阅读焦虑对大学生英语阅读效果影响实证的研究

1、AbstractBased on the Krashens theories of input hypothesis and affective filter hypothesis, this thesistries to learn about why Chinese college students achieve not quite good English reading effects. Itis easy to find that the reading effects of college students are far away from expectation throug

2、hdifferent kinds of English examinations and their reading activities both in and after class. So thethesis aims to explore this reason by means of questionnaire and interview, focusing on making itclear what are the correlations between foreign language reading anxiety and reading effects. Byresear

3、ching, the thesis makes an attempt to find the answers to the following questions: Whetherwill college students feel anxious in English reading? How does the English reading anxiety affectthe reading effects? What have led to English reading anxiety? How should English teachers helpstudents to overc

4、ome the reading anxiety and improve the reading effects in teaching?During consulting lots of historical documents, the author finds that previous researches onforeign language reading anxiety mainly focused on researching the relationships between thereading anxiety and reading achievements. The au

5、thor believes that the achievement is just one ofthe measuring factors in judging the students reading proficiency, so we cant understandone-sidedly the relationships between studentsachievements and their reading proficiency. It is truethat reading achievements cant completely reflect the studentsr

6、eading proficiency, whetherstudents have quite strong reading ability depends on whether they are participating in effectivereading. By reading effects the author means that: By reading whether students can improve theirabilities of obtaining information, guessing and determining and comprehending t

7、he new words;whether they can improve the ability of correctly reading and reading in proper speed; whether theycan improve the ability of correctly transmitting and communicating information resulting from thereading material. The improvement of these abilities will definitely promote improvement o

8、f thereading effects.By employing questionnaire and interview, the author carried out an investigation on 305English majors in Education Institute of Taiyuan University. The aim is to explore the correlationsbetween FLRA and reading anxiety, focusing on the influence of different genders, different

9、grades,idifferent English proficiency, different text types, different English success expectation ofexamination, etc. on reading anxiety. All the data were collected and processed and analyzed usingSPSS, and in the end the following conclusions were drawn:a) Chinese college students really have dif

10、ferent degree of English reading anxiety.b) Freshmen, sophomores and juniors respectively show different degree of readinganxiety. Among those variables, anxiety provoked by lack of language self-confidence andlinguistic competence ranks highest among freshmen, sophomores and juniors.c) StudentsEngl

11、ish proficiency and their reading anxiety are negatively correlated.d) The highe r the outside expectation and studentsexpectation of success on Englishreading are, the higher the level of reading anxiety is. The lower , the lower.e) The more difficult and strange the text type is, the higher the re

12、ading anxiety is; theeasier, the lower.f) Foreign language reading anxiety and reading effects are negatively correlated.Key Words :correlationscollege English reading; English reading anxiety; reading effects;山西财经大学学位论文原创性声明本人郑重声明：所呈交的学位论文，是本人在导师的指导下，独立进行研究工作所取得的成果。除文中已经注明引用的内容外，本论文不包含任何其他个人或集体已经发表

13、或撰写过的作品成果。对本文的研究所做出重要贡献的个人和集体，均已在文中以明确方式标明。本人完全意识到本申明的法律结果由本人承担。学位论文作者签名：日期：年 月 日Chapter One IntroductionChapter One Introduction1.1 Purpose of the thesisLangua ge learning is not a simple process but a complicated one, which involvesmany factors, such as teachers, teaching materials and learners. B

14、efore the 1980s, peoplebelieved that the success of second language acquisition directly depend s on the way thatteachers teach, so researchers have presented various kinds of teaching methodology.However, language learning is still not what have been expected, so, the attention began tochange. Sinc

15、e the 1980s, the focus of second language acquisition has shifted from “howto teach”to “how to learn”, people began to realize that the success of second languageacquisition largely depends on the learner itself. In this case, those factors that influencelearnersacquisition of second language and in

16、dividual learner differences (IDs) areregarded as the focus of discussion. Teachers and researchers have come to know thatlearner factors play a key role in the learning process. In the last 20 years, a lot of researchon IDs including cognitive, affective and biological characteristics has been cond

17、ucted. Inthe 1980s, brain scientists began to recognize that cognition research explains only a partof how the mind works, only that part related to reasoning and thinking. “Minds withoutemotions are not really minds at all.”(Joseph LeDoux 1996: 25). With the developmentof humanistic psychology, aff

18、ective factors are generally considered to be the veryimportant factors that affect the effect of language learning. Stern (1999:385) argued“cognitive factors are not the only ones that matter in second language learning.”Arnold (2000:I) also claimed “ affective side of learning of is not in opposit

