First of all,the English listening anxiety of junior middle school students is generally moderate.Secondly,students' listening anxiety can be appropriately reduced through certain teaching methods,and their listening proficiency and listening performance level can be improved accordingly.Thirdly,there are many reasons for junior middle school students' English listening anxiety: from the perspective of learners themselves,such as poor listening ability and personality anxiety.For external reasons,such as the opportunity to listen only once,lack of time to browse topics,fast listening speed,long listening materials and so on.The implications of this study are as follows: Firstly,teachers should be aware of the prevalence of foreign language anxiety in junior high school students' listening,and foreign language anxiety may have a negative impact on students' listening performance.Secondly,teachers should make students know that foreign language anxiety is a very common psychological state,if students take the correct coping strategies,it can be reduced properly.Third,teachers should help students build self-confidence and high learning motivation.Self confidence and positive attitude can help students reduce their anxiety in foreign language.Fourth,teachers should create a non-threatening,low-anxiety classroom atmosphere,give students positive feedback and evaluation.Fifth,in view of the psychological characteristics of junior high school students,teachers should help students find effective ways to reduce psychological anxiety.Teach them some listening skills and strategies,gradually overcome this anxiety,so that they can improve their English listening level.