Abstract:People have been searching for better approaches to the foreign language learning. But in the past decades of years, the attention was focused on how to improve the teaching methods of teachers, and the importance of the students - the main body of the teaching-learning process was ignored.
From late 1950s, partly due to the impact from the humanistic psychology and improved notion of education, some foreign researchers began to draw their attentions to the study of multiple variables that influence language learning. And affective variables attracted more attention and interest from the researchers. Of all these variables, language anxiety is probably the most pervasive obstruction in foreign language learning. Most of the previous studies have shown that foreign language anxiety can be distinguished from other types of anxiety.
In China, a lot of studies on the language anxiety have been conducted under the affection of the foreign theories and researches, but the subjects of the studies mostly come from the graduates or undergraduates. Few studies concern about the impact of foreign language anxiety on the achievement of Senior One students from high schools.
Based on the former studies about the foreign language anxiety, the author attempts to conduct an investigation on the effects of foreign language anxiety on Senior One students’ English language learning in the Chinese context, to know about the situations of Senior One students’ foreign language anxiety and its effects on Senior One students’ English language learning so as to improve English language learning and decrease foreign language anxiety.
By means of quantitative and qualitative researches, the author does the research on 98 students coming from two Senior One classes in NO.13 High School about their English classroom foreign language anxiety. The research mainly focused on four aspects: the Senior One students’ general level of the foreign language anxiety, the factors that affect their foreign language classroom anxiety, the sources of the anxiety, and the strategies to lower the anxiety.
The findings reveal that the foreign language anxiety does exist in Senior One students and there is a negative correlation between language proficiency and the language anxiety. A number of learners’ variables such as gender, personality can contribute to different levels of the foreign language anxiety among the students. The sources of the anxiety can be incomprehensible input, students’ fear of mistakes and derision, and so on. Based on the findings, some strategies are recommended to reduce the foreign language anxiety, such as providing more comprehensible input, producing relaxing and pleasant learning atmosphere and so on.
Key words: Senior One students; foreign language anxiety; English learning in classroom; strategies.
摘要:一直以来人们都在寻找更好的改进外语学习的方法,但是过去人们的注意力一直集中在如何改进教师的教学方法上，从而忽略了作为学习主体的学生在教学环节中的作用。至上个世纪 50年代，在人本主义心理学的影响下，教育思想发生转变，西方的学者开始把研究的中心由专注转移到影响教学成效的情感因素上。作为其中的一个主要情感变量--焦虑，自然引起了人们的重视。经过大量的研究，学者们发现,语言焦虑与与其它形式的焦虑有很大的区别。于是来自欧美的一些学者和专家开始关注：焦虑是否对外语学习有影响，会有什么样的影响等等问题。
中国学者受西方学者的影响，并借鉴他们的理论和研究开始关注焦虑对外语学习的影响并且作了大量的研究，但是他们研究的对象大部分是大学生，而以高中一年级学生为研究对象的则较少。
在前人研究的基础上和相关文献的启发下，本文作者试图对影响高一学生英语学习成效的语言焦虑进行探究，期望全面了解高一学生的课堂语言焦虑状况，及其对高一学生英语学习的影响。作者采用了量性结合的方法（调查问卷、访谈），对南京市十三中的高一两个普通班98名学生进行了研究。调查问卷采用了 Horwitz 设计的并被广泛运用的外语课堂学习焦虑量表。研究主要由四部分组成：高一学生的目前的外语学习焦虑水平，影响学生上课产生的焦虑的因素及原因，以及相应的对策。
结果发现，南京十三中的高一的学生确实存在语言焦虑感，并且这种焦虑感因为个人的能力，性别，性格等的不同而不同，接着作者分析了产生焦虑的原因，包括课堂上教师的不可理解输入，学生的怕犯错误和怕被嘲笑心理等。接着作者提出相应的建议，如教师的输入话语要在适当水平，制造宽松的课堂氛围，增加问题提出等待时间等措施，以降低学生的英语课堂焦虑，从而提高英语课堂教学的效度。
关键字：高一学生;英语课堂学习; 焦虑分析; 对策研究
