An Empirical Study Of The Effects Of Project-based Learning On Business English Writing Anxiety Of English Majors

Writing is an important part of second language learning,and it is also a difficult point for learners.Compared with mother-tongue writing,second-language writing has more problems in layout,goal setting,content conception,and sentence formation,which is more likely to cause tension and anxiety to students.As a required course for English majors,Business English Writing is a comprehensive use of listening,speaking,reading,and translation skills of Business English.The writing process becomes more demanding and challenging,and it is more prone to writing anxiety than other writing.Many foreign studies have shown that there is a negative correlation between writing anxiety and writing level.Some scholars have researched the correlation between teaching methods and writing anxiety.Studies have shown that using different teaching methods can reduce or alleviate the degree of writing anxiety.Compared with the traditional teaching method,PBL is very different in terms of teaching form,learning content,educational goals,participation level,and incentive methods.PBL changes the passive “teaching centered” teaching mode in the past,and creates a new teaching model in which learners actively participate and cooperate.Domestic researchers have tried to introduce PBL into different types of foreign language courses,focusing on investigating the impact of PBL on academic performance.Some scholars have gradually paid attention to the positive significance of PBL in reducing foreign language learning anxiety.However,most of the related domestic researches are theoretical ideas and speculations,and there are not many empirical studies.Few people have studied the application of PBL in Business English writing teaching,especially whether this method can help reduce the writing anxiety.Based on this,this study attempts to carry out PBL teaching experiments,using quantitative and qualitative analysis methods,and taking English majors as research objects,to explore how the PBL has a substantial impact on English majors' business English writing anxiety.The study was conducted with 58 English majors in two classes of 29 students each.Among them,Class 1741 is an experimental class(EC)using PBL,and Class 1742 is a control class(CC)using traditional teacher-centered teaching.In order to study the business English writing anxiety of students of different levels and the influence of PBL on business English writing anxiety of students of different levels,the author divides the students of each class into three levels: high-level students,middle-level students,and low-level students according to the writing scores of pre-test combined with the English scores of students in the final examination of last semester and the suggestions of relevant teachers.Relevant research questions for this study include:(1)How is the anxiety of Business English Writing among English majors?(2)Does the PBL reduce English majors' business English writing anxiety? If yes,how effective is it for the students of different levels?The teaching experiment lasted 10 weeks and the author conducted a questionnaire,business English writing pre-test and post-test,and an interview.Through careful analysis of the data obtained before and after the experiment,the author summarizes the findings of this experiment as follows:Firstly,English majors have serious business English writing anxiety.Among the three levels of high,middle and low,the low-level students have the highest anxiety,followed by middle-level students,and high-level students have the lowest anxiety.Besides,in terms of the three anxiety factors,English majors have the highest cognitive anxiety,followed by avoidance behavior,and the lowest physical anxiety.Secondly,based on Pearson correlation analysis of writing anxiety and writing performance,the author also found that writing anxiety was significantly negatively related to writing performance,that is,the higher the writing anxiety value,the lower the writing performance.PBL can effectively alleviate business writing anxiety of English majors at high,middle and low levels,while the traditional business English writing teaching model is not effective.As far as the magnitude of the impact is concerned,middle-level students have made the most progress in alleviating English writing anxiety,that is,middle-level students are mainly affected by the PBL teaching method.Followed by high-level students,and finally low-level students.In terms of impact factors,PBL has the most significant effect on cognitive anxiety,followed by physical anxiety,and finally avoidance behavior.With the reduction of business English writing anxiety among English majors,the PBL teaching method has significantly improved students' business English writing scores.Among them,middle-level students have the most significant improvement,followed by high-level students,and finally low-level students.The research results show that PBL can help students to reduce business English writing anxiety greatly and the effects are obvious.It can reduce students 'writing anxiety and improve students' writing performance.PBL is a teaching method worth trying and promoting.