English Classroom Anxiety Among High School Students In Grade Three And Its Relationship With English Learning Strategies And Achievement

Learning strategies and English classroom anxiety, the two important learner factors in English learning have received increasing interest among researchers in recent years. Many researches find that there is the tendency that English classroom anxiety has a negative effect on English learning whereas English learning strategies have positive effects on English learning if properly used. It is also found that foreign language anxiety may not be alleviated simply through certain teaching methodologies and the change of teachers'beliefs. Some research findings suggest that effective learning strategies may help reduce English classroom anxiety. Han Wenli (2003) finds that the more frequently the students use the learning strategies, the less anxious they feel. However, most of the previous studies are about college students. Then what about the high school students? Are they experiencing English classroom anxiety? What's its relationship with English achievement and English learning strategies? These are what the present study is concerned with.The focus of the present study is on the English classroom anxiety of high school students, the relationships between English classroom anxiety and English achievement and English learning strategies and on the effect of English learning strategies of reducing English classroom anxiety. Five hundred and fifty one senior grade three high school students in Lianyungang city, Jiangsu province took part in the study as subjects. The English classroom anxiety scale (a modified scale of Horwitz et al's, (1986) Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale) and the Strategies for English Learning (a modified scale of Oxford's (1990) SILL) and English achievement were used. Follow-up interviews were carried out after the quantitative study.Statistical analysis of the data yields the following findings:1) Most of the high school students in grade three experience English classroom anxiety. The sources of their anxiety are mainly from the classroom activities such as the teacher's questions, unprepared oral work, tests etc and personal factors, for instance, low self-concept (low self-esteem and low competitiveness), strong dependence on teachers etc.2) English classroom anxiety has no other gender differences except for the attitude toward English class: girls have more positive attitude to English class than boys. It affects girls more in English learning.