Foreign Language Anxiety of Rural EFL Junior Middle School Chinese Students: A Case Study of A School In East China

Abstract

The objectives of this study were two folds: 1) to examine the factors and identify the level of the factors affecting the foreign language anxiety of the rural Chinese junior middle school; and 2) to explore anxiety-reducing strategies that should be used by the rural Chinese junior middle school students in this study. The Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) designed by Horwitz (1986) was adapted to collect quantitative data from 110 students to identify the level of foreign language anxiety factors, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 9 students and their parents as well as 4 teachers to explore for anxiety-reducing strategies for the students. The results of the FLCAS questionnaire showed that the English learning anxiety level of rural junior middle school Chinese students was moderate (x̄ =3.26), including the level of communication anxiety (x̄ =3.26), the level of test anxiety (x̄ =3.28), and the level of fear of negative evaluation (x̄ =3.24). The results of the semi-structured interviews revealed that the learner-related factors were the most significant, followed by teacher-related factors. The emerging results of qualitative data from the perspectives of students, parents, and teachers in relation to English anxiety-reducing strategies were found; i.e., improving English learning skills, increasing self-regulated learning in English, using effective instructional approach, providing comments and feedbacks to support the students in learning English, and avoiding placing undue focus on English test results.