A Research On English Teachers’ Anxiety In Compulsory Education In A Multimedia Context

It was in1950s that the specific study on teacher anxiety widely aroused people’s concern. Researchers found that the phenomenon of teacher anxiety had existed universally, which would be an obstacle to English teaching efficiency and be harmful to teachers’health (Hicks,1933; National Education Association,1938,1951,1967; Powell&Ferraro,1960; Singh,1972). Stepping into the21st century, computer-based multimedia instruction has been becoming a tendency in English teaching with the development of the information technology. The Ministry of Education laid much emphasis on the multimedia instruction in primary schools, secondary schools as well as higher educational institutions, and published a series of policy documents. Owing to the advancement of teachers’requirements in the multimedia context, the research of multimedia anxiety has been put under the spotlight. However, researchers paid much attention to the learning anxiety of learners in a multimedia context while neglecting that of teachers, especially those in primary and secondary schools. Meanwhile, with the analysis of current English teaching in compulsory education, there are a number of problems:outdated belief of teachers; teachers’shortage of technical skills; out-of-date multimedia devices in many schools. These problems would seriously interfere in language teaching. Thus, the issue of teacher anxiety in a multimedia context should be attached heavier weight by researchers.The theory of triadic reciprocality, proposed by Albert Bandura, is the theoretical framework of this research. With appraisal tools of questionnaires and semi-structural interview, this thesis investigates the teacher anxiety in a multimedia context with the subjects of99primary and middle school English teachers, as well as2school administrators for interviews. This research is to survey the status quo of primary and middle school English teacher anxiety in a multimedia context and the sources of teacher anxiety, and try to find the access to the reduction of teacher anxiety. The software of SPSS17.0was used to analyze the data of questionnaires while the method of content analysis was also used to analyze the content of interviews.It can be indicated from results that most primary and middle school English teachers have different levels of anxiety. With the method of factor analysis, teacher anxiety in a multimedia context consists of4anxiety factors which are role anxiety, preparation anxiety, operation anxiety and evaluation anxiety. Among them, teachers burden preparation anxiety most while the level of operation anxiety is the lowest. This thesis found out that in a multimedia context, Primary and middle school English teacher anxiety had shifted from operation anxiety to role anxiety, preparation anxiety and evaluation anxiety; and teachers desired flexible ways of learning; and the conditions of multimedia context were necessary for optimization.This research has provided practical suggestions for primary and middle school teachers to help them deal with their anxiety in a multimedia context. Additionally, this research has provided some significant implications for school administrators and teacher education researchers.