时间：2022-10-12 07:02:45
Abstract. Motivation and anxiety are two main affective factors. The author adopts both quantitative and qualitative methods to probe into the exact relationship between English learning motivation and English classroom anxiety among 189 Chinese third-year English majors in Tianjin Binhai School of Foreign Affairs (an independent college in China). Through analysis in detail, the author has gained important implications for the practical classroom teaching. The generalization on the insufficient aspects of the present study and the orientation of concerning research in the future are also put forward.
Key words: English learning motivation; classroom anxiety; relationship; English majors; an independent college
1. Introduction
As English continues to spread globally, teachers at home and abroad endeavor to enhance the quality of learners’ learning. Language learning and using are basically interactive activities that rely on varying types of relationships with others and with the culture as a whole. The second language acquisition process is strongly influenced by individual learners’ personality traits. The learner-intrinsic factors will have a basically positive or negative influence (Arnold, 1999). Oxford and Ehrman (1993) suggest that identification and comprehension of significant individual differences on inner affective factors in their students are essential, if teachers of a foreign language are to provide the most effective instruction. It is self-evident that much research on motivation and anxiety has respectively yielded rich results. Additionally, most correlation studies have been conducted in the light of psychological education in the field of sports participants training, but few studies draw special attention to the Chinese English majors from the perspective of English learning motivation and classroom anxiety as well as their exact correlation study. More importantly, so far there is no accredited outcome to exactly reveal their relationship. Thus, taking these into favorable consideration, the author is going to further make an insightful investigation on them.
2. Related studies on motivation and anxiety
The researchers abroad have conducted some related studies. Gjesme (1980) conducts a research on the relations between the achievement motives, the future time orientation (FTO), the level of ability, sex of students, perceived intrinsic instrumentality (PiI) and test anxiety among 507 pupils in elementary school. In addition, Hancock (2001) investigates the interactive effects of learner characteristic, test anxiety, the classroom variable and threat of evaluation on the achievement and motivation of 61 postsecondary students assigned randomly to high-or-low-evaluative threat conditions. Besides, Wolf and Smith (1995) investigate the relationship of test consequence, motivation, anxiety and performance among undergraduates majoring in psychology and taking a child development course.
So far there is no strong consensus that has been reached the outcome to exactly reveal their relationship, in particular, among the Chinese English majors of the independent school. Thus, the author is going to make an insightful investigation on them.
3. Methodology
The subjects of this study total 189 third-year English majors including 23 male and 166 female students. The questionnaires were distributed to the English majors in Tianjin Bin Hai School of Foreign Affairs in May, 2008. Among them, five questionnaires with incomplete items or neglected items are viewed as invalid ones. All the participants have experienced college English learning for three years and have been learning English for at least eight years. Consequently, their English leaning motivation and classroom anxiety have accessed to a comparatively fixed state, which will ensure the measurement much more reliable. Based on the quantitative and qualitative methods, the current study is going to explore 1. What are the major types of English learning motivation among the third-year English majors? 2. Are there any relations between the students’ English learning motivation and their classroom anxiety? 3. If yes, (1) to what extent, does English learning motivation correlate with classroom anxiety in general? (2) to what extent, does the English learning sub-motivation correlate with classroom anxiety respectively?
The instruments used in this study for data collection included two sets of questionnaires: Questionnaire on Chinese college students’ English Learning Motivation designed by Gao and other scholars and Questionnaire on Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (FLCAS) by Horwitz and other scholars. Besides, interview was adopted to gain some information from the students.
4. Analysis
4.1 Interpretations for the research findings
The major types of English learning motivation among the third-year English majors comprise such motivation as intrinsic interest, immediate achievement, social responsibility and individual development, which are held by more than half of the total subjects. The results show that negative correlation between English learning motivation and classroom anxiety in general. The correlation is negative but weak, which can be well interpreted in light of the correlation between the English learning sub-motivation and classroom anxiety. From the previous part, it is clear that there is positive correlation between motivation of immediate achievement and classroom anxiety; there is positive correlation between motivation of learning situation and classroom anxiety. What calls for attention is that these two positive correlation, to some extent, affects the correlation between English learning motivation and classroom anxiety in general. Naturally, the correlation, on the whole, is comparatively weaker. In addition, the subjects, as English majors, have accustomed themselves to the English learning environment. Thus, it is understandable that most of them hold a lower degree of anxiety. Among the results, it is found that negative correlation exists between motivation of intrinsic interest, social responsibility, individual development, information medium and classroom anxiety. The moderately negative correlation (the highest one in the current study) means that the more motivation of intrinsic interest the subjects possess, the less their anxiety would be. As English majors, most of the students own such kind of motivation, which is actually conducive to their English learning and greatly overshadow the degree of their classroom anxiety. The positive correlation between motivation of immediate achievement, learning situation and anxiety indicates (1) the students have high requirement of learning situation, once the environment changes into the one that they do not adapt to, they will be anxious about their English learning. (2) With higher motivation of immediate achievement, the students will be naturally in a comparatively higher state of test anxiety which is also a kind of classroom anxiety. Besides, no significant correlation exists between motivation of going abroad and classroom anxiety. That is to say a majority of students learn English with no aim of going aboard.
