A Study on three categories of college students’ FLA

Bi+Ran

【Abstract】The paper is concerned with an empirical study on three categories of college students FLA. The aim is to enhance the efficiency of college English teaching and help students to improve English level.

【Key words】Study； three categories of FLA； college students

1.Three categories of FLA

Horwitz et al. （1986） presents the three major components of FLA ： communication apprehension， test anxiety， and fear of negative evaluation. Communication apprehension is fear occurring during communication. Test anxiety is the tendency to view with alarm the consequences of inadequate performance in an evaluative situation. Fear of negative evaluation is defined as apprehension about others' evaluations， distress over their negative evaluations， and the expectation that others would evaluate one negatively

2. Methodology

2.1 Research questions

1） What are current situations of three categories of college students FLA？ 2） What implications can be drawn for college English teaching and learning？

2.2 research subjects

There are 349 students who are randomly chosen in Liaoning University of Technology. However， 24 of them did not answer the questions correctly or completely， so their scores were not valid. Therefore， the subjects for the study are 325 college students.

2.3 instruments

The present research used different instruments to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. The main instruments consist of two parts： questionnaires and interviews. Horwitzs foreign language classroom anxiety scale （FLCAS） is adopted

3. Data analysis and discussions

3.1 Data analysis

Table1 shows the descriptive statistics of the three categories of foreign language anxiety. It's obvious that level of communication apprehension ranks first （M=3.518， SD=1.134）， followed by test anxiety （M=3.456， SD=0.965） and general anxiety （M=2.996，SD=1.025）， while the lowest is fear of negative social evaluation （M=3.518， SD=1.221）. These four figures indicate that the degree of subjects' communication apprehension is higher than test anxiety and general anxiety. The subjects nearly have no fear of negative social evaluation.

3.2 Discussion on current situation of the three categories of FLA

According to descriptive statistics in Table2， the following discussion is put forward to derive result and reason.

Firstly， communication anxiety is at higher level （Mean=3.518， SD=1.134）. In other words， college students fear to communicate in English， especially when speaking to foreigners or when asked to express themselves in English class. On one hand， college students have been adults， so they have mature thoughts and ideas while their foreign-language vocabulary is not mature enough to express themselves or understand others. The inability either to express themselves or to understand another person leads to their communication frustration and apprehension. Especially， when the subjects do some unprepared oral work or speak in front of others， they have to take high risk of self-exposure， which seems to be source of anxiety. On the other hand， they lack confidence. Most of college students are academically low-leveled， especially poor foundations for English grammar， vocabulary and lack the basic expressing skills about English， thus the students are not willing to participate in the communication activity. A number of students feel anxious when asked to speak before the classmates.

Secondly， mean score of test anxiety is 3.456， which indicates the university are certain fearful or uneasy about the test. Worrying too much about result or consequence of the test can be the main reason for test anxiety. Failing their finals， they will be less likely to gain their graduation certificate. Therefore， the students must be under heavy pressure from passing the final exam or CET4. Another reason for the test anxiety is likely to be college lifes freedom and leisure. Most of the students dont concentrate on their studies during the whole term until the last-minute of the test. As a Chinese proverb goes： “That never burn incense when all is well but clasp the Buddhas feet when in distress do nothing until the last minute.” The fact above is known through interviewing.