A Study On The Correlation Between Topic Familiarity And English Speaking Anxiety In Senior High School

The National English Curriculum Standard(2017)requires that English teaching is expected to improve students' comprehensive English competence in an all-round way.One of the main goals of English teaching is spoken English in which students are relatively poor.Because of the lacking of topic familiarity(TF),students usually do not know what to say with various topics,they tend to have English speaking anxiety(ESA).Therefore,it is of practical significance to explore the correlation between topic familiarity and English speaking anxiety in senior high school.Based on Schema Theory and Affective Filter Hypothesis,the essay is going to probe into the relationship between TF and ESA in senior high school students.The essay attempts to reveal the internal characteristics between them,and provide reference for spoken English teaching.The questions are discussed as follows:(1)What's the present situation of TF of senior students based on the three components of background knowledge,life experience and contextual meaning?(2)What is the general status of ESA of senior students based on the three components of self-cognition evaluation,self-emotion experience and external environment?(3)What is the correlation between TF and ESA of senior high school students? How relevant are their components?In order to answer these questions,the author conducted questionnaire surveys among 320 high school students by using both the topic familiarity questionnaire and English speaking anxiety questionnaire.Through SPSS 24.0 data statistical analysis software,a detailed and in-depth analysis of the collected data is made,and the findings are as follows:(1)The average value of TF of high school students holds a low level(M=47.94).Among the three components,the average value of the background knowledge stays the highest(M=17.25),which shows that background knowledge is the key factor affecting students' TF,while that of the life experience keeps the lowest(M=14.39),which indicates that students can not have a full understanding of the topic when it is separated from their life experience.The average value of contextual meaning is 16.30,which makes it clear that students can understand a specific topic when the real context is provided.(2)The average value of students' ESA holds a high level(M=102.75).Among the three components,the averagevalue of the external environment ranks the highest(M=48.26),while that of the self-cognitive evaluation(M=24.15)remains the lowest.Besides,the average value of the self-emotional experience is 30.34,which shows that students have negative emotional reactions to their spoken English.(3)There is a negative correlation between TF and ESA.Between the components of TF and that of ESA,the life experience of TF keeps the closest relationship with the external environment of ESA(r=-0.877).Through regression analysis,TF has a significantly predictive effect on ESA,which is helpful for teachers to predict the possibility of students' ESA when they assign different topic tasks.According to the research results,the author puts forward some useful suggestions: Teachers are required to create topic-based teaching approach,make full use of students' life experience to increase topic familiarity,attach importance to the extension of background knowledge inside and outside class and construct relaxed and harmonious English speaking setting in order to improve topic familiarity and thus relieve English speaking anxiety.