A Study on Correlation of Risk-Taking and the Oral Production of English Majors in China

Risk-taking refers to the tendency to engage in behaviors that have the potential to be harmful or dangerous, yet at the same time provides the opportunity for some kinds of outcome that can be perceived as positive. Ely (1986) and Bang (1999) have mentioned the relationship between risk-taking and oral production in the process of English learning. However, few researches have set their foot into the correlation between risk-taking of English majors and their oral production. Hence, it is indispensable to carry out this study to fill the gap. The study aims to investigate the general situation of English majors’ risk-taking in oral production; how does risk-taking of English majors correlate with fluency, accuracy and complexity in oral production; what is the difference between high risk-taking and the low risk-taking of English majors in the oral production- fluency, accuracy and complexity? And if there exists some differences, how these related to risk-taking? The results show that the English majors’ risk-taking is at a relatively low level; there is a positive and strong correlation between risk-taking of English majors and the two aspects of oral production- fluency, accuracy, and there is no correlation between risk-taking and complexity; there exists difference between high risk-taking and low risk-taking in oral fluency and accuracy for English majors. The higher risk-taking subjects are able to produce more fluent and accurate sentences than the low risk-taking subjects. However, no difference has been found between high risk-taking and low risk-taking in the oral production of complexity.