A Study On The Correlation Between English Classroom Anxiety And Achievements Of Senior Grade One Students

Learners are influenced by various emotional factors in the process of language learning.Studying the expressive factors in language learning can help teachers improve the quality of English teaching.Anxiety is part of the emotional factors in language learning.It refers to the emotional state of anxiety and fear caused by the individual's failure to achieve the desired goal.English learning anxiety is a negative emotive factor,which can cause learners' learning deficiency and affect the input,processing and output stages of the second language acquisition.Therefore,it is essential to study the degree of foreign language learning anxiety,and the relationship between English learning anxiety,achievement and gender differences.Based on humanistic psychology and Krashen's Affective Filter Hypothesis,combining Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scales(FLCAS),this paper aims to investigate the current situation of English classroom anxiety,the correlation between English classroom anxiety and achievements,gender in senior Grade One students.This research is going to answer the following three questions:(1)What is the current situation of English classroom anxiety in terms of anxiety levels and types among senior Grade One students?(2)What is the correlation between students' English classroom anxiety and their English achievements?(3)What is the gender difference of English classroom anxiety between male and female in levels and types among senior Grade One students?The author selected 200 senior Grade One students in a senior high school as research participants,and distributes them the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale(FLCAS),which was designed by Horwitz and his colleagues to investigate students' English classroom anxiety.In addition,the author also studied the results of these research participants' final English examination scores to analyze the correlation between English classroom anxiety and English achievements,try to figure out whether there are gender differences in English classroom anxiety.Finally,the author used SPSS to analyze the data for descriptive analysis.The results show that:(1)English classroom anxiety does exist among the Grade One students in the senior high school.64% of the students with moderate anxiety,26.5% with high anxiety and 9.5% with low anxiety.The most prominent type of anxiety is examination anxiety.(2)There is a negative correlation between the English classroom anxiety and English achievements of the Grade One students.The higher the English classroom anxiety is,the lower the English achievements are.(3)There are indeed gender differences in English classroom anxiety: female students with a higher level of English classroom anxiety than male students,among which female students with the higher level of anxiety in examinations and male students with the highest level of anxiety in communication.Finally,the author putforward three suggestions for English teachers who are in senior Grade One to reduce students' English classroom anxiety: firstly,focusing on the individual,helping students build up self-confidence;secondly,giving full play to the role of cultural adjustment of teachers and strengthening the education of cultural background knowledge;finally,strengthening cooperative learning and reducing foreign language learning anxiety.