A Stydy Of Foreign Language Anxiety Of Legal English Learners From The Perspective Of Attributional Theory

Foreign language anxiety(FLA)is a subjective feeling of tension,nervousness,and worry,generated in the process of foreign language learning.Since legal English is an applied foreign language in the field of law in China,legal English learners(LEL)may also suffer FLA.Severe FLA reduces LEL’s learning efficiency and prevents them from performing successfully in legal English courses.In accordance with Attributional Theory,attribution is individual’s interpretation of the causes of success and failure.LEL’s attribution for success and failure means their interpretation of the causes of good and poor performance of legal English courses.In other words,attribution is the causal thinking.Since thinking influences feeling,LEL’s attribution for success and failure will impact their FLA level.This thesis studies LEL’s FLA from the perspective of attribution in order to find methods to relieve their anxiety.The research subjects are graduate students of legal English from a Chongqing university.The research instruments are a semi-structured interview and a questionnaire including Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale(FLCAS)and Multidimensional-Multiattributional Causality Scale(MMCS).This thesis analyzes FLA level of LEL,the correlation between LEL’s attributions for success and failure and FLA,and the predictive effect of LEL’s attributions for success and failure on FLA through regression analysis.The research reveals that:(1)Overall,the average FLA of LEL is significantly high(3.28).Among the three main components of FLA,learners’ level of communication apprehension is the highest,their level of test anxiety is middle,and their level of fear of negative evaluation is the lowest.(2)LEL’s strategy and luck attributions for success are significantly and positively correlated with FLA,and their effort attribution for success is significantly and negatively correlated with LEA.Then,LEL’s ability,effort,and teacher attributions for failure are significantly and positively correlated with FLA.(3)LEL’s effort and luck attributions for success can significantly predict their FLA.In addition,learners’ ability and effort attributions for failure can significantly and positively predict FLA.This thesis exposes the fact of high anxiety of LEL and calls on teachers to care for LEL’s emotional state.It not only enriches the research subjects of FLA and empirical researches of Attributional Theory but also provides some pedagogical implications in legal English.