College students’ overall foreign language anxiety

Bi+Ran

【Abstract】In this article， the current situation of college students overall FLA is offered. Meanwhile， the reason is discussed and the implication is given to enhance the efficiency of college English teaching and learning.

【Key words】the current situation； overall FLA； college students

As an English teacher， we often find out such problems： some students fail to answer questions voluntarily， some keep silent by lowering their heads in the class， some worry about their CET4，some cut classes，even worse， some give up English. The facts above indicate that students might have sense of anxiety in English learning. These problems must be concretely studied and solved， so it is necessary to hold a study on anxiety.

1. Learners overall FLA

Foreign language anxiety （FLA） is a specific type of anxiety more closely associated with foreign language performance. As MacIntyre（1986） has found， “FLA（Foreign Language Anxiety） is one of the strongest predictors of foreign language performance.” Nitko （2001） lists a lack of competence as the first reason for anxious students， the lack of proper study skills being the second， and the third is wrong self -perceptions about their capacities， who urges teachers to recognize foreign language anxiety factor， which can negatively impact the performances. Horwitz et al. （1986） presents the three major components of FLA： communication apprehension， test anxiety， and fear of negative evaluation. The overall FLA concerned in the study is the sum of these three major components of FLA.

2. Methodology

2.1 Research questions

1） What are current situations of college students overall FLA？

2） What implications can be drawn for college English teaching and learning？

2.2 research subjects

There are 349 students who are randomly chosen in Liaoning University of Technology. However， 24 of them did not answer the questions correctly or completely， so their scores were not valid. Therefore， the subjects for the study are 325 college students.

2.3 instruments

The present research used different instruments to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. The main instruments consist of two parts： questionnaires and interviews. Horwitzs foreign language classroom anxiety scale （FLCAS） is adopted

3. Data analysis and discussions

3.1 Data analysis

According to the data collected in the research， the author gets the descriptive statistic of learner's overall FLA. The mean of overall FLA is 3.180 on a five-point scale， indicating that the subjects' total anxiety is at the degree of middle level. Because every item was scored from 1 to 5 grades， the lower the score is， lower the FLA is，which is clearly shown in Table1

3.2 Discussion on current situations of subjects overall FLA

According to descriptive statistics in Table 1， the subjects overall FLA （Mean=3.180， SD=1.086） are at a medium level. Namely， students are just sometimes nervous about English. Compared with other research subjects such as high school students or undergraduates in language anxiety research field， students overall anxiety level is lower instead of being higher. For instance， Lei Xiao examined the foreign language anxiety felt by Chinese non-English major undergraduate students， and subjects mean score obtained in his study is 3.985； In Horwitz et als study， the mean score is 3.894. The result in this study is a little inconsistent with these previous researches. There are two factors worth of serious consideration in evaluating the result： for one hand， low self-expectation and self-worth for English caused by long periods of backwardness in English in high school. Most of students lack solid foundation of English， good learning habit and methods in high school， which make them mistakenly believe that no matter how hard they study， they can't make progress in English， The students may only look at their achievements with continuous hopelessness and dissatisfaction， underestimating their self-worth， consequently they reduce study-effort when feeling that their self-worth are impaired， naturally anxiety in English is low. In addition， the result of such over-emphasis on formal learning is that many have had no opportunities to develop their talents in other areas and discover their sense of self-worth. For the other hand， students are facing much less stress and competition than undergraduates； as a result they feel less anxious.