Abstract

As one of the most significant foreign language abilities, reading has been drawn into much attention in foreign language learning. Affective factor has been investigated by more and more researchers. Anxiety is one kind of affective factors. A large number of studies had revealed that it had a great influence on foreign language learning as well as English reading. Many studies have been carried out gradually in this field at home and abroad since Horwitz firstly did research on foreign language anxiety. For example, Saito paid much attention to reading anxiety and finally have obtained numerous meaningful results. Although many studies on anxiety associate with one aspect of English learning, like oral aspects, few scholars have focused on the relationship between English majors’ reading anxiety and their learning achievements.
Based on the theories of Horwitz, this study employed Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS) of Saito, Horwitz and Garza as an instrument to analyze the relationship between reading anxiety and learning achievements. The subjects of the study were English majors from University. The results reported through SPSS showed that reading anxiety was a common phenomenon among English majors, and anxiety may protect students from reading in English. Besides, reading anxiety was an obviously negative correlation with learners’ achievements. This research can stimulated English teachers to attach more importance to the influence of reading anxiety in class and after class, and simultaneously, appropriate strategies can be taken to reduce reading anxiety and naturally learners’ achievements can get a higher level.

Key Words: reading anxiety  negative correlation  reading strategies

摘 要

当今，阅读能力作为一项重要的外语技能在英语教学中备受关注.越来越多的学者开始关注情感因素。许多研究显示焦虑作为其中一种情感对外语学习以及英语阅读产生重要的影响。自从Horwitz 第一次提出外语学习焦虑概念以来，国内外许多学者开始关注这一领域的研究。Saito 提出阅读焦虑的概念并得出许多重要的研究结果。一些有关焦虑的研究关注英语学习的具体方面，比如口语。但遗憾的是，目前针对英语专业学生阅读焦虑情况与他们的学习成绩的相关性研究非常少。本文正是在这样的研究背景下探讨英语阅读焦虑与学习成绩两者之间的关系。该研究以Horwitz等人的焦虑理论为基础，采用Saito, Horwitz 和Garza研制的英语阅读焦虑量表作为研究工具，对阅读焦虑和学习成绩之间的关系进行探讨。本研究随机抽取某学院英语专业学生作为研究对象。所有数据由社会科学统计工具SPSS处理，并对数据进行了分析研究。结果显示英语专业学生普遍存在阅读焦虑情况，进一步相关性分析表明阅读焦虑与学习成绩之间呈负相关。该研究结果促使英语教师进一步重视学生课内及课外的阅读焦虑情况，因此，教师通过有效的策略帮助学生减轻阅读焦虑，从而提高他们的学习成绩。

关键词：外语阅读焦虑 相关性 外语教学