A Study Of The Relationship Among Tolerance Of Ambiguity, Anxiety And English Reading Achievements Of Non-English Majors

Tolerance of ambiguity and English reading anxiety belongs to cognitive and affective field respectively. English learning is a process in which various kinds of ambiguities constantly emerge. When encountered with ambiguities, learners may easily get confused and lead to high anxiety level, resulting in poor performances in English learning. From the perspective of humanistic psychology introduced by Rogers in 1970s, the combination of cognitive factors and affective factors is conductive to foreign language learning. This thesis is designed to explore the relationship among tolerance of ambiguity, English reading anxiety and English reading achievements. The author focuses her attention on this field, because reading accounts for a large proportion in foreign language learning and scholars have attached much importance to cognitive and affective factors’ effects on reading.This thesis aims to analyze and discuss four research questions. (1) What is the status quo of non-English majors’tolerance of ambiguity level and English reading anxiety level? (2) What is the relationship between tolerance of ambiguity and English reading achievements for non-English majors? (3) What is the relationship between tolerance of ambiguity and English reading anxiety for non-English majors? (4) What is the relationship between English reading anxiety and English reading achievements for non-English majors?In order to answer these four proposed questions, the research targets at 77 non-English majors in Wuhan Communication and Technical College. Second Language Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale designed by Ely (1995), Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale designed by Saito. et. al. (1999), a reading comprehension test and an interview are selected as the research instruments. SPSS version 13.0 is employed to make quantitative analysis. Through descriptive analysis, the first research question is answered. Through Pearson correlation analysis, the research investigates the second, the third and the fourth research question. Through interview, the research further explores the state quo of tolerance of ambiguity, English reading anxiety and subjects’attitudes toward English reading.The results are presented as follows:(1) Non-English majors’ tolerance of ambiguity is at a low level and non-English majors’ English reading anxiety level is moderate. (2) The subjects’ tolerance of ambiguity and English reading achievements have no correlation. The correlation coefficient (r=-.004) is far less than 0.2, which is out of the author’s expectation. (3) The subjects’ tolerance of ambiguity is significantly negatively correlated with English reading anxiety. (4) The subjects’ English reading anxiety is negatively correlated with English reading achievements. It is also found that moderate level of English reading anxiety is favorable in English study. Too much anxiety or too low anxiety will hamper students’ language acquisition. (5) Through interview, the author further investigates the current state of subjects’ tolerance of ambiguity, English reading anxiety and tries to find out some causal factors for the results.Finally, based on the results of this study and the author’s practical teaching experience, some implications and suggestions have been proposed for College English learning and teaching in technical colleges.