Task Design And English Listening And Speaking Anxiety

In China,high school students generally experience anxiety when listening to and speaking English.To generalize,the main reason is that they lack confidence in English listening and speaking because of the inadequacy of listening practice in previous education,and their inability of expressing opinions orally in English.The focus of the study is on how to design tasks for listening and speaking class to reduce high school students' listening and speaking anxiety.The theoretical rationales behind task design are task-based language teaching(TBLT)and functional-notional(F-N)approach.The present study attempts to examine the effect of the task design based on TBLT and F-N approach on alleviating high school students' listening and speaking anxiety.Since the year 2016,the high school where the researcher teaches English has subsumed English listening and speaking class into the curriculum in response to the revolution in college entrance exam.TBLT and F-N approach are adopted in the study.The participants of the study are 100 high school students in Shanghai.Their level of listening and speaking anxiety is measured before and after the implementation of the task design.The study lasts one academic year.The instruments include foreign language listening anxiety scale(FLLSA),foreign language speaking anxiety scale(FLSAS),questionnaires and an interview.Both quantitative and qualitative data are analyzed.Results are as follows: Firstly,the high mean scores of FLLAS and FLSAS verify that the high school students suffer from high-level listening and speaking anxiety.Students experience less anxiety in group work and pair work.Secondly,the study elaborates on how to design tasks and proposes that group-based tasks,role-play and dialogues,and authentic listening tasks can allay students' listening and speaking anxiety.Thirdly,after the implementation of the task design,the dramatic decrease in students' mean scores in FLLAS and FLSAS demonstrates the beneficial effect of the task design on allaying students' listening and speaking anxiety.Based on the present results,pedagogical implications and suggestions are offered.