A Study On Art Students' English Writing Anxiety In A Senior High School

With the development of globalization,English writing is playing an increasingly important role in social,economic,political and technical communication.The gradual improvement of the score of English writing in the college entrance examination also reflects the importance of English writing;yet,English writing teaching is still a difficult task.The Affective Filter Hypothesis(Klashen,1981)points out that language learning anxiety have a universal effect on foreign language learning.Humanism(Maslow)also emphasizes the concern of learners' inner world.Throughout domestic and foreign studies,most of the research objects on English writing anxiety are college students and vocational students,while art students,as a special group in high school teaching,have attracted little attention.To understand the anxiety of English writing among high school art students,this study aims to answer the following four questions:(1)What is the general situation of English writing anxiety of high school art students?(2)Are there any differences on English writing anxiety between high-level art students and low-level art students?(3)Is English writing anxiety related to English writing performance?(4)What are the causes of English writing anxiety for art students?The research is based on the theory of Affective Filter Hypothesis and Humanism,conducted with 100 students from a high school in an art school in Nanchang city as a subject.It combined both quantitative and qualitative research methods,and the questionnaire used Cheng's(2004)sand Rezaei and Jafari's(2014),6 students and two teachers are involved in the interview.The results of the study are as follows:(1)The English writing anxiety of art students is at a high level.Of the three dimensions,the degree of avoidance behavior was the highest and somatic anxiety was the lowest.(2)High-level students' English writing anxiety is at a low level,and low-level students' English writing anxiety is at a high level.Cognitive anxiety,avoidance behavior and somatic anxiety have significant differences.(3)There is a negative correlation between English writing anxiety and English writing performance,which indicates that students show a tendency towards foreignlanguage anxiety during the writing process.The higher the English writing anxiety,the lower the English writing score.(4)The main causes of students' English writing anxiety are language difficulties,lack of corresponding English writing knowledge and skills,and high-frequency English writing.Finally,based on the results of the study,some suggestions are made to reduce students' English writing anxiety,such as providing students with more opportunities for writing practice,providing positive feedback,and creating a comfortable and reliable English writing atmosphere and so on.