Necessity of the Research Nowadays, the society has been becoming more and more competitive, and thejob market is no exception. In China, finding a satisfactory job is becoming more andmore difficult for a graduating student, especially during the past two years. Therefore,to enhance individual competitiveness and have a better and brighter future, manyundergraduates tend to pursue a master’s degree after graduating from the university.Since current employers are having higher and higher requirements both in students’specialized field and in foreign language skills, a good command of English willbenefit graduating students a lot when they are hunting for jobs.However, based on teaching arrangements of some university authorities,postgraduates only have the chance of attending English classes and receiving regularEnglish language training during their first year. For postgraduates of science, they,under the guidance of their supervisors, spend most of the rest studying years delvinginto academic development and carrying out experiments in the laboratory so thatthey can graduate successfully and smoothly. Generally speaking, lack of time andefforts makes it difficult for them to master basic English skills. Great pressure andplenty of studying tasks from their own specialized field cause them to care less aboutEnglish learning. Some of them are so worried and stressed that they even choose toleave English learning totally behind. As for the university authorities, they are payingmore attention to these students’ academic progress and achievements than theirEnglish development. So, to some extent, for those postgraduates of science,especially those students in their second or third studying year, English languagelearning has been ignored, not to mention English improvement.Overseas studies on second language acquisition can be traced back to 1960s.For the last thirty or forty years, studies in this field have developed rapidly andwidely, especially studies on English language acquisition. Scholars interested inforeign language teaching and English teachers have published massive books andarticles about factors influencing English language learning, causes of Englishlanguage anxiety, and effective measures to promote English teaching and students’English learning etc. Empirical studies on language learning anxiety have often beencarried out among high school students, college students, and undergraduates in theuniversity from home and abroad. But studies targeted at postgraduates’ foreignlanguage anxiety are not that many. What should be mentioned is that postgraduateEducation abroad is different from that in China, for overseas academic years areshorter, and that many universities even offer one-year postgraduate education. InChina, academic years range from two to three years. In addition, most studies arefocused on foreign language anxiety in the classroom. But for those postgraduates ofscience in their second or third studying year, they are free from English classes andfinal examinations, and faced with whether deciding to receive further education orwork directly. What about their English language anxiety outside the classroom? Arethey anxious about English? If so, to what extent is their language anxiety level?Which kind of language anxiety is higher among them? Are there any differences inanxiety level between postgraduates deciding to work directly after graduation andth，英语论文，英语论文 |
