Chinese Language Enjoyment vs Chinese Language Anx...
Fig.6.1 below shows the relationship between Chinese language enjoyment and Chinese language anxiety:
Fig.6.1 The relationship between chinese language enjoyment and chinese language anxiety
This scattergram illustrates the distribution of enjoyment and anxiety in Chinese language learning.The Spearman’s Rho((154)=-0.07，p=0.359)indicates that there is no obvious relationship between Chinese language enjoyment and Chinese language anxiety.That is，students with a high level of Chinese language enjoyment may have a high level of anxiety or a low level of anxiety，and students with a high level of Chinese language anxiety may have a high level of enjoyment or a low level of enjoyment.Previous research such as Dewaele and MacIntyre(2014)and Dewaele et al.(2017)finds that there is a weak negative correlation between foreign language enjoyment and anxiety—a higher level of enjoyment comes with a lower level of anxiety.However，such correlation is very weak，and distribution patterns vary greatly between these two emotions.Therefore，foreign language enjoyment and foreign language anxiety are not two opposite extremes of the same emotional continuum;rather，they are two separate emotions independent of each other.In other words，the level of foreign language enjoyment has nothing to do with the level of foreign language anxiety，and vice versa.Data generated in this study point further to a more definite conclusion，that is，no obvious relationship exists between foreign language enjoyment and foreign language anxiety.To be more specific，an increase or decrease in the level of foreign enjoyment will not cause a rise or fall in the level of anxiety;similarly，an increase or decrease in the level of foreign anxiety will not increase or decrease language enjoyment that learners experience.
As research in foreign language enjoyment develops，the composition of such enjoyment is attracting more and more research interest.Dewaele and MacIntyre(2016)studied 1742 foreign language learners from various parts of the world and analysed the composition of foreign language enjoyment by using factor analysis.They found that foreign language enjoyment consisted of social factors of enjoyment and individual factors of enjoyment.Li et al.(2018)conducted a study of senior high school students studying English as a foreign language.They also used factor analysis and separated teacher factors of enjoyment，individual factors of enjoyment and environmental factors of enjoyment.However，there is so far very little research done in how different types of factors of foreign language enjoyment relate to one another.Given analysis of the relationship among various components of foreign language enjoyment is likely to lead to better understanding of the essence of this emotion，this study adopted Dewaele and MacIntyre’s(2016)categorisation factors and divided factors of enjoyment into social and individual factors，since such categorisation would suite this study.Fig.6.2 below shows the relationship between social and individual factors of Chinese language enjoyment in this study:
Fig.6.2 The relationship between social and individual factors of Chinese language enjoyment
This scattergram illustrates the relationship between social and individual factors of enjoyment in Chinese language learning.The Spearman’s Rho((154)=0.54，p＜0.0001)indicates that there is a clear correlation between social and individual factors of enjoyment;that is，the higher the score of social factors，the higher the score of individual factors，and vice versa.This finding suggests that attention should be paid to social factors that affect enjoyment in language teaching，since good relationships between the teacher and students and among students enhance individual’s experience in learning a foreign language.