19、ion to thecognitive side, when both are used together, the learning process can be constructed onfirmer foundation.”However, Xiang (项茂英，2003:23) indicated the current situation offoreign language learning and teaching in China is that “ the two sidescognition andemotion are separated which attaches

20、too much importance to the cognitive side oflanguage learning while neglecting the functions of affective factors.”With the shifting ofeducation focus in 1980s, affective factors are considered to be of great importance.Recently, research on affective factors such as motivation, attitude, and person

21、alities hasgot remarkable achievements. Among these affective variables, anxiety is considered to be1An Empirical Study of the Correlations between Reading Anxiety and English Reading Effects of College Studentsone of the key psychological variables. According to Krashen(1982), success in secondlang

22、uage acquisition greatly relates to a variety of affective variables , among whichanxiety is surely an important one, which is also the reason why the author plans toconduct an investigation on this issue.1.2 Significance of the thesisUsually, when we feel secure and are free of stress and relaxed,

23、we will do better thanwe are in a very serious and nervous situation, so it is for language learners to focus on thelearning task. It had been found that anxiety interfered with many types of learning andwas one of the most highly examined psychological variables. It is critical for languagelearners

24、 to master four skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing. While the improvementof these basic skills is affected by many factors, among which anxiety is one that cannotbe neglected. Much previous research done on anxiety focused on listening, speaking andwriting, while the study on reading is s

25、canty. It seems that the process of reading is just thebusiness of the readers in which no any third person existed and in this process readers canalso reflect and reconsider, so the readers will not be influenced by outside interference, infact it is not always the case. When students meet with a l

26、arge number of new words,when they read a text based on different culture, when they cannot answer the questionsappearing after the text, when they are afraid of othersevaluation, etc, anxiety will arise,which will become an obstacle of successful reading.With rapid development of science and techno

27、logy, the world become smaller andsmaller,so every so often we need much more contact with outside world, whic hrequires us to be equipped with high capability of listening, speaking, reading, writing.While equipped with high reading ability, college students can have more access tovarious informati

28、on channels in age of information. Therefore, many colleges have givendue attention on cultivating reading ability, and in both College English Test Band Fourand Band Six the score percent of reading comprehension has been risen.Moreover, as a teacher of teaching English reading, it is necessary to

29、find anypossible factors that affect the effect of studentsreading. English reading anxiety, as avery important affective variable and also influential one, is worthy of studying. Theauthor hopes to work out practical suggestions and corresponding measures to serve as a2Chapter One Introductionguide

30、 to foreign language teachers as well as students.1.3 Structure of the thesisThe thesis is composed of seven chapters. Chapter one introduces the purpose and thesignificance of the study, presents the general structure. Chapter two reviews the relevant literatureconcerning the foreign language anxie

31、ty both at home and abroad, pointing out the achievement anddeficiency. Chapter three reviews the literature related to the foreign language reading anxiety bothat home and abroad, introduces Saito et al. s conceptualization of FLRA, presents the rationale offoreign language reading anxiety. Chapter

32、 four elaborates on the methodology adopted in this study,including research questions, sample subjects, measure instruments, procedures, data collection andanalysis. Chapter five centers on the results and discussions of the present research. Throughdescribing and explaining the influence of differ

33、ent genders, different grades, different Englishproficiency, different text types, different English success expectation of examination, etc. onreading anxiety, the correlations between reading anxiety and reading effects have been figured out.Chapter six severs as a summary of the whole study, poin

34、ting out possible sources of readinganxiety-provoking, providing some useful strategies for overcoming reading anxiety and presentingsome implications to English reading teaching and learning, and in the end giving some suggestionsfor future research.3An Empirical Study of the Correlations between R

35、eading Anxiety and English Reading Effects of College StudentsChapter two Literature Review2.1 Definition and classification of anxiety2.1.1 Definition of anxietyThere should be a lot more interaction between teaching and learning. For so long timewe have been laying much importance on teaching meth

36、odology, meanwhile, learnersvariables have attracted more and more attention, among which especially affective factorshave been taken into consideration. Anxiety, as one of affective factors, is regarded as anunpleasant emotional experience like anticipation, irritation and fear. Arnold believed tha

37、tamong the affective factors influencing language learning, anxiety ranks high. Speaking of thedefinition of anxiety, there have appeared many versions. From psychological perspective,anxiety is defined as an inappropriate fear which results from response to certain va gue anddangerous situations an

