An Empirical Study on the Relationships among Foreign Language Learning Anxiety, Learning Motivation, and Classroom Participation among College Students

Hexin Meng

doi:10.54097/sebp6w52

Authors

Hexin Meng

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54097/sebp6w52

Keywords:

Foreign language teaching, Foreign language learning anxiety, Learning motivation, Classroom participation

Abstract

With the continuous deepening of globalization, foreign language proficiency has emerged as one of the key indicators for assessing an individual's comprehensive competence and international competitiveness. As a core foreign language course, English directly influences college students' future career competitiveness, while foreign language anxiety constitutes a crucial factor affecting language learning outcomes. To explore the relationships among college students' classroom participation, foreign language learning anxiety, and learning motivation, this study sampled 303 students from Guilin University of Technology and proposed two research objectives: first, to examine the overall levels and characteristics of foreign language anxiety, learning motivation, and classroom participation; second, to analyze the interrelationships among these three variables. The study employed the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), a learning motivation scale, and a classroom participation scale for measurement, and conducted data analysis using SPSS 26.0. The findings reveal that foreign language anxiety is significantly negatively correlated with both learning motivation and classroom participation, indicating that increased levels of foreign language anxiety suppress students' learning motivation and reduce classroom participation. A significant positive correlation exists between learning motivation and classroom participation, indicating that stronger learning motivation is associated with higher levels of classroom participation. Mediation analysis further reveals that foreign language anxiety plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between learning motivation and classroom participation, suggesting that learning motivation not only directly enhances classroom participation but also indirectly improves it by reducing students' levels of foreign language anxiety. Nevertheless, the practical application of these findings warrants further investigation. Future research may expand the sample to include diverse regions and cultural backgrounds and employ longitudinal or experimental designs to further explore the dynamic effects of various forms of social support and psychological variables on the development of foreign language competence.

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