An Investigation Into Junior High School Students' English Test Anxiety

Test anxiety is viewed as a complicated psychological state. In such a test-oriented society, it is pervasive, especially among the school-aged population. In China, a lot of research has been done on it. However, English test anxiety, as a specific test anxiety, has drawn little attention. There is little research into English test anxiety, especially targeted at junior high school students.The present study is designed via a quantitative approach. It firstly investigates the current state of English test anxiety in a junior high school in Suzhou, and the general state in different grades. Then, it explores the relationship between English test anxiety and English test performance. Finally, it investigates the sources of junior high school students'English test anxiety.Through convenience sampling, 239 junior high school students of three grades from six intact classes are selected as the participants. Due to five invalid questionnaires, the actual number of participants in this study is 234. The study uses a modified Chinese version of Test Anxiety Scale (TAS) to investigate the junior high school students'English test anxiety. Zheng's questionnaire is used to investigate the sources of English test anxiety. All the quantitative data from the questionnaires and participants'mid-tern English test scores are processed with SPSS12.0 through descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation analysis.The results show that the junior high school students experience a moderate level of English test anxiety in general. Students in Grade 2 experience a little lower English test anxiety than students in Grade 1 and Grade 3. However, the frequency of high level of test anxiety in Grade 2 is a little higher than in Grade 1 and Grade 3. Through comparison, Grade 1 and Grade 3 are almost on an equal level of English test anxiety. Furthermore, the results suggest that English test anxiety is significantly negatively correlated with English test performance. Junior high school students'English test anxiety is mainly attributed to fear of others'negative evaluation, especially their parents'and teachers'negative evaluation and fear of inadequate preparation for the English test.