The Effectiveness Of Cooperative Learning On Reducing Listening Anxiety

Empirical studies about how to reduce anxiety on learning foreign language have been become a focus in recent years. However, most of these studies were merely connected with productive language skills such as writing and speaking, neglecting receptive skills especially listening skill. Meanwhile, other researches have shown that the application of cooperative learning on English listening class can significantly improve students’ listening competence, enhance their confidence on listening and speaking, thus stimulate their interests in studying English.For all these reasons, this study investigates 84 non-English majors in HulunBuir College by filling the listening anxiety questionnaire. And on the basis of that, these students have been divided into two groups(experimental group and control group) to take part in a teaching experiment of cooperative learning which lasts for one semester. The contrastive analysis of study results before and after the experiment will be used to judge the effectiveness of cooperative learning to reduce students’ listening anxiety on foreign language.Main results of this study are as follows: first, 84 students are generally experiencing listening anxiety, and most of them are being influenced by a high degree of anxiety; second, in the interview students with high degree of anxiety admitted that they had felt anxious while listening English; thirdly, cooperative learning can help students to improve their self-confidence, to enhance their communicative competence, and to provide more opportunities for interaction between students and students as well as teachers and students; finally, cooperative learning can not only reduce non-English majors’ listening anxiety, but also provide enlightenment about listening class for non-English majors’ teachers.