| English learning anxiety and strategies are two subjects that have long been discussed by teachers and linguists. But up to now, few books have dealt with their relationships. This paper explored the effects of learning strategies on English learning anxiety. It hypothesizes that English non-majors' use of learning strategies will affect their anxiety in English learning.In undertaking this investigation, I sought to address certain purposes and audiences. The first one was to explore the relationships between English learning anxiety and learning strategies by means of students' perceptions and statistical analysis. Its results support the hypothesis that students' use of learning strategies will have some effects on their English learning anxiety. The second one was to examine the difference of three levels of anxious students in the use of learning strategies. The last one was to formulate solutions to diminish students' English learning anxiety on the basis of learning strategies.The primary audiences are colleagues teaching English non-majors and students who are anxious in learning English as their foreign language.The information and data in this paper were collected by means of three questionnaires: Causes of English Learning Anxiety (CELA), Learning Strategy Questionnaire (LSQ) and English Learning Anxiety Questionnaire (ELAQ). CELA includes 12 factors that correlate with English learning anxiety. Students were required to select those they consider important in arousing their own learning anxiety. LSQ consists of a 22-item Cognitive Strategy Questionnaire (CSQ) and a 26-item Metacognitive Strategy Questionnaire (MSQ). ELAQ consists of 23 items. Both LSQ and ELAQ were arranged in five-point Likert scale format. All the questionnaires were presented inboth Chinese and English so that students could have better understanding of them.Participants were 119 non-major English students from Chang'an University who were divided into high-anxious students, medium-anxious students and low-anxious students according to their responses to the English Learning Anxiety Questionnaire (ELAQ).In order to testify the effects of learning strategies on learning anxiety and make clear the problems of non-major students in using learning strategies, this paper summarized students' perceptions, analyzed the correlations between learning anxiety and learning strategies as well as the difference of three levels of students in using learning strategies. It draws the following conclusion:1. Students' anxiety in English learning is closely related to their employment of learning strategies and may result from their low frequent use of learning strategies.2. High-anxious students do not attach much importance to learning strategies as medium-anxious and low-anxious students do, which influences their use of learning strategies.3. Students use metacognitive strategies more frequently than cognitive strategies. The frequency of their employment of such cognitive strategies as elaboration, summarization and practice is particularly low.4. Three anxious-levels of students have different characteristics in employing learning strategies: high-anxious students are the least frequent in using both cognitive and metacognitive strategies; medium-anxious students use some learning strategies such as elaboration and practice almost as frequently as low-anxious students; low anxious students use metacognitive strategies far more frequently than the other anxious levels of students.5. Students' English learning anxiety can be reduced by effective use of learning strategies. If students know what strategies can be used, why they are useful, when and how to use them when they perform a language task or monitor their learning processes, they may be more confident and less anxious in English learning.6. Since students' English learning anxiety can be reduced by their strategic competence, curriculum must be developed to create conditions conductive to the development ofstudents' cognitive and metacognit... |
PDF Full Text Request