Recently, researchers come to attach importance to affective functions (such as motivation, attitude, and language anxiety) in foreign language learning (Dai, 47-49; Liu 4-7). Anxiety, becomes the main kind of attractive variable investigated since 1940s, and is “the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the autonomic nervous system” (Spielberger 59). Scovel(182) felt that anxiety is a subject worthy of investigation. 

     Some researchers put forward that there are two kinds of anxiety: facilitating anxiety, and debilitating anxiety. Facilitating anxiety makes students focus on study which is useful for language learning, but debilitating anxiety hampers language learning directly or indirectly which is useless for language learning.

     Although several studies related to foreign language reading anxiety conducted in western countries and Taiwan, very few, if any have been found in Mainland China. In addition, all the available researches on reading anxiety are cross-sectional in nature; no longitudinal studies have been conducted in the world. Furthermore, because foreign language anxiety varies according to the target language (Satio, Horwitz and Gatza 202-218), it is of great theoretical and pedagogical interest to understand how anxiety reactions in reading affect learners of English as a foreign language in China, therefore, the main purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between high school students’ reading anxiety and their English achievements in college entrance examination. Meanwhile, dynamic changes in reading anxiety over one year will also be examined. 

2. Literature Review

     “Not only is it intuitive to many people that anxiety negatively influences language learning, but it is logical because anxiety has been found to interfere with many types of learning and has been one of the most highly examined variables in all of psychology and education”(Horwitz 112-126). However, up to now, no definition is so satisfactory and no one can contest. Researchers’ conception of anxiety varies from one perspective to another.

     Though reading anxiety has been an inevitable member in general foreign language anxiety, it perges from general foreign anxiety. Former is more detailed, specific, and instructive in English language education, and thus it is a new trend of study pinpointed in language research field. This attracts our attention to the method and instruments applied in English reading anxiety field. Satio, Horwitz & Garza (202-218) made the earliest and pioneering contribution to anxiety research on specific-skill reading. They designed the foreign language reading anxiety scale (FLRAS), a further development of foreign language classroom anxiety scale (FLCAS), by which linguists and educators can measure and check levels of anxiety provoked under different situation. In their research, unfamiliar culture and unfamiliar scripts and writing system are aspects that can trigger anxiety. Up to now, FLRAS have been proved to be a more authoritative and widespread instrument. Sellars (519) also found that students with higher levels of FLCA, tend to report higher levels of reading anxiety.论文网

     Although anxiety on writing and speaking attract a lot of attention, FLRA in China has not obtained much attention in English education. Many Chinese researchers like Chen (5-10) & Shi and Liu (17-19) & He (183-184), start to search the relationship between reading anxiety and reading performance, and survey the state of anxiety of subjects at different stages of development. In this paper, the writer studies the effect of anxiety in English reading on English scores of Enrollment into College.

3. Survey Research

3.1 Questions

     In this essay, the writer mainly explores the relationship between English reading anxiety and English achievements. Specific questions as follows: