Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
Language learning, which is a very complicated process, is affected by a variety offactors. Traditionally, cognitive factors have been most commonly recognized as the keyelement to success in the language learning, whereas emotional factors have beenneglected for a long period of time. In recent years, however，with the advancement ofhumanistic psychology and related disciplines, more and more researchers have becomeaware of the significance of affective variables in the area of language acquisition.Among the many emotional factors, anxiety is commonly regarded as one of the keypsychological factors related to success in language learning. And since the 1970s, anincreasing number of instructors and researchers have devoted themselves to theinvestigation of language anxiety.Though some researchers hold that language anxiety, as an affective factor，isinsignificant in second or foreign language learning process (Young, 1990)，it has beentestified in the past decades by numerous studies that anxiety is a pervasive andinfluential force in second or foreign language learning context (Cheng, Horwitz &Schaller, 1999; Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1986; Maclntyre & Gardner，1989; Saito,Horwitz & Garza, 1999). A great quantity of studies have further testified that languageanxiety are generally negatively related to language achievements (Aida，1994;Ganschow & Sparks，1996; Horwitz, 1986; Trylong, 1987; Dewaele, Petrides & Furham，2008; Williams & Andrade, 2008) and that by alleviating foreign language learners'anxiety, their language performance could be generally improved (Maclntyre, 1995;Maclntyre & Gardner, 1989，1994),
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1.2 Purpose of the Study
Given the urgency of improving English listening proficiency and the inadequaciesof language-skill-specific anxiety investigation, this thesis attempts to conduct anempirical study of English listening anxiety among Chinese non-English major collegestudents. Generally, there are mainly three major purposes of the study. The first one is toinvestigate whether Chinese non-English major college students experience Englishlistening anxiety and what the possible sources of their anxiety would be. The second isto study the relationships between language learners' level of English listening anxiety,listening proficiency and the use of foreign language listening strategies. Thirdly, thestudy intends to probe into the general difference between German major students andnon-language major students with regard to English listening anxiety levels and listeningstrategies. It is expected that the findings of the present study would provide some usefulinformation and suggestions for foreign language teaching and learning, especiallyEnglish listening teaching and learning.
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Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 Studies of Foreign Language Anxiety
Anxiety, as a complicated phenomenon, has always been arousing widedisagreement about its definition and criteria. Spielberger (1972) defined anxiety as anunpleasant emotional state or condition which is characterized by subjective feelings oftension, apprehension, and worry. Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) referred to anxietyas a "subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated withan arousal of the autonomic nervous system" (Horwitz et al, 1986: 125). May held that"anxiety is the apprehension cued off by a threat or some value that the inpidual holdsessential to his existence as a personality” (May, 1996: 205). Arnold (2000:8) believedthat anxiety was quite possibly the affective factor that most pervasively obstructed thelearning process. Chinese researchers Shen and Zhu (1991) believed that anxiety was areaction similar to worry or a reactive inclination to potential threat against one'sself-esteem.Then what is language anxiety? Horwitz et al. (1986: 128) conceptualized languageanxiety as “a distinct complex of self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings and behaviors relatedto classroom language learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learningprocess.”
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2.2 Studies of Foreign Language Listening Anxiety
2.2,1 Definition of Foreign Language Listening Anxiety
Since the 1970s, researchers have begun to recognize listening anxiety as anindependent important construct distinct from general anxiety. Wheeless (1975，cited inKim, 2000) described listening anxiety as receiver apprehension, that is, the fear ofmisinterpreting, inadequately processing and/or not being able to adjust psychologicallyto messages sent by others. Later, Preiss, Wheeless and Allen (1990, cited in Kim, 2000)postulated that listening anxiety included three interrelated antecedents; primary anxiety,secondary anxiety and information processing anxiety. The primary anxiety is linked to asignificant fear of encountering new information. The secondary anxiety refers to thefear of information process or psychologically adjusting to messages. Lastly，theinformation processing anxiety indicates that listeners with incomplete schemata orinsufficient strategic processing knowledge may become anxious due to a fear ofmisinterpreting or inadequately processing messages conveyed to them.The explanations above are derived from studies on first language acquisition. Inthe case of listening anxiety in the foreign language context, listeners face the dual tasksof encoding and decoding messages in the target language, thus the influence of anxietywould be more significant. Moreover, the situation would be more unfavorable if thelisteners have insufficient vocabulary, limited grammatical knowledge and unfamiliarcultural background related to the target language.
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Chapter Three Methodology..........25
3.1Research Questions..........25
3.2Participants of the Study..........25
3.3Instruments..........27
3.4Pilot Study and Reliability Analysis..........31
3.5Data Collection..........32
3.6Data Analysis..........34
Chapter Four Results and Discussion..........35
4.1Subjects" ELAS Scores..........35
4.2Correlation between ELAS Scores and ELSS Scores..........38
4.3Correlation between ELAS Scores and Listening Test Scores..........40
4.4Difference between German Majors and Non-German Majors..........43
4.5Correlation between Gender and Other Variables..........46
4.6Potential Sources and Relevant Solutions ..........49
Chapter Five Implications and Conclusion..........55
5.1Major Findings of the Research..........55
5.2Pedagogical Implications..........57
5.3Limitations of the Study..........60
5.4Suggestions for Further Research..........61
Chapter Four Results and Discussion
4.1 Subjects' ELAS Scores
The actual ELAS score for each participant was acquired by summing up theparticipants' ratings for the 36 items. Since the ELAS consisted of 36 items and the scoreof each item ranged from 1 to 5 points, the potential score of each participant's anxietyshould theoretically range from 36 to 180 points with the mid-point being 108 points. Ascan be seen in Table 4.1，the participants of the present study experience a wide range ofEnglish listening anxiety levels, from 84 points to 151 points, with a mean value of 115.7and a standard deviation of 15.05. The mean value (115.7) is approximately 8 pointsabove the theoretical mi-point. Thus, it can be concluded that the participants of thisstudy do suffer from a certain degree of English listening anxiety and the situation varyfrom person to person.
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Conclusion
Form the analysis of Chapter Four, it could be drawn that quite a few of thenon-English major students suffer from English listening anxiety, and this is no rarephenomenon within the colleges and universities within China, as many other studieshave also suggested. Therefore, it is necessary for the educators and language teachers toshed light on this matter and work out effective and plausible measures and methods tohelp cope with students' listening anxiety as well as other aspects of language learninganxiety. To this end, we may need to take into consideration such specific measures asboosting the students' confidence, providing the students with more information aboutthe cultures and customs of the English-speaking countries, introducing to the studentslearning materials of different scopes and specialties, teaching such effective listeningstrategies, such as selective attention strategy and note-taking strategy.
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Reference (omitted)