A Study On Grade Nine Students’ English Learning Anxiety And Their Use Of Self-regulation Strategies

English is a compulsory course for Junior High School students and one of the required subjects in the senior high school entrance examinations.However,students have shown a lot of anxiety when learning it.English learning anxiety is acknowledged to be an extremely influential emotional factor that affects learners’ English learning effectiveness.Scholars both at home and abroad have done much research on this topic,and the results are fruitful,but there is less on how learners,especially for the ninth graders,use self-regulation strategies to alleviate their English learning anxiety.Therefore,the objective of the present study is to explore the level of ninth-grade students’ English Learning Anxiety and their use of self-regulation strategies.The research questions of this study are as follows:1.What is the overall situation of ninth graders’ anxiety in the English classroom? Are there any differences in learners’ English Learning Anxiety by gender?2.What are the main types of self-regulation strategies used by ninth graders in their English language learning? Are there any differences between male and female students in their use of self-regulation strategies?3.How do students with different anxiety levels in English language learning differ in their use of self-regulation strategies?A quantitative research method was used to investigate 350 ninth-grade students in a junior high school in Zhongshan City,Guangdong Province.Two 5-Likert scales were employed: Foreign Language C lassroom Anxiety Scale and Foreign Language Learning Anxiety Self-regulation Scale.All valid data were statistically and analytically analyzed through SPSS21,which yielded five main results.1.N inth graders were at a moderate level of English Learning Anxiety.Among the three dimensions of anxiety,they scored the highest on test anxiety,followed by communicative anxiety and fear of negative evaluation.2.There were significant differences between male and female students in English Learning Anxiety.In general,male students were more likely to have English learning anxiety than female students.3.Ninth graders used self-regulation strategies to alleviate English learning anxiety at a medium level.Among the six dimensions of strategy,students used cognitive strategy most frequently,and the least used was avoidance strategy.4.Except for the metacognitive(appraisal)strategy,there were significant differences in the use of self-regulation strategies among learners of different genders.5.There were significant differences among stude nts in the high-,medium-,and low-anxiety groups in self-regulation strategies.In general,the frequency of use of self-regulation strategies decreased with increased anxiety levels.On the basis of previous studies,this study is carried out to explore the use of English learning anxiety and self-regulation strategies among ninth-grade students from the learners’ perspectives,which enlarges the research participants and offers empirical research data for the field.At the same time,this study provides a number of suggestions for English teachers in English teaching.First,teachers ought to be sensitive to the phenomenon of anxiety exhibited by students in English classes and should strive to create a relaxed and pleasant classroom environment.Second,in order to alleviate students’ English learning anxiety,teachers are expected to consciously develop students’ use of positive self-regulation strategies in the teaching process,especially social and affective strategies.Third,teachers also need to pa y attention to students’ gender differences.