A Study Of The Correlation Between English Learning Anxiety And English Learning Strategies Use Among Chinese Junior High School Students

In Krashen's Affective Filter Hypothesis,learning anxiety restricts language input.It can be seen from Ellis's Model that the affective factors of learners influence the choice and use of learning strategies.The successful use of learning strategies will improve learning outcomes Accordingly,the level of learning anxiety will decrease.Seventh graders are in the transitional stage from elementary school to middle school.The role change may make their English learning anxiety and learning strategies use take on a unique form.In the existing research on English learning anxiety and learning strategies,most of the research subjects are high school students and college students.Even if some studies choose junior high school students as the research subject,the research subject is not detailed to the seventh graders.The Compulsory Education English Curriculum Standards(2011)requires teachers to help students develop learning strategies that suit them.In the study of English learning anxiety and learning strategies,this study attempts to combine students in the compulsory education stage,expand the scope of research subject,and focus on younger students.At the same time,the overall situation of seventh graders' English learning anxiety and learning strategies use is described.Also,this study discusses the relationship between them.In this study,100 seventh graders in an urban junior high school in Suzhou are selected as the research subject.Krashen's Affective Filter Hypothesis and Ellis's Model are selected as the theoretical basis.The research questions are as follows:(1)What is the current situation of English learning anxiety and learning strategies use for seventh graders on the whole?(2)What is the relationship between English learning anxiety and learning strategies use for seventh graders?In this study,the research tools are mainly the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Questionnaire(FLCAS)designed by Elaine K.Horwitz et al.(1986)and the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning(SILL)designed by Rebecca L.Oxford(1990).After obtaining the questionnaire data,this study resorted to Statistical Package for the Social Science(SPSS)to perform descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation analysis.For the results of the questionnaire data analysis,this study conducted confirmation through classroom observation.The research results of this study mainly include:(1)English learning anxiety is widespread among seventh graders.The fear of negative evaluation is at the highest level for seventh graders.(2)The frequency of English learning strategies use for seventh graders is at a medium level.The seventh graders use metacognitive strategies most frequently and memory strategies least frequently.The seventh graders sometimes use cognitive strategies,compensation strategies,affective strategies and social strategies.(3)There is a significant negative correlation between English learning anxiety and English learning strategies use for seventh graders.Communication apprehension has the strongest correlation with English learning strategies.Memory strategies have the strongest correlation with English learning anxietyBased on the findings of this study,the research implication includes:(1)Teachers should pay attention to the students' affective factors and help students relieve fear of negative evaluation.(2)Learning strategy teaching should be strengthened and students' ability to use memory strategies and social strategies should be improved.(3)Teachers should help students to correctly understand the relationship between English learning anxiety and learning strategies,provide students with learning strategy training,and help students choose appropriate learning strategies to reduce anxiety.