Affective and cognitive factors and foreign language achievement

About the Book

This study explores the field of EFL (English as a foreign language) classroom learning within three formal learning institutions in Beijing. Via questionnaires and reflective journals, this book examines various aspects of Chinese EFL learners’ anxiety, motivation, English-learning and test-taking strategy use, and the interactive effect of these variables on their achievements in English: manifestations, general patterns, differences in terms of gender, proficiency level and learning contexts, coping strategies and so on. Complicated statistical analyses, coupled with content thematic analyses, reveal that (1) around a third of the respondents experienced anxiety in English class; (2) the respondents were (highly) motivated both instrumentally and integratively to learn English, and were generally more instrumentally than integratively motivated; (3) the participants had a medium use of English learning and test-taking strategies; (4) among the six categories of English-learning strategies, compensation and memory strategies were the most and least frequently used respectively; while mixed findings were revealed about the use of the six categories of English test-taking strategies; (5) significant differences existed in most of the measured variables among the samples from different universities and among those at different proficiency levels; (6) mixed findings were found concerning gender differences in the measured variables; (7) the measured variables generally significantly correlated with one another and the students’ performance in English; and (8) the SEM results of the four samples were generally similar, however, some striking differences existed due to certain reasons.

About the Author

Dr. Meihua Liu is lecturer of English at the Department of Foreign Languages, Tsinghua University, China. Her research interests mainly include second/foreign language teaching and learning, classroom research, and second language writing. She is reader for such journals as Modern Language Journal, the Journal of Asia TEFL and China EFL journal. She has published widely in journals such as Modern Language Journal, TESL Canada Journal, TESL Reporter, System, ITL: International Journal of Applied Linguistics, Asian Journal of English Language Teaching, Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching, the Journal of Asia TEFL and Asian EFL Journal. Dr. Wenxia Zhang is professor of English at the Department of Foreign Languages, Tsinghua University, China. Her major research interests include EFL teaching and learning, language testing and EFL writing. She is on the board of Assessing Writing and has written for such journals as Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching and the Journal of Asia TEFL.