EFL Listening Anxiety: A Study Of Non-English Major College Students At Guizhou University

For some time, anxiety, one of the learners' affective factors, has attracted the attention of many researchers. However, most studies focused on general anxiety, neglecting the dimensions of language-skill-specific anxieties. This study attempted to investigate empirically and systematically the EFL listening anxiety among non-English major college students at Guizhou University by utilizing both the quantitative and qualitative research methods. The quantitative component of the study centered on the existence of EFL listening anxiety and the relationship between EFL listening anxiety and four major variables: general EFL learning anxiety, listening proficiency, listening strategies and learner background factors, while the qualitative study further explored the sources of EFL listening anxiety.The participants selected for this study were 184 sophomores with a major in social sciences. The subjects' listening anxiety was measured by LAS. Other instruments used were the FLCAS*, LSS and three English scores: the final English course grade, the listening score of the final examination, and the score of the listening comprehension test. As for the qualitative study, ten students were interviewed.The quantitative research finds that the non-English major college students at Guizhou University do experience a moderate level of EFL listening anxiety. The results indicate that EFL listening anxiety is a phenomenon related to, but distinguishable from general EFL learning anxiety. The EFL listening anxiety is also found to have a significant negative relationship with listening proficiency, whereas this anxiety can be reduced by the utilization of listening strategies. Besides, EFL listening anxiety demonstrates significant relationship with two self-perceived attributes: self-perceived listening proficiency and self-perceived listening anxiety level, but no significant relationship with the average time spent on English listening per day and the degree of motivation to master listening skill. What's more, there are...