An Investigative Study into the Sources of Senior High School Students’ English Test Anxiety

Abstract

With the increasing value of English in this globalized world, more attention has been put on English learning in mainland China. The pressure of the test either from the test itself or the society, schools, parents, etc. is influencing the students’ performance on English test, especially for young learners. But less was known about those learners’ English test anxiety and its sources. This current research explored the factors influencing on students’ English test anxiety in a quantitative way, surveying 587 senior high school students in Liaoning Province. Four sources were found: the fear of negative evaluation from other people, the fear of doing badly in the test would damage the self-assessment, the fear of prospect; and the fear of lacking adequate preparation for the test. In the end, several implications were proposed for diminish the students’ test anxiety.