（外国语言学及应用语言学专业论文）外语学习焦虑与合作学习.pdf

foreign language anxiety and cooperative learning iv 摘 要 摘 要 近几年来国外的学者广泛关注外语学习焦虑和合作学习在外语学习焦虑 领域研究者们已经成功地证实和认识到外语学习焦虑对外语学习的影响与此 同时在合作学习领域研究者们建立了不同的合作学习模式并且深入地研究了 合作学习的积极意义 合作学习理论认为 合作学习在减轻学习焦虑 促进交流 加强学习动机增强学习者的自信心提供可理解的语言输入输出等各方面有着 重要意义所以国外的研究者指出合作学习作为一种课堂教学程序能减轻外语 学习焦虑 尽管国外的研究者指出合作学习对减轻外语学习焦虑有着积极的意义国内 的研究者并未对此产生足够的重视所以目前对于利用合作学习减轻外语学习 焦虑提高外语语言水平的实证调查国内还很少 在民族院校里大部分学生来自于少数民族地区因为他们之前的语言学习 环境不是很好他们的英语水平普遍偏低并且他们受到了外语学习焦虑的负面 影响因此本研究展开了一个关于利用合作学习减轻来自少数民族地区学生外 语学习焦虑并提高其外语水平的实证调查 本文旨在求证合作学习能否减轻来自少数民族地区学生外语学习焦虑并提 高其外语水平着重研究了一下四个问题1造成来自少数民族地区学生外语 学习焦虑的原因是什么 2 合作学习是否能有效减轻来自少数民族地区学生的 外语学习焦虑3合作学习时候能提高来自少数民族地区学生的外语成绩4 合作学习对于提高那种外语能力最有效 六十名来自中南民族大学化学学院的学生参与了实验他们被近乎平均地分 配到了实验组和控制组在实验组采用合作学习的教学方法而控制组则采用传 统的教学方式但是所有的学生学习同样的教材而且课堂任务也相当外语课堂 学习焦虑量表用来检测学生们的焦虑程度及类型2001 年夏季大学英语四级试 卷来检测其外语语言水平在实验过程中在学生里进行了一些调查采访来找 出造成学生外语学习焦虑的原因调查和实验结果表明实验组学生的外语学习 焦虑得到有效减轻其英语水平也有所提高特别体现在听力和词汇这两方面 对于如何帮助学生减轻外语学习焦虑本文提出了几点建议教师应该意识 到外语学习焦虑的普遍存在 应该采用适当的外语教学方式以及个人的行为态度 来营造轻松的学习氛围降低学生的外语学习焦虑 关键词外语学习焦虑 合作学习 英语语言水平 foreign language anxiety and cooperative learning ii abstract in recent years, the researchers abroad have paid much attention to the foreign language anxiety and cooperative learning. researchers of foreign language anxiety have succeeded in examining and recognizing the specific effects of foreign language anxiety. meanwhile, researchers of cl study construct different cl models and benefits of cl methods are examined. it is widely acknowledged that cl is of great importance in reducing anxiety, promoting interaction, increasing motivation, self-confidence and self-esteem as well as providing comprehensible input and output, etc. so some researchers abroad indicate that using cl as a classroom procedure can alleviate the foreign language anxiety in the language classroom. although researchers abroad have indicated the cl treatment has positive impact on alleviating foreign language anxiety, researchers at home have not paid much attention to it. and as a result, very little empirical research has been done in this field in china. most students in the universities for ethnic communities come from the minority regions. because of their previous language learning environment, their english proficiency is not so high and they are suffering a lot from the foreign language anxiety. therefore, an experiment study aiming to apply cl methods in classroom to lower the foreign language anxiety of these students from the minority regions was conducted. this study aims at investigating the effects of cl on the alleviation of chinas minority college students anxiety in their efl learning in the classroom. four research questions are addressed in this study: 1) what are the main causes for the foreign language anxiety of the students coming from the minority region? 2) can cl treatment as a classroom procedure lower minority students language anxiety in the language classroom? 3) can cl treatment as a classroom procedure improve the minority students english proficiency? and 4) which language skill(s) can be most improved? sixty students (grade 2005) in the chemistry department of south-central university for nationalities participated in the experiment. they were approximately evenly divided into the experimental and the control groups. the experimental group received cl treatment during the sixteen weeks experiment, while the control group received traditional instruction. however, all the participants studied the same 中南民族大学硕士学位论文 iii material and in-class assignments were equivalent. the flcas questionnaire was used as an assessment of anxiety level while the scores of the summer test of cet-4 2001 was used as an assessment of their english proficiency. during the experiment, some interviews were made to identify the causes of the participants foreign language anxiety. after sixteen weeks experiment, the foreign language anxiety of the learners in the experimental group was efficiently reduced and the english proficiency of theirs was found to be improved, especially, the listening and vocabulary. the implication of the cl treatment was discussed and some suggestions were made to help teachers deal with the foreign language anxiety of the students from the minority regions. teachers should be aware of the existence of the foreign language anxiety and they should also be aware that their teaching methods and their characteristics influence learners anxiety and that learners anxiety can be reduced. key words: foreign language anxiety, cooperative learning, efl proficiency 中南民族大学硕士学位论文 i acknowledgements to begin with, i would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, professor yuan xuefen. throughout my postgraduate study, i benefited a great deal from her deep insight and rigorous scholarship in doing research work. without her critical encouragement, tireless guidance and generous help, it would not have been possible for me to complete this study. i also would like to thank all the professors and teachers who have taught me during my postgraduate study in the college of foreign languages of south-central university for nationalities. from their courses i not only learned the linguistic theories, but also benefited from their personal characteristics and their devotion to teaching. my thanks also go to my friend wang lang who helped me with the statistical analysis and the students majoring in applied chemistry and material chemistry in south-central university for nationalities who participated in the experiment. finally, i would like to thank my parents who have encouraged and supported me during my postgraduate study. 中南民族大学硕士学位论文 1 chapter 1 introduction 1. 