Investigating Foreign Learning Anxiety And Self-regulatory Strategies Among Higher Vocational English Learners

Foreign language anxiety is a unique psychological state in the process of language learning,which,as one of the biggest affective factors in language learning,foreign language anxiety,plays an important role in language learning.Horwitz(1986: 125)proposed that foreign language anxiety is a kind of self-cognition,behavior,feelings and beliefs related to classroom learning in the process of foreign language learning.He divided foreign language anxiety into three main factors: communication apprehension,fear of negative evaluation and test anxiety.In recent years,researchers have focused on the definition,classification,causes of anxiety,the relationship between foreign language anxiety and achievement as well as strategies for reducing foreign language learning anxiety in terms of teaching method.However,there are few self-regulatory strategies to relieve foreign language anxiety.As the main body of learning,it is obvious that self-regulatory strategies have more practical significance.Xu Jinfen and Kou Jinnan(2015)divided self-regulatory strategies into four dimensions: self-efficacy enhancement,avoidance of problems,solving problems and distracting attention.English,as one of the compulsory subjects for Chinese students,students are likely to demonstrate different levels of anxiety in the process of learning,which will ultimately affect the effect of learning.Therefore,the purpose of this thesis is to explore the current situation of foreign language anxiety and self-regulatory strategies of higher vocational college students,and the relationship between them,in order to provide suggestions for students to alleviate their foreign language anxiety.The research questions in this thesis are as follows:(1)what is the current situation of foreign language anxiety among higher vocational college students? Are there any differences in foreign language anxiety among different genders? Are there any differences in foreign language anxiety among learners with different learning levels?(2)what is the overall situation of self-regulatory strategies' use among vocational college students? Are there differences in the use of self-regulatory strategies among students of different genders? Are there differences among learners at different levels of learning?(3)what is the correlation between foreign language anxiety and self-regulatory strategies? In this study,121 freshman from Fenyang College of Shanxi Medical University were selected as participants,and two Likert scales were employed,including Horwitz(1986)'s Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale and Xu Jinfen and Kou Jinnan(2015)'s Foreign Language Anxiety Self-regulatory Scale,the authoruse SPSS 19.0 to analyze the survey data with ANOVAS,independent sample T test and correlation analysis.The results show that:(1)foreign language anxiety exists in the process of foreign language learning among higher vocational college students,among which communication apprehension is dominant and there is no significant difference between genders;there are significant differences in foreign language anxiety among learners with different learning levels,especially in communication apprehension and fear of negative evaluation;(2)the use of self-regulatory strategies of higher vocational college students is relatively low,in which self-efficacy enhancement strategy is used more frequently,and there is no significant difference in the use of self-regulation strategies between different genders;there was no significant difference in the use of self-regulation strategies among learners at different learning levels.(3)foreign language anxiety has a significant positive correlation with self-regulatory strategies,specifically,there is a positive correlation between communication apprehension,general anxiety,fear of negative evaluation,test anxiety and self-regulatory strategies.As for self-regulatory strategies,there is a negative correlation between self-efficacy enhancement,solving problems and foreign language anxiety while distracting attention,avoidance of problemsand foreign language anxiety are positively correlated.On the basis of the study,the author puts forward some suggestions to help students alleviate their anxiety in foreign language learning from the perspective of teachers and students.At the end,the limitations of the study are pointed out and some suggestions for future research are also put forward.