38、d events from outside. As one of most noticeable and pervasiveemotions, anxiety is defined as a feeling of uneasy suspense. May (qtd. In Engler 1995) thinksthat anxiety is an inevitable characteristic for being human. He proposes that anxiety is in factthe apprehension, it happens when one feels som

39、e essential value of being existed as aperson has been threatened. It is generally accepted that anxiety is the subjective feeling oftension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry due to the fact that the autonomic nervoussystem is aroused, and an emotion state of “apprehension, a vague fear that is

40、only indirectlyassociated with an object.( Brown:2002).2.1.2 Classification of anxietySince anxiety study has been the focus of many researchers, researchers agreed that thereare three types of anxiety defined as trait anxiety, state anxiety and situation-specific anxiety.Trait anxiety is defined as

41、 more permanent predisposition to be anxious.(Scovel:1991). It isseen as a response to a particular anxiety-provoking stimulus such as an important test. Whilethe term state anxiety refers to apprehension that is experienced at a particular moment in timeas a response to a definite situation.(Spielb

42、erger:1963). Situation-specific anxiety which isaroused by a specific type of situation or event is used to emphasize the persistent andmulti- faceted nature of some anxieties. (MacIntyre&Gardner:1991). For example: when oneparticipates in public speaking, examinations, or class activity, he or she

43、will have the feelings4Chapter two Literature Reviewof dread, uneasiness, frustration, self-doubt, insecurity which are all generally regarded asanxiety. These anxieties may be both facilitating and debilitating. In the cognitive actionsfacilitative anxiety can motivate the learner which has positiv

44、e effects, Horwitz (1986)suggests that facilitating anxiety may only occur in fairly simple learning tasks, whiledebilitative anxiety can disrupt or inhibit the learner which has negative effects. Williams(1991) suggests that the distinction between these two types of anxiety may correspond to thein

45、tensity of the anxiety.2.2 Language anxietyAt one time or another, in such or that situation, all human being may probably experienceanxiety of different degree. If anxiety occurs during ones learning language, it is called languageanxiety which is a kind of emotion aroused by fear or apprehension o

46、ccurring when a learner isexpected to do something in the second language. This anxiety is directly connected withperforming in the target language, therefore, it is not just a general performance anxiety but acombination with such negative feelings as nervousness, tension, self-denial, uneasiness a

47、ndfrustration. Many students believe that language class is more anxiety-provoking than any otherclasses they have. So, it is not hard to find that in language classes students who feel anxious areless likely to answer questions actively or to actively participate in oral classroom activities.Those

48、anxious are often inclined to avoid some difficult linguistic structures and to producesmaller words than more relaxed ones. Besides that, in contrast with more relaxed students, thoseanxious sometimes feel language class moves too rapidly and they have more difficulty in makingspeech and expressing

49、 themselves.Many researchers have made great effort to explain why language anxiety will occur, someconclude that language anxiety has something to do with communication, test and self evaluation,the higher language ability is, the lower language anxiety is. While others indicate that thosestudents

50、who always hold negative concepts of themselves as language learners will have highlanguage anxiety. Another suggest that those students who have difficulties in speaking andlistening and memorizing for language will experience anxiety in language classes. By carryingout all these studies, researche

51、rs focus on one aim to find out some good and effective ways toovercome language anxiety so that language learning can be much easier. In language classesteachers should try to help students manage anxiety by constantly organizing activities such as5An Empirical Study of the Correlations between Rea

52、ding Anxiety and English Reading Effects of College Studentssmall group work, interviews, problem-solving, and role plays and providing students ample oralpractice to build up relaxed atmosphere. It is teacherspriorities to alleviate anxiety-raisingenvironment of language learning and increase stude

53、nts language acquisition.2.3 Foreign language anxietyPublication of the article “Foreign Language Classroom Scale” by Horwitz etal. isregarded as a milestone in the research on foreign language anxiety, which laid down a theoreticalfoundation for the future further research of foreign language anxie

54、ty. Since then, their instrument,the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale(FLCAS) has been widely used in FL anxietyresearch. In the following years, a bunk of empirical studies on the relationships between anxietyand all types of foreign language learning were conducted. It were Horwitz et al. t

55、hat made a firstattempt to propose that FLA belonged to situation-specific anxiety which was responsible forstudentsnegative emotional reactions to language learning. After this conception was presented,more and more researches have been done to explore the effects of foreign language anxiety onfore

56、ign learning. However, some questions have also been raised, one of which is concerned withthe stability of the foreign language construct across all kinds of language skills. That is to say,whether foreign language anxiety will vary according to specific langua ge skills.Speaking isthe most anxiety-provoking aspect in foreign langua