英语论文网

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Research background
Nowadays, reading is playing a vital role in acquiring new information anddeveloping one’s way of thinking. In both English classes and tests, English readingexerts an important influence on the English learning of Chinese high school students.As is known to all, reading skill is an important component of language learners’comprehensive skills. It is illustrated in the New English Curriculum Standard forSenior Middle School (Version 2003) that “the aim of English reading teaching is tocultivate students’ ability to acquire and deal with the new information which happensduring the reading process”. Furthermore, in the Modern College EntranceExamination, there are five reading comprehension texts with 20 multiple choicequestions whose points occupy 26.7 percent of the total score, which accounts for alarge proportion relatively. The students will do a lot of practice on English reading inthe majority of class time, and the teachers will pay more attention to the students’performance in reading as well. Therefore, reading makes a difference in Englishteaching and learning.Because of its importance, reading has gained increasing concern of the languageeducation professionals and teachers who are responsible for the teaching of languagereading, and has won the attention of the students whose reading achievement greatlyinfluences their academic levels. For both teachers and students, a study on Englishreading of high school students will be of great significance. Not only will it help teachers know their students’ learning situation, and thereby modify their teachingmethods, but also provide students with certain guidance on their English reading.Moreover, some researches (Yan Jiali & Han Baocheng, 2007; Yang Feige, 2011; LiJuan, 2014) have found that there still exist some problems in the teaching andlearning of English reading. Therefore it is necessary for researchers to do somerelated studies on reading.
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1.2 Research aims
The major aims of the present study are to explore the difference of FL readinganxiety as well as students’ English reading achievement on different levels of TOA,and the mediating role that FL reading anxiety plays in the effect of TOA on Englishreading among Chinese high school students. Plenty of studies have found that TOAis related to foreign language anxiety, and both have effects on language learning.Hence based on the previous studies, the present study assumes that TOA and FLreading anxiety are interrelated with each other and the two individual variables mightexert joint effects on students’ English reading performance. Therefore, the presentstudy attempts to address the following questions based on the above assumption:1. Does foreign language reading anxiety differ in terms of tolerance ofambiguity in English reading?2. Does students’ English reading achievement differ in terms of tolerance ofambiguity?3. Does foreign language reading anxiety mediate between tolerance ofambiguity and English reading achievement?In fact, TOA and FL reading anxiety, as two influential factors that affectlanguage learners’ learning, have aroused increasing attention in China in recent years.However the subjects of most empirical studies are university students (Shi Yunzhang& Liu Zhenqian, 2006; Zhang Sumin, 2006; Chang Haichao, 2012; Huang Xueping,2014). As we all know, Eng