Study on Factors Impacting Chinese Higher Vocational College Students’ English Learning Anxiety

DOI: https://doi.org/10.62517/jhve.202416406

Author(s)

Baihua Zheng1,2, Xiangzhe Cui1,*

Affiliation(s)

1Sehan University, Mokpo, Republic of Korea 2Hunan Polytechnic of Environment and Biology, Hengyang, Hunan, China * Corresponding Author.

Abstract

Language anxiety has become a research topic of great concern in foreign language learning and teaching. This study adopted the qualitative research method of a case study to analyze factors impacting higher vocational college students’ English learning anxiety. A questionnaire consisting of essential information and focused semi-constructed interviews was conducted among eight first-year students, who were from three different majors at a higher vocational college in Hunan Province, China. The participants’ interviewed materials were coded according to different categories and analyzed. After open coding, ten individual nodes, two peer nodes and three teacher nodes were subsequently constructed. Then they were further classified after axial coding. Through selective coding, they were eventually categorized into five individual factors, one-peer factors and two teacher factors, which can be constructed a model of influencing factors of higher vocational college students’ English learning anxiety. Therefore, the results show that there are mainly three factors affecting Chinese higher vocational college students’ English learning anxiety, namely, individual factors, peer factors and teacher factors, among which individual factors are the most significant. These findings offer pedagogical implications for taking specific strategies to decrease English learning anxiety to improve students’ English performance.

Keywords

English Learning Anxiety; Influential Factors; Chinese Higher Vocational College Students; Qualitative Research; Correlation

References

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