A Study Of Non-english Majors' Listening Anxiety And Listening Strategy From The Perspective Of Dynamic Systems Theory

College students' foreign language proficiency has always been a hot topic for researchers in the field of second language acquisition and listening proficiency which is one of the most important factors affecting the overall level of their foreign language ability is now receiving increasingly more concern from scholars.Anxiety,as a unique and complex emotional phenomenon in foreign language learning,has attracted more and more attention.However,there are limited studies on anxiety concerning specific language skills,especially listening anxiety.While,listening anxiety and listening strategies,belonging to individual differences,play an important role in students' listening proficiency.Both the quantitative and qualitative research methods are used in the present study.52 sophomores enrolled in a northeastern foreign language university participated in the research and six of whom were taken as focus subjects.They completed the questionnaires,which served as the primary tool to collect data.Weekly diaries were then collected and follow-up interviews were conducted with focus subjects as well.We continued the research by focusing on investigating the process of dynamic variations in listening anxiety and listening strategies,and the main factors contributing to that change through a comparatively new research method—RQM(retrodictive qualitative modelling)promoted by D?rnyei(2014).The study is also aimed to look at the relationships between students' listening anxiety,listening strategies and their English listening proficiency.Specifically,it attempts to probe into three research questions:(1)What is the change like in listening anxiety and listening strategy use with time going by?(2)What are the main factors that affect the variations in listening anxiety and listening strategy use?(3)What is the interrelationship between students' listening anxiety,listening strategy and their listening proficiency?Through data analysis,the author got the following results.Firstly,students' listening anxiety and listening strategy use are constantly changing over time,with the change being dynamic and irregular.Secondly,there are many factors influencing students' listening anxiety and their listening strategy,including internal factors like their motivation,listening style as well as external factors,such as the listening materials,teachers and so on.Thirdly,students' listening anxiety is negatively related to use of listening strategies.There is negative correlation between students' listening anxiety and listening proficiency;the use of listening strategy is positively related to students' listening proficiency,with the metacognitive strategy and cognitive strategy having significant correlation with students' listening proficiency.The results of the study contribute to an understanding of the dynamic nature of listening anxiety and listening strategy in second language.Limitations of the present study were indicated at last and practical suggestions for pedagogy in English listening skills and future research were also identified.