1 description of the present study many researchers abroad have studied the effects of anxiety on foreign language learning since the1970s. as early as in 1973, h.d.brown predicted that the construct of anxiety was intricately intertwined with self-esteem, inhibition, and risk-taking, and that it played an important affective role in the second language acquisition. horwitz, horwitz and cope (1986: 45) defined anxiety as a state of uneasiness and apprehension or fear caused by the anticipation of something threatening. it is “the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the autonomic nervous system.” macintyre and gardner (1988) find the empirical data confirming an anxiety specific to language learning. young (1991) recognizes the general sources of foreign language anxiety. it seemed that foreign language anxiety stands out as one of the main blocking factors for effective language learning. cooperative learning (cl) in education is not something new. it originated in britain and was later widely advocated in america and other european countries. in cooperative learning, students generally work together in face-to-face groups. they spend large amounts of time being engaged in discussion and assisting one another in understanding. “this type of peer interaction increases opportunities for meaningful communication about academic content in low-anxiety contexts (jacob, 1996)”. cooperative learning promotes active learning, critical thinking, conceptual understanding, long-term retention of material, and high levels of student satisfaction. the benefit of cl is obvious in classroom teaching, especially for a limited number of students. however, cl methods are not commonly used in china. in the past years, some researchers (young, 1986; madsen, brown and jones, 1991; mejias, applbaum, applbaum and trotter, 1991) have succeeded in examining and recognizing the specific effects of foreign language anxiety. meanwhile, researchers of cl study (slavin, 1989; johnson and johnson, 1994) construct different model of cl and benefits of cl methods are examined. however, very few investigations have been made to probe into the effectiveness of cl in reducing the foreign language anxiety and cooperative learning 2 foreign language anxiety in china. so there is a need to examine and confirm the findings in chinas english classrooms. this study aims at investigating the effects of cl on the alleviation the foreign language anxiety of chinese college students who comes from the minority regions in their efl learning in the classroom. four research questions are addressed in this study: 1. what are the main causes for the foreign language anxiety of the students from the minority region? 2. can cl treatment as a classroom procedure lower the foreign language anxiety of the students from the minority regions in the language classroom? 3. can cl treatment as a classroom procedure improve these students english proficiency? 4. which language skill can be most improved? the four questions are raised on the basis of the following considerations. first, because of their previous language learning environment, most of the students from the minority regions of china dont have a good command of english. they suffer a lot from the foreign language anxiety during their english learning process, so its urgent to dig out the possible causes of their anxiety. then, many articles and books introducing cooperative learning methods creating a non-threatening language classroom appeared, thus it is supposed that cl is effective in lowering the learners foreign language anxiety and it also can improve the learners english proficiency, especially, the listening and speaking skills. certain assumptions are made about the study. first, it is assumed that the participants involved in the study represent some typical characteristics and features of the students from the minority regions in english learning. then, the foreign language anxiety is made up of three kinds of related performance anxiety: communication apprehension, test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation. according to hortwitz (hortwitz, hortwitz and cope, 1986), the certain methods of cl can alleviate the communication apprehension and fear of negative evaluation immediately. so it is assumed that the alleviation of the two kinds of anxiety indicates the alleviation of the foreign language anxiety as a whole. the analysis of the study is based on these two assumptions. 中南民族大学硕士学位论文 3 1.2 significance of the study its meaningful to conduct a foreign language anxiety research in china. researchers abroad have studied the effects of foreign language anxiety since the 1970s. chastain (1975) and swain and burnaby (1976) find negative correlation between language class anxiety and students language proficiency. hortwitz, hortwitz and cope (1986) describe three components of foreign language anxiety: communication apprehension, fear of social evaluation and test anxiety. they investigate the foreign language anxiety from the perspectives of attitudes and motivation and their relationship to proficiency. gardner, lalonde, moorcroft zhang yuanrong, 2002; zhang li, 2002; tang linhong, 2004), foreign language anxiety study began to be mentioned, and some studies were conducted in classrooms where chinese was taught as a foreign language, not teaching english in classrooms as a foreign language. and some researchers in china paid much attention to specific language skills affected by foreign language anxiety, such as speaking and reading (zhang yuanrong, 2002; zhang li, 2002). although they had suggested some techniques to lower foreign language anxiety, its still far from needed. its meaningful to conduct a foreign language anxiety research on chinas college students from the minority regions. in some theses, some researchers have done some research about foreign language anxiety on chinese students, such as dong zhengyu (2002) on medical students in china, tang yuhong (2004) on