Correlation between Listening Anxiety and Listening Strategies of Chinese Postgraduate Students of Science and Engineering: A Case Study at SUES

Abstract

<p>English listening is one of the five basic skills such as listening, speaking, reading, writing and translation that a Chinese postgraduate should acquire, and it is also the most significant one. In this study, 194 first-year postgraduate students at Shanghai University of Engineering Science were invited to report their strategies use and listening anxiety in the questionnaire with the 5-Likert Indirect Foreign Language Listening Strategies Scale and the 5-Likert Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Scale. The SPSS13.0 was used to analyze the descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, correlation analysis, Chi-square test and One-way ANOVA, which indicated a medium listening anxiety and a medium level of strategies use. Metacognitive strategies were more frequently used than social and affective strategies, the correlation between listening proficiency and listening anxiety was significantly negative, correlation between listening proficiency and indirect listening strategies was significantly positive, and that between indirect listening strategies and listening anxiety was significantly negative. Indirect listening strategies were useful to allay listening anxiety and would be incorporated into our normal classroom teaching.</p>