A Study On English-speaking Anxiety And English-speaking Learning Strategies Of Senior High School Students In Ethnic Areas

With the development of modern cognitive psychology,SL/FL acquisition has been transferred “how to teach” from “how to learn”.More studies on language learning anxiety and learning strategies have been conducted since researchers began to focus on the individual factors of students.The results of many previous studies showed that there was a significant relationship between the language learning anxiety and learning strategies.However,fewer studies focus on the relationship between the learners’ speaking anxiety and speaking learning strategies.Based on the serious phenomenon of “dumb English” in China,it’s particularly important for the researcher to discuss the English-speaking anxiety and learning strategies of senior high school students.The present study is designed to study English-speaking anxiety and learning strategies through investigating 785 senior high school students from ethnic areas in Guizhou province.This study mainly focuses on the following four aspects: 1)To investigate the current situation of the students’ English-speaking anxiety and English-speaking strategies in senior high schools;2)To verify the correlation between the students’ English-speaking anxiety and Englishspeaking strategies;3)To explore the differences in strategies use frequency among the students with different levels of speaking anxiety;4)To find out the factors affecting students’ Englishspeaking anxiety.Based on descriptive statistics,correlation analysis,One-way ANOVA,multiple regression analysis and thematic analysis,the results of the study can be summarized as follows:1)English-speaking anxiety of senior high school students is at little or no level.Test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation also are at little or no level,while communication apprehension and English class anxiety are at the medium level at categories;the students’ speaking strategies is at a medium level.Memory strategies,cognitive strategies,compensation strategies and affective strategies also are at the medium level,but metacognitive and affective strategies are at a low level at categories;2)Students’ English-speaking anxiety is significantly and negatively correlated with their English-speaking strategies.Students’ communication apprehension and fear of negative evaluation can better predict their use of overall speakinglearning strategies;3)it is clear that students’ English-speaking strategies use vary significantly in term of different levels of speaking anxiety;4)The main factors affecting students’ Englishspeaking anxiety are students’ English-speaking learning motivation,English-speaking learning attitude,confidence,communication,English proficiency,the use of English-speaking strategies,teachers’ faith in English-speaking teaching,curriculum standards and English teaching environment.Based on the results of the study,there are six implications: The findings suggest that in order to improve atmosphere of learning,English teachers should communicate with students and combined with “Senior High School English New Curriculum Standard”;to guide students to build up a correct attitude towards the English speaking;to prepare the students well before they are asked to answer questions so as to reduce preventable anxiety in class;to focus on students’ output ability of writing and speaking,create extracurricular activities which provide students with more opportunities to speak English;to introduce different effective speaking strategies to the students,awareness to the important role of speaking strategies,and to train the students how to use these speaking strategies appropriately and effectively,especially focus on metacognitive strategies.Meanwhile,the students should understand the important role of speaking strategies and encourage yourselves to speak English bravely.