A Study Of The Relationship Among L2 Motivational Self System,Self-efficacy And Foreign Language Anxiety Of Junior High School Students

In the second language acquisition research,the second language motivational self system(L2MSS)has been attracting much attention.Junior high school period is a key stage in students’ academic career.Their academic difficulty and pressure gradually increase.Accordingly,students also experience the influence of foreign language anxiety and other emotions.Self-efficacy,as a measure of students’ learning ability and confidence,also plays an important role in the relationship between students’ motivation and anxiety.According to the existing studies,the research subjects are mostly college students,with few studies on domestic middle school students.In addition,there are relatively few studies on the relationship between students’ second language learning motivation and emotion.Therefore,this study attempts to supplement data for relevant research areas and provide practical suggestions for foreign language teaching by exploring the relationship among L2MSS,self-efficacy and foreign language anxiety in Chinese junior high school students.The research questions of this study are as follows:(1)What is the profile of junior high school students’ L2MSS?(2)What is the profile of junior high school students’ foreign language anxiety?(3)What is the profile of junior high school students’ self-efficacy?(4)What are the correlations among L2MSS,self-efficacy and foreign language anxiety?This study used a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to study these four questions.156 junior high school students participated in this study.The results show that,first,the L2MSS of junior high school students are mostly at the middle to high level.Second,junior middle school students in the middle level of language anxiety accounted for the most proportion,followed by high anxiety,and low anxiety or no anxiety accounted for the lowest proportion.Third,self-efficacy of junior high school English learners is mostly at a medium to high level.Fourth,there is a significant negative relationship between L2MSS and foreign language anxiety;a significant positive relationship between L2MSS and self-efficacy,and a significant negative relationship between foreign language anxiety and self-efficacy.And the mediating effect of foreign language anxiety in the relationship between L2MSS and self-efficacy is confirmed.Based on the above findings,this study puts forward some implications for teachers,schools and students so as to foster students’ improvement of L2MSS and self-efficacy,alleviate their foreign language anxiety,and promote L2 learning.