An Empirical Study On Middle School Students’ English Learning Anxiety

The English Curriculum Standard for Compulsory Education(2011)stipulates that education should “pay attention to the emotional attitudes and individual differences of language learners”(Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China,2011:20).The general high school English curriculum standard(2017)requires education to “pay attention to students’ emotion and improve chultural literacy”(Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China,2018:31).This shows that students’ emotional factors play an important role in the process of learning,thus enlightening teachers to pay attention to students’ emotions.Anxiety as an important emotional factor in students’ learning process should be paid attention to by front-line teachers.From the study of anxiety at home and abroad,although some achievements have been made,the research on middle school students can be further deepened.Based on this,200 students from one middle school in Changchun were studied,and based on Horwitz,Horwitz & Cope’s(1986)foreign language classroom anxiety scale(FLCAS),the author designs the questionnaire of middle school students’ English learning and explores the following three research questions in combination with the interview,(1)What is the status of English learning anxiety among junior middle school students?(2)What is the status of senior high school students’ English learning anxiety?(3)What are the differences between junior middle school students and senior high school students in English learning anxiety?The survey shows that,(1)The anxiety level of junior middle school students in English learning is at the upper-middle level.according to the ranking of the mean values of each dimension from high to low,the four types of anxiety intensity from strong to weak are in order: Communicative Apprehension(M=4.12,SD=1.27),Fear of Negative Evaluation(M=3.79,SD=0.59),Other Anxieties(M=3.68,SD=0.87),Test Anxiety(M=3.56,SD=0.36);(2)The English class anxiety level of senior high school students is at a high level,according to the average of each dimension from high to low ranking,the four types of anxiety intensity from strong to weak are: Test Anxiety(M=4.68,SD=1.19),Fear of Negative Evaluation(M=4.52,SD=0.18),Communication Apprehension(M=4.39,SD=1.45),Other Anxieties(M=3.92,SD=0.76);(3)The results of the independent sample T test showed that there weresignificant differences between junior middle school students and senior high school students in the overall four types of anxiety,and the anxiety of senior high school students was generally higher than that of junior middle school students.Based on the above findings,the following implications can be obtained.(1)The anxiety level of middle school students is generally moderately high,so we should adopt a variety of methods to reduce students’ anxiety in learning English.First of all,teachers should adopt humorous teaching methods;Secondly,teachers should encourage students to carry out cooperative learning;Finally,teachers should design rich classroom activities.In addiction,English teachers should adopt reasonable coping strategies according to each specific dimension of students’ anxiety about learning English.For test anxiety,teachers should guide students to use various learning strategies flexibly;For communication apprehension,teachers should carry out more cooperative learning;For fear of negative evaluation,teachers should conduct psychological counseling in time;For other anxieties,teachers should communicate with students more;(2)There are significant differences between junior middle school students and senior high school students in English learning anxiety,because senior high school students generally have higher level of English learning anxiety than junior middle school students,so senior high school English teachers should adopt corresponding strategies to reduce anxiety,whereas junior middle school English teachers cannot ignore the control of English anxiety in junior middle school students.