Exploring the Relationships Between Motivation and Anxiety of College Students’ English Language Learning

Abstract

Several earlier investigations addressed the connection between motivation and anxiety, but there are scant studies focusing on their relationship in English learning. This study examines how anxiety interacts with motivation in Chinese students’ learning English. Participants were 51 college students in Sichuan province in China. In this study, a questionnaire including an anxiety scale and a motivation scale was used to collect data, which was analyzed by SPSS. This research used descriptive statistic and correlation analysis. The three links between motivation, anxiety, and extrinsic and intrinsic motivation are the key conclusions of this study. The findings indicate a strong inverse relationship between motivation and anxiety. Anxiety and intrinsic motivation significantly correlated negatively, according to additional studies, while anxiety showed no correlation with extrinsic motivation. What’s more, the results indicate that among college students, only the extrinsic motivation-social is at a low level, while the levels of other motivations are relatively high. The findings can provide college teachers and students with a deeper understanding about anxiety and motivation in Englis learning to improve the effectiveness of learning English and assist them in managing the connection between anxiety and motivation.