4.2 Implications for practice
According to the results, it can be known that negative correlation exists between English learning motivation and classroom anxiety in general. Though the correlation is weak, the researcher furthers to investigate correlation between the sub-motivation and classroom anxiety.
Firstly, negative correlation (r=-.509** the highest one in current study) exists between motivation of intrinsic interest and classroom anxiety. It thresholds a light on the teachers so that they should assist the students to be highly motivated and to greatly overshadow the degree of anxiety. Thus, the teacher will be assumed more responsibilities as catalyst, consultant, guide, and model (Richard et al., 2000) in the classroom teaching. For instance, introducing some information concerning foreign culture or providing some interesting things happened in the foreign countries to provoke the interest of the students. As Student A mentions, “I like my first-year intensive reading course. The teacher spurred me to be interested English learning quickly. You know, combining with the content in the text, he also told us his experience in the foreign counties.”
Secondly, the results show that there is negative correlation between motivation of individual development and classroom anxiety (r=-.261**) at the significant level of .000. As a matter of fact, 89.7% of the subjects possess the individual development motivation, according to the descriptives. Sharing stronger motivation of individual development is comprehensible against the backdrop of the tight job market in China. In the view of such situation, the concerning decision-makers should take effective measures to ameliorate the current syllabus for the third-year English majors. For example, more pragmatic courses should be added to current courses as the main courses rather than selective ones such as: business English, financial English. As Student B says, “…I prefer to the courses like international trade and financial English, because they are very practical.” Besides, more opportunities of social practice should be provided to tap the potentials of the students in using the knowledge they have learned. Thirdly, the results also reveal that there is positive correlation between motivation of learning situation and classroom anxiety (r=.206**) at the significant level of .005. From what has been discussed, it can be found that most of subjects are sensitive to their learning situation including the teaching styles, the teaching materials and the English learning environment. Thus, greater challenges are posed for the teacher. The teacher should be clear about the need of students on the basis of constant improvement of his or her own personal quality. More interactions should be formed in the process of classroom teaching by taking such factors into account as: the degree of control learners have over the content of learning, the degree to which learners influence the learning of others, the degree of teacher influence over learning and the degree to which the teacher determines the content of learning (Richard et al., 2000). By doing this, the degree of anxiety would be greatly reduced. As Student A states, “If we just focus on the text, no communications with the teacher will lead to a passive learning habit. I’d like to interact with the teacher so that an active classroom atmosphere can be developed. Naturally, we don’t feel anxiety.” Thus, it can be noticed that communicative language teaching undoubtedly should be adopted in the classroom teaching to lower the students’ classroom anxiety especially test anxiety.
As a consequence, the teacher should give more attention to the students’ different characteristics. As for the students, greater efforts should be made to achieve their goal of English learning. Proper degree of anxiety for them would be more helpful to them. As Ellis (1994) points out that “facilitating anxiety motivates learners to ‘fight’ the new learning task, promoting them to make extra efforts to overcome their feelings of anxiety.”
5. Recommendations for future research
The results of the current study have provoked some constructive suggestions for further research as follows: (1) In terms of subjects, only 189 students from Tianjin Binhai School of Foreign Affairs are involved. Meaningfully, the results on such small sample are far from representing that of all the English majors around China. Thus, researchers should enlarge the sample size in the future research. (2) The current research is conducted to mainly examine the relationship between English learning motivation and classroom anxiety. However, motivation and anxiety are just two affective aspects in the light of English learning. Besides, more factors affecting English learning are needed to explore deeply in the further research such as autonomy, strategy, personality and attitude, self-efficacy. (3) Two questionnaires (Motivation questionnaire and FLCAS questionnaire) adopted in the present study are both authoritative and employed by many researchers, but more appropriate instruments are still needed to test English learning motivation and classroom anxiety among the Chinese English majors. The present study investigates the exact relationship between English learning motivation and classroom anxiety among Chinese third-year English majors. It focuses on the in-depth study on the correlation between English learning sub-motivation and classroom anxiety, which will serve as a reference for the solution to practical teaching and learning problems in a similar context. The future research is also indispensable to contributing to the field of English education in China.
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