A Study on English Learning Anxiety of Senior High School Students under the Background of College Entrance Examination Reform

【Abstract】As English teaching shifts the focus from “How to teach” to “How to learn”, the study on learning anxiety has been gradually developed and deepened. Besides, college entrance examination reform is the largest move in education in recent years. This study aims at knowing the current situation of English learning anxiety of senior high students under test reform and its relationships with factors like gender, grade, personality, English efficiency as well as the influence of English test reform.

【Key words】English learning anxiety; Senior high students; Test reform; Causes; Influence

1. Introduction

As English teaching shifts the focus from “How to teach” to “How to learn”, the study on learning anxiety has been gradually developed and deepened. whereas the previous researches are mainly focused on a certain type anxiety of college students. Besides, college entrance examination reform is the largest move in education in recent years. This thesis has conducted a questionnaire, summarizing the percentage of students with different level of anxiety and studying the relationship between personality, gender, grade, English proficiency and anxiety. All in all, the data and analysis present the current level of English learning anxiety in Shaoxing High School under test reform, and to some extent, provide some feasible suggestions to English teaching and learning as well as education reform.

2. Literature review

Anxiety is a kind of basic human emotions and is one of the most common and important responses to stress. To some degree, language learning anxiety is different from general anxieties,which is often studied as a kind of situation-specific anxiety. Spielberger (1956); Horwitz et al. (1986); MacIntyre and Gardner (1991); ect.are representatives. The research about English learning anxiety in China began in the 1990s, during which domestic scholars conducted a number of exploratory researches and obtained phased achievements. Chen Jie (1997); Yu Xinle (1999); Zhang Xicha and Chang Minghui (2004) so on and so forth are typical examples.

3. Methods

3.1 Objectives

This study aims at knowing the current situation of English learning anxiety of senior high students under test reform and its relationships with factors like gender, grade, personality, English efficiency as well as the influence of English test reform.

3.2 Subjects

108 boys and 90 girls, are chosen randomly from different grades and classes. Among these subjects, 68 are selected from grade one, 70 from grade two while the rest from grade three, and all of them have studied English for 5 to 7 years.

3.3 Instrument

The author adopts both quantitative and qualitative approaches in order to make sure the validity and reliability of this research. The questionnaire contains two parts: 1) some basic information of the participants. 2) 33 items. The five point Likert scale is employed, ranging from “strongly agree” (1 point) to “strongly disagree”(5 points).

4. Results

Table 1 shows the general situation of English learning anxiety level and the main components of anxiety.

Table1 General situation of English learning anxiety level

Anxiety Level mean Number of People (NOP) Percentage

High Anxiety 48.53 49 25%

Average Anxiety 93.56 119 60%

Low Anxiety 142.57 30 15%

Total 99.45 198 100%

Table 2 shows the relationship between some variables and leaning anxiety. Table 3 illustrates the negative correlation between students English level and anxiety level.

Table 2 Anxiety difference between different groups

Variable Category NOP Mean df F Sig

Gender male 100 98.73 1 1.35 0.028

female 98 99.86 196

Personality introverted 101 92.36 1 1.59 0.037

extroverted 97 94.29 196

Grade 1 68 92.57 2 1.43 0.035

2 60 94.45 195

3 70 93.7

Table 3 Correlation between students English level and anxiety level

English level Anxiety level

English Pearson correlation 1 -.528**

level Sig 2-tails .000

N 198 198

Anxiety Pearson correlation -.528** 1

level Sig 2-tails .000

N 198 198

**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

5. Discussion

Based on data, the major findings are listed below: 1.In general, the anxiety level of senior high students is relatively high in comparison to Horwitzs (1986) and Aidas (1994). 2.Subjects variables have a certain impact on their anxiety level. 3. it proves that the anxiety level is negatively correlated with English proficiency. 4.As for the influence of English test reform on the English learning anxiety, the result is confusing so far. To some students and teachers, it makes a giant contribution to decreasing the anxiety level while to others it does nothing but increasing the learning loads.

Although certain effect has been achieved, there are shortcomings which are worth digging and discussion due to limited theoretical and research level. But hopefully, the results obtained in the study can contribute to the future researches and to some extent, provide some feasible suggestions to English teaching and learning as well as education reform.

Reference：

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[8]郭燕,樊葳葳.大學(xué)英語(yǔ)分層次教學(xué)背景下的寫作焦慮實(shí)證研究[J].北京第二外國(guó)語(yǔ)學(xué)院學(xué)報(bào),2009,(10):79-84.

作者簡(jiǎn)介：季箐(1991-)，女，漢族，浙江紹興人，文學(xué)碩士，專業(yè)：英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)言文學(xué)。