Abstract

 

Nowadays, students’ unwillingness to communicate and participate in classroom activities is a serious problem which has been widely discussed. Most researches on classroom silence abroad are mainly based on multi-culture classroom settings. There are many domestic researches on language anxiety in China, either qualitative or quantitative, with less attention paid to the relationship between classroom silence and language anxiety of non-English majors. Therefore, according to the current situation of classroom silence in English majors, this thesis aims to focus on the extent to which the students experience both classroom silence and language anxiety in class, and further investigates the relationship between the two and provides possible strategies for breaking silence and reducing anxiety. 

In order to solve these research objectives, classroom observation, questionnaires and interviews are conducted in the study. 117 English majors from the School of Foreign Languages of Soochow University participated in the survey. Classroom observation is used to collect direct and first-hand information on classroom silence. Unwillingness-to-Communicate Scale (UCS) and Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) are respectively adopted to measure the extent to which students experience classroom silence and language anxiety in the English class, and further investigate the relationship between classroom silence and language anxiety. They are also used to find out factors that influence classroom silence and to explore the role of anxiety among all of the factors leading to classroom silence. 6 interviews are used to supply supplementary data to the questionnaire study. Finally, some suggestions are put forward to reduce students’ silence and their language anxiety. 

Firstly, results and analyses of the study reveal that a lot of English majors hold a positive attitude towards classroom discussions, and they are willing to participate in classroom communication, whereas they are passive to interact with others. Secondly, most students experience a mild anxiety, and feel anxious when they speak in class and receive negative evaluation from teachers and classmates. Thirdly, the more anxious students are, the more often they keep silence. There is a significant positive correlation between classroom silence and language anxiety.

Based on the findings of classroom observation, questionnaires and interviews, the thesis will propose future researchers for several suggestions to conduct further researches on students’ silence and anxiety, which might be helpful for the improvements of students’ language learning proficiency and performance.     

 

Keywords: English majors, classroom silence, foreign language anxiety

 

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

Acknowledgements-i

Abstract-ii

摘要-iv

Chapter 1   Introduction-1

1.1  Background of the Study-1

1.2  Objectives and Significance of the Study-2

1.3  Layout of the Thesis-2

Chapter 2   Literature Review-4

2.1  Definitions-4

2.1.1  Silence-4

2.1.2  Classroom silence-5

2.1.3  Anxiety-5

2.1.4  Foreign language anxiety-6

2.2  Types of Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA)-6

2.3  Related Studies Home and Abroad-7

2.3.1  Related studies in China-7

2.3.2  Related studies abroad-8

Chapter 3   Research Methodology-1 0

3.1  Research Questions-1 0

3.2  Research Subjects-1 0

3.3  Research Instruments-1 0

3.3.1  Questionnaires-1 0

3.3.2  Classroom observation -1 1

3.3.3  Interviews-1 2

3.4  Procedures for Data-collection and Data-analysis-1 2

Chapter 4   Results and Discussion-1 4

4.1  Discussions of the Questionnaires-1 4

4.1.1  Results and discussions of the UCS...1 4 

4.1.2  Results and discussions of the FLCAS..1 8

4.2  Discussions of the Classroom Observation-2 2 

    4.3  Discussions of the Interviews-2 3

Chapter 5   Conclusion-2 6

5.1  Research Findings-2 6

5.2  Research Implications-2 7

5.2.1  Helping English majors understand the importance of interaction-2 7

5.2.2  Creating a relaxing classroom atmosphere conducive to classroom learning-2 7

5.2.3  Forming mutual confidence relationship between students and teachers-2 8

5.3  Limitations and Suggestions for Further Studies-2 8

References-3 0

AppendixⅠ-3 5

AppendixⅡ-3 8

AppendixⅢ-4 1

文献综述报告4 2