A Study Of The Correlations Between English Learning Anxieties And Learning Strategies In Senior Middle Schools

In order to improve the efficiency of English learning and teaching in senior middle schools, many teachers and researchers have paid increasing attention to learners'affective variables, shifting from focusing on the methods the teaches teach to focusing on the methods the students learn. Of all the affective variables, anxiety is considered to be one of the most important factors that pervasively obstruct the efficiency of foreign language learning. As a result, anxiety in English learning has attracted more and more academic concerns in foreign or second language teaching.The study of English learning strategies has long been discussed by educators and linguists. But up to now, few books have specifically dealt with the relationship between English learning strategy use and English learning anxiety. Different from the previous researchers, most of whom mainly paid attention to how to get rid of the negative effects of English learning anxiety on the subjects in universities, the present study, involving two hundred and eighty six subject students from three senior middle schools in Dongying City, explores the correlations between senior middle schools students' English learning anxiety levels and their English learning strategy use and whether a lack of English learning strategies results in their English learning anxiety.The present study aimed to find out answers to the following research questions: (1).What is the present status of English learning anxiety in senior middle schools? (2).What is the present status of English learning strategy use in senior middle schools? (3).What are the correlations between English learning anxiety and English learning strategies? (4).Are English learning strategies useful in English learning? (5).What are the pedagogical implications of the present study?The author first investigated the subjects'English learning status. The majority of the students (about 72 per cent) failed the first English test. Next the author used two questionnaires to investigate the present status of students' English learning anxiety levels and their levels of English learning strategy use.Then the author analyzed the correlations between them. The results of the analysis show that most students are interfered with English learning anxiety in EFL classroom. To be more specific, the senior middle school students at the beginning stage generally have low levels of awareness of English learning strategy use and have high levels of English learning anxiety. There are significant correlations between English learning anxiety and English learning strategies. The students'high levels of English learning anxiety mainly results from a lack of English learning strategy use. A negative correlation exists between them. And there are also some exceptional phenomena in the research. Some students who have high levels of awareness of English learning strategy use have high levels of English learning anxiety. Learning anxiety is very harmful in language learning, and it may finally lead to the students' avoidance of attending English class and classroom participation, concentration failure and a great affective filter.In the following three months, the subjects made use of various strategies in their English learning. Their scores improved in the second English examination. There was a ten per cent drop in the number of the students who failed the examination. So the use of English learning strategies is helpful.Based on the results of the present study, the author puts forward some pedagogical implications. Firstly, the application of English learning strategies in English teaching should be strengthened. Secondly, effective measures should be taken to lower the students'English learning anxiety. The educators should make efforts to make the students "good language learners".