Abstract:The focus of the research in language teaching has shifted from teacher-centered to learner-centered classroom instructions since the 1970’s. With that shift, affective factors in foreign language learning have gained much attention. With the increasing concern and research about the affective variables in foreign language learning, anxiety has been one of the hot issues discussed by linguists in the last decades. After the 1980’s, a number of studies carried out on the relationship between anxiety and second language acquisition on which the researchers got the relatively consistent opinions. In China, the study of foreign language learning anxiety began in the 1990’s, some results have also been yielded to expound the theories of affective factors and to reconfirm the effectiveness of anxiety on the foreign language learning.
Cooperative learning gained great attention in the world these years which is advocated by American educators and proved to be a creative and practical approach and strategy in classroom since the 1970’s. There is a growing researches based on the effects and effectiveness of cooperative learning. The researchers have carried out different cooperative learning activities and got the positive results. Meanwhile, some researches focusing on the alleviation effects of foreign language anxiety also proved that cooperative learning used as a classroom procedure can reduce anxiety in the classroom.
The study attempted to investigate the state of foreign language anxiety experienced by the non-English major college students in Henan Mechanical and Electrical Engineering College and the effectiveness of the cooperative learning as a classroom procedure on alleviating the sophomores non-English majors’ language anxiety and improving the academic achievements in language learning.
The subjects in this study are seventy-six sophomores at Henan Mechanical and Electrical Engineering College. The subjects were divided into experimental class and control class and participated in the twelve weeks cooperative learning experiment. The instruments of the quantitative study used in this study include the questionnaire survey ---- Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) and two language proficiency tests---- Practical English Test for Colleges. Data analyses were carried out by using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software,16.0 version (SPSS16.0). The qualitative study is based on the interviews of 10 subjects for the pre-interview and 6 for the post-interview.
The results of quantitative and qualitative studies indicate that the students at Henan Mechanical and Electrical Engineering College experience foreign language anxiety. The results also revealed that the subjects’ language anxiety in the experimental class has been reduced and English proficiency has been significant improved but there are no significant changes in these two points of subjects from control class after the twelve-week teaching experiment.
This thesis is divided into 5 chapters: introduction, literature review, research design, results and discussion, and conclusion.
KEY WORDS: Cooperative learning, Foreign language anxiety, English proficiency
摘要:二十世纪七十年代以来，随着语言教学的重点转到以学习者为中心，情感因素也逐渐受到外语教学研究者的重视。教育者越来越多地认识到情感因素是导致外语学习差异的重要因素之一。而在影响外语学习的情感因素当中，焦虑作为其中一个重要研究内容已经成为语言学家们热衷探讨的问题之一。进入八十年代之后,许多研究都对情感变量与外语学习之间的关系有了比较一致的看法。我国学者对外语焦虑的研究开始于九十年代，对情感因素做了更深入的理论阐述，也进一步印证了焦虑对外语学习的作用和影响。
合作学习是二十世纪七十年代兴起于美国的一种教学理论与策略体系。到八十年代中期取得了实质性进展，并在许多国家得到广泛应用。在合作学习领域，学者们建立了不同的合作学习模式并深入地研究了合作学习的积极意义。与此同时，在外语学习焦虑领域的研究也进一步证实，合作学习作为一种课堂教学活动能有效减轻外语学习焦虑。
本研究的目的旨在分析当前大学生外语学习焦虑的现状，并结合所在学校——河南机电高等专科学校非英语专业学生的实际外语水平，试图通过实验研究来求证合作学习是否能减轻学习者外语学习焦虑并提高学习者外语语言水平。
本文的研究对象为河南机电高等专科学校76名二年级非英语专业大学生。受试者被分成实验班和控制班，参加了为期十二周的合作学习教学实验。定量研究工具为外语学习焦虑量表（Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale）和两次高等学校英语应用能力考试（Practical English Test for Colleges）成绩。研究结果被输入社会科学统计软件包16.0版本（SPSS 16.0）进行分析。在定性研究中，10名学生参加了实验前访谈，6名学生参加了实验后访谈。
通过定量和定性研究表明，河南机电高等专科学校非英语专业的大学生中存在着外语学习焦虑。实验班学生的焦虑度在开展十二周的合作学习教学实验后显著降低，英语语言水平有明显提高。控制班学生的焦虑度和英语语言水平无明显变化。
本研究共分五个章节：导论、文献综述、研究设计、研究结果与分析、结论。
关键词：合作学习，外语学习焦虑，英语语言水平
