A Survey Study on Students' Anxiety and Beliefs about English Learning in a University of Technology

科技大學學生英語學習信念和學習焦慮之調查研究

李金玲(Chin-Ling Lee) ； 許筱彤(Hsiao-Tung Hsu)

《高應科大人文社會科學學報》 8卷1期 (2011/07) Pp. 85-104

https://doi.org/10.29888/KUASJHSS.201107.0005

摘要

學習者信念和學習焦慮一直被認為是學習歷程中重要的情意變數，且研究發現這兩個變數和學習成就有關聯。本研究主要目的在調查和分析某一科技大學415位學生英語學習信念和學習焦慮的情況。問卷調查所得的資料用以探討：1）受試者的英語學習信念情況為何？2）受試者的英語學習焦慮情況為何？3）受試者的英語學習信念和焦慮是否因人口變項之性別、就讀年級、學習年限、和英語程度的不同而有差異？4）受試者的英語學習信念和焦慮的相關程度為何？資料分析結果顯示大學生有高度的學習信念（M=3.63）和中度的學習焦慮（M=2.96）；除了女生的學習焦慮顯著高於男生，初級英文程度學生的學習焦慮也明顯高於中級程度學生，而低年級學生的學習焦慮也明顯高於高年級學生；學習信念則不因人口變項的不同，而有顯著的差異；學生的學習焦慮和學習信念雖未達顯著相關，但是，學習焦慮和學習信念中的四種型態達到顯著相關。最後，本研究就分析結果進行討論和解釋，提出建議以提供教師和學生英語教學之參考。

關鍵字

學習者信念 ； 外語學習焦慮 ； 科技大學 ； 性別

並列摘要

Learner's beliefs and learning anxiety have been considered as important affective variables in the process of learning, and have relation with learning achievement in English as a foreign language (EFL) context. This paper reports a survey study on the learners' beliefs and foreign language anxiety of 415 students in a university of technology. The data collected was analyzed to explain the following research questions: (1) What learners' beliefs about English learning do the subjects have? (2) What learning anxiety do the subjects hold? (3) Is there any difference on their learning beliefs and anxiety according to the subjects' demographic variables in terms of gender, grade year, starting learning time, and English proficiency? (4) How do the subjects' beliefs relate to their anxiety about learning English? The results indicate that English majoring students indeed held high extent of learning beliefs (M = 3.63) and medium level of anxiety (M = 2.96) about English learning. Females significantly held higher-level anxiety in English classes than males. In addition, students with basic English proficiency also significantly held higher-level anxiety than those with intermediate proficiency. There were significant differences on learning anxiety among students on various grand years; moreover, freshmen had the highest-level anxiety among them. However, there showed no significant differences on subjects' beliefs according to the subjects' demographic variables. Also, no significant correlation between learning beliefs and anxiety about English learning was presented among these English majoring learners. Finally, this paper concludes with a brief discussion about the possible causes leading to such findings, and presents suggestions to help students reduce their negative beliefs and anxieties about English learning.

並列關鍵字

learners' beliefs ； foreign language anxiety ； universities of technology ； gender