An Empirical Study of Alleviating Reading Anxiety among Chinese Learners of English

Abstract

Research into the relationship between four variables and foreign language reading anxiety by investigating 271 non-English major collage students in the north-west part of China. Data from an English proficiency test, a reading comprehension task and three questionnaires were analyzed by SPSS 21 (e.g., frequency analysis, correlation analysis and Linear regression analysis), which show that 1) the great majority of participants who have the level of medium English proficiency. A small group of them are in high English proficiency level while only four students are in low group. 2) the majority of participants are in medium level of foreign language reading anxiety. 3) there is no correlation between participants’ English proficiency and foreign language reading anxiety. 4) there is a significant positive correlation relationship between foreign language reading anxiety and their cognitive interference. 5) there is a significant relationship among cognitive, metacognitive strategies use and foreign language reading anxiety. 6) there was a significant negative relationship between foreign language reading anxiety and English reading performance. Based on the findings, some implications are discussed in English teaching and learning. (Long Dong University and Jeonju University)