A Study On Correlation Between Senior High School Students' Anxiety For National Matriculation English Test (NMET) And English Learning Motivation

In today's China,the National College Entrance Examination(NCEE)is considered to be the most important examination in one's life because it can,to a large extent,determine every senior high school student' fate in the future.Among all the subjects of the examination,the National Matriculation English Test(NMET)is especially important as its total point is 150 points,which accounts for 20% of the total one of the NCEE.So,every student takes the test into account very much and studies English hard for it.So,it is inevitable that the anxiety for the NMET can be caused by them in the course of preparing for such an important test.Furthermore,there is also individual difference among them in English learning motivation.In order to explore the correlation between the anxiety caused by NMET and senior high school students' English learning motivations,the study in the thesis is adopted within the theoretical frameworks of test anxiety of E.Horwitz and D.Young,two American psychologists,as well as the Self-Determination Theory(SDT)of Deci and Ryan,also two American psychologists,and answers three research questions as follows:1)Is there difference among groups of senior high school studentswith different English academic achievements in the level of the anxiety for the NMET?2)Is there difference among groups of senior high school students with different English academic achievements in English learning motivations under the pressure of the NMET?3)What is the correlation between senior high school students' anxiety for the NMET and English learning motivation?The subjects of the study are 115 senior high school students from Grade 2 of Hohhot No.2 High School.They are divided into three groups according to their scores in the English test of the latest time,namely high achievers(120-150 points),middle achievers(90-119 points)and low achievers(below 90 points).The research methods,questionnaire survey and interview,are adopted in the study.So,the main tools for the study are two questionnaires and an interview.All those 115 students are required to fill in two questionnaires about the anxiety for NMET and English learning motivation respectively,and then six ones among them are invited to be interviewed.Quantitative and qualitative analysis are adopted in the data analysis.The data for quantitative analysis are collected from two questionnaires while the one for qualitative analysis are transcribed from the words of the students interviewed.The results of the study show: 1)There is difference among groups of those students in the level of the anxiety for NMET within the NCEE system.Thedifference is that the anxiety has adverse correlation with English academic achievement;2)There is no difference among groups of those students in English learning motivation under the pressure of the NMET.All of them have the same high levels of identified regulation,which can't be influenced by English academic achievements;3)There is no correlation between senior high school students' anxiety for the NMET and English learning motivation.The main reason can be that all the students surveyed have high levels of the identifications for two English studying goals,namely having a good grade in the NMET and gaining admission to an ideal university,while such identification belongs to the identified regulation of extrinsic motivation in SDT.According to the theory,it is more autonomous extrinsic motivation and is stable during a period of time while not being able to be influenced by any factors including test anxiety.So,directed by such an English studying goal as the NMET,senior high students can have stable English learning motivations within three-year English study in senior high school while the motivation can't be influenced by anxiety for NMET.Therefore,the conclusion is made in the study of the thesis that there is no correlation between senior high school students' anxiety for NMET and English learning motivation.The result of the study provides a new perspective to study the correlation between anxiety and motivation.Most of the previous studiesprove that there is adverse correlation between them.But,the results of the studies for the correlation between test anxiety and second/foreign language learning motivation can't be so.This is because test itself is a task,which can make students form high levels of identified regulation.Such a motivation can't be influenced by test anxiety because it is directed by task or goal,which also explores the feature of the SDT-based second/foreign language learning motivation within the task-based framework,namely the convergence of the motivation within such a framework,which can be shown in such fact that second/foreign language learners have high levels of identified regulation.Therefore,English teachers in senior high schools should make efforts for stimulating students' intrinsic English learning motivations,which can reduce their levels of the anxiety for NMET.The result of the study can become the reference for studying the correlation between the anxiety for other Chinese English tests and English learning motivation.Furthermore,it can also become the reference for studying the correlation between other types of second/foreign language learning anxiety and second/foreign language learning motivation.