A Study Of The Candidates' Test Anxiety In The CET-SET Context

Nowadays the importance of the oral proficiency has been convinced and its importance in second language teaching and learning is increasing as well. Oral language testing is therefore developed greatly. The CET Spoken English Test (CET-SET) was first administered in 1999. Up to now its credit has been established with an increase in the number of candidates taking it. The following questions, however, are seldom addressed in the earlier researches: Is there a correlation between test anxiety with test performance in the CET-SET? Does worry and emotionality, the two dimensions included in test anxiety, exert same influence on the candidates' performance in the oral test? Is it true that those with high test-anxiety have declining performance? Does gender difference exist in terms of test anxiety during the CET-SET? The present study will have a preliminary investigation of these issues. Considering the close connection between test anxiety and language learning anxiety, this paper also gives a brief illustration of language learning anxiety and its relationship with test anxiety.The participants are 35 CET-SET candidates from Chongqing University. Using statistical analysis, the present research proves that test performance in the CET-SET has a negative relationship with test anxiety. Meanwhile, candidates who have high test-anxiety have declining performance compared to their counterparts with low anxiety. Worry and emotionality, the two dimensions of test anxiety, show different influences on performance. Worry is negatively correlated to the CET-SET score while the correlation between emotionality and the CET-SET score is not significant. Many studies have shown that emotionality is caused by worry, the cognitive element of test anxiety. Therefore, the influence of worry on test performance is crucial. The result may provide a solution to reduce test anxiety.Furthermore, the complexion of the candidates' test anxiety in various stages during the test was explored through retrospective study in order to investigate the trait of test anxiety and to search deeply for factors of causing test anxiety during the process. The candidates also gave their opinions on some aspects of the CET-SET in how to reduce test anxiety in the test. Suggestions are offered to the candidates on how to reduce test anxiety both in the oral test and in the language learning. These suggestions will be of some value to both the improvement of the CET-SET and the current collegeEnglish teaching and learning.