vocational school students in china, zhang ke (2004) on high school students in china and chen siben (2004) on low achieving efl students in china. however, the perception of foreign language anxiety of the students from the minority regions of china still remained neglected. therere much more students from the minority regions in the universities for ethnic communities than other universities. because of their previous language learning environment, most of the students form the minority foreign language anxiety and cooperative learning 4 regions are weak in english learning. and obviously, they are held back to study efficiently by the foreign language anxiety. so its urgent to attempt a foreign language anxiety study on them. its also meaningful to conduct a research on reducing foreign language anxiety by applying specific cl methods in classroom. after exploring the way the foreign language anxiety affects learners performance and investigating learners perspectives on foreign language anxiety, researchers abroad (young, 1991; price 1991; crookall and oxford, 1991) offer suggestions to alleviate the foreign language anxiety, including classroom activities, instructor behavior, evaluative formats and learners strategies. from their study reports, we may find out that most of the suggestions are concrete and practical in lowering the foreign language anxiety in class. and its widely acknowledged that cl can lower foreign language anxiety in classroom. kagan (1994) suggests that if people are anxious but allowed to affiliate, their anxiety level is reduced; he also points out that cl is helpful to increase self-confidence and self-esteem. oxford (1990) includes cl as a classroom procedure which can lower anxiety in the language classroom. hertz-lazarotiz, sapir and sharan (1981) also find that group work will increase learner motivation. swain (2001), hertz-lazarotiz, sapir and sharan (1981) have found that cl can promote interaction. but how cl lowers foreign language anxiety in chinas classroom and whether it can improve the chinas efl learners foreign language proficiency remain unsettled. the study is designed to apply two cl methods in class to lower foreign language anxiety and check whether learners language proficiency is improved and which language skill benefits most from the cl treatment. 1.3 organization of this thesis the thesis is composed of five chapters. chapter one is the introductory part which begins with the background of the study on using cl as a classroom procedure to alleviate the learners foreign language anxiety, which is followed by the significance of the study and the outline of the whole thesis. chapter two reviews the literature of both foreign language anxiety and cooperative learning. it includes the following aspects: a) the definition of foreign language anxiety, the classification of foreign language anxiety, the sources of the foreign language anxiety and the measurements of the foreign language anxiety; b) the definition of cooperative 中南民族大学硕士学位论文 5 learning, the basic elements of cl, the characteristics of cl, and the methods of the cl; and c) the relationship between foreign language anxiety and cl. chapter three reports some details about the research methodology, such as the subjects, research questions, instrument, and the procedure of the study. chapter four describes the findings, analyses the statistical data and discusses the research questions. and the last chapter is a conclusion of the whole thesis which offers some implications from the research results as well as states the limitations. foreign language anxiety and cooperative learning 6 chapter 2 literature review in this chapter, we will have a global idea of foreign language anxiety and cooperative learning by reviewing relevant literature including the definition of fla, the classification of fla, sources of fla, the measurements of fla; the definition of cl, the basic elements of cl, the characteristics of cl, the methods of cl; and the relationship between fla and cl. 2.1 foreign language anxiety 2.1.1 the definition of foreign language anxiety anxiety is generally seen as a psychological concept. spielberger (1966) defines anxiety as subjective, consciously perceived feelings of apprehension and tension, accompanied by or associated with activation or arousal of the autonomic nervous system. it can be either facilitating or debilitating. facilitating anxiety motivates learners to adopt an approach attitude and willing to confront the new learning task. debilitating anxiety makes learners assume an avoidance attitude and therefore tend to escape from the learning task. there are many factors which can affect the learner to develop a facilitating or a debilitating anxiety. the main or determinant factor is the task difficulty. macintyre (1995) suggests only when a given task is relatively simple, foreign language anxiety could be facilitating. in such a situation, anxiety may improve performance through increased effort. by contrast, if a task is too difficult anxiety will be debilitating and have negative effects on learning performance. in a word, anxiety could either benefit or impede the performance of the foreign language learning. anxiety can be studied from three perspectivestrait anxiety, state anxiety, and situation-specific anxiety. trait anxiety is defined by scovel (1978) as a more permanent predisposition to be anxious. it is viewed by spielberger (1966) as an aspect of personalitya relatively permanent and steady personality feature. state anxiety is apprehension experienced at particular moment in time as a response to a definite situation, for example, prior to taking exams. it is a combination of trait and situation-specific anxiety. this anxiety can be provoked in the confrontation of the perceived threat, such