An Investigative Study On English Writing Anxiety And Self-regulation Strategies Of Senior High School Students

Writing as an important skill in English learning not only represents the level of English output,but also reflects the comprehensive level of English.In China,the writing part occupies a large proportion in all kinds of English tests,and it is also a challenging and tough problem for many students.With the development of foreign language teaching,the focus of foreign language teaching shifts from “teaching-centered” to “learning-centered”.As an important emotional factor anxiety is meaningful for the study of English writing.English writing anxiety is an important part of English writing for high school students,the impact of which should not be underestimated.At present,domestic research on English writing anxiety is still relatively lacking.Foreign language writing anxiety research has focused on ways to reduce the impact of anxiety(Guo Shixiang 2016),but little attention has been paid to how learners control their anxiety through their own efforts(Xu Jinfen,Jin Jinnan 2015),that is,anxiety self-regulation strategy.Therefore,it is necessary to study the current situation of English writing anxiety of high school students and the self-regulation strategies they used.This thesis mainly addresses the following three questions:1.What is the current level of high school students' English writing anxiety?2.What is the general situation of high school students' use of writing anxiety self-regulation strategies?3.What is the difference in the use of English writing anxiety self-regulation strategies of students with different levels of writing anxiety?Taking Shijiazhuang City of Hebei Province as an example,274 senior high school students from three schools participated in this questionnaire survey.Cheng's(2004)Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory and Ma Jie,Dong Pan's(2017)English Writing Anxiety Self-regulation Strategy Inventory are used to measure the current level of high school students' English writing anxiety and the general situation of self-regulation strategies.Both questionnaires have been tested with good reliability and validity.Then,SPSS 19.0 is used to do data analysis.The main findings are as follows:(1)English writing anxiety widely exist in the English writing process of high school students,and generally their writing anxiety is at moderate level;(2)The use of high school students' English writing anxiety self-regulation strategies is generally at a moderate level.Specifically,they prefer to use conception strategy,affective strategy and avoidance strategy,while the use of action strategy is less;(3)The frequency of self-regulation strategies generally increases with writing anxiety,but there was no significant difference between them.Specifically,for action strategy and the avoidance strategy,there are significant differences between the high,medium and low anxiety groups;for conception strategy,there are significant differences between the low anxiety group and medium,high anxiety groups;for affective strategy,there is no significant differences between the high,medium and low anxiety groups.This study supplements the investigation of English writing anxiety and self-regulation strategies to a certain extent,and has a good practical significance.The study found that teachers can have a better understanding of how high school students can cope with English writing anxiety,and accordingly adjust teaching methods to give students more effective guidance.For students,understanding their own anxiety and the differences in self-regulation strategies that they and low-anxiety learners can make more targeted adjustments to alleviate anxiety.