【正文】 atistics for FLRAS N Minimum Maximum MeanStd.DeviationSUM Valid N (listwise)127 127 Compared with the results of the previous study by other researchers with the same FLRAS, some more information is demonstrated. Table 43 shows the parison among them. In the present study, the mean ，the highest one among the three studies from which it can be inferred that the condition of foreign language reading anxiety of the subjects，namely，the high students of senior middle school is more serious than that of the subjects in previous study.Table 43 Comparison of statistics of FLRAS with the previous studyResearcherSample SizeBackground of SubjectsFLRASMeanStd. Dev.Cronbach’sAlphaSaito et al383American(FL beginners) Author of this study127Chinese(senior school students)Just according to Table 42 and Table 43，it can be safely claimed that the overall state of English reading anxiety of senior school students in China is very serious. Especially when pared with the mean (American foreign language beginners) which is demonstrated in Table 43，the mean of Chinese senior school students is the highest but the standard deviation () is the lowest, which reveals that the phenomenon of high anxiety occurring in English reading of Chinese high students is not individual or extreme but relatively mon and normal.In China, reading has always been one of the important aspects in English teaching and leaning form any years, but why is the degree of reading anxieties of senior school students much higher than that of FL beginners of American? The author of the present study tries to explore some reasons based on the conclusions of the previous study.Firstly, this might correspond with the differences in“education culture”(Shi amp。 Liu, 2006:41). Formed in the tradition and practice, education culture is“a system about the roles of learners and teachers, the nature of leaning, and the understandings of how to learn”(Shi amp。 Liu，2006:41). The differences of tradition in education between the Western and China have influence on the training of foreign language reading ability and habits (shi amp。 Liu 2006). Cortazzi amp。 Jin(1996:70) claim that western foreign language teaching and learning“focus on the skill development with the four centers: leaner, task, munication and function”. However, it has been a tradition in English education in China that the teacher is the center in class and intensive reading is the most important point. The consequence is that“too much caring is given to the separate language points and the dependence on the syntax is exceedingly heavy”(Liu amp。 Bever, 2002:222).Secondly, courses problems designing may also contribute to the results. In the English courses of senior school students in China, the teaching materials seldom contain elements concerning western culture. As a result, when students e across those reading material with regard to the western culture, they will feel unfamiliar and nervous.Thirdly, subjects in the study of Saito et al.’s learned foreign language for less than one year，“more class time is allocated for speaking and listening(60%)” (Saito et al., 1999:204).So in their eyes, for American foreign language beginners, reading may not be as important as in China. And even vocabulary and grammar in their beginning should be relatively simpler than what Chinese under graduates learn, which may be one of the reasons why. American foreign language beginners have lowed reading anxiety than Chinese senior school students who have learned English at least for 6 years. Classification of Reading Anxiety Groups Based on the investigation，the high，moderate and low foreign language reading anxiety groups could be divided according to the method of Ganschow amp。Sparks’ s(1996). As it is mentioned above，subjects scoring one or more standard deviations above the sample mean are identified as highanxiety。 and those one or more standard deviations below the sample mean are identified a lowanxiety。 those between + and standard deviations from the sample mean are identified as moderateanxiety. So the groups are classified as the Table44:Table 4－4 Descriptive statistics for subjects with different states of foreign language reading anxietyAnxiety GroupNPercent MeanStandard DeviationHigh22Moderate83 Low22 Performance on English Reading TestThe following two tables demonstrate the descriptive statistics for the scores of subjects on the reading test. Table 45 displays the overall statistics such as mean, standard deviation，the minimum and them maximum. According to the requirement of final exams, the full mark of reading prehension should be 40, so the mean indicates the moderate level of subjects’ English reading. Table4－6shows the frequencies of scores performed by 127subjects.Table 4－5 General descriptive statistics for scores on reading test N Valid127 Missing0Mean Std. Deviation Minimum MaximumTable4－6 Frequencies of scores by subjectsFrequencyPercentValid percentCumulative PercentValid 2 89913231515141351Total127With the help of the division group method discussed above，readers are classified into unsuccessful，moderate and successful readers according to the statistics in the two tables above. Subjects who get one standard deviation or more above the mean are identified as successful readers。 those between + and are moderate。 and those one standard deviation or more below the mean are unsuccessful readers.Table 4－7 Classification of successful and unsuccessful readers based on scores of test paperReaders’ CategoryNPercentMeanStd. DeviationUnsuccessful19Moderate89