大学英语专业学习者外语阅读焦虑感分析-外国语言学及应用语言学专业论文.docx

i ii ii Abstract Reading, considered world widely as a component of foreign language learning and performance, is generally observed as involving less “communication apprehension” defined by Horwitz et al (1991). However, with the development of studies on the relationship between foreign language anxiety and specific aspects of foreign language learning, reading is proved also closely related to anxiety level. As Saito et al. pointed out, foreign language reading anxiety “diverges in an important way from general foreign language learning anxiety” (Saito, Garza, Horwitz, 1999). Saito et al (1999) also introduced a special instrument, Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS), for measuring levels of foreign language reading anxiety, which has not been put into wide use or test. By adopting the FLRAS, the present study attempts to explore the situation of reading anxiety among students whose mother language is Chinese, with English as their target language, as well as to examine the relationship between foreign language reading anxiety and reading performance, with the ultimate purpose to find out the possible sources of reading anxiety thus to provide practical advice for our English teachers dealing with reading teaching tasks. This paper consists of six chapters. The first chapter introduces the background for the current research, under which are elicited the significance and the purpose of the current study. The second chapter presents a review of the related studies, both home and abroad, on foreign language anxiety, foreign language reading anxiety and their methodologies, including explication of basic concepts. The third chapter introduces the major theories as the theoretical foundation for the present study, which are Krashen’s Input hypothesis and his affective filter hypothesis, Tobias three-stage model for foreign language anxiety as well as the major measurement device of FLRAS. Chapter four presents the methodology of this study, including int