Description
This sequential explanatory mixed-methods study examines the relationships between listening anxiety, strategy use and performance among 436 first-year EFL learners at a private Guangdong college, using the Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Scale, Listening Comprehension Strategy Questionnaire and PRETCO-B Listening Test for quantitative data, analyzed via bootstrapped Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling. Results show cognitive, metacognitive and practice listening strategies positively predict performance (β=0.177, p=0.003), while listening anxiety exerts a significant negative direct effect on performance (β=-0.170, p=0.008); higher anxiety correlates with greater strategy use (β=0.484, p<0.001), and listening strategies significantly partially mediate the anxiety-performance negative link (indirect effect=0.085, p=0.010), confirming strategic engagement mitigates anxiety’s detrimental impact on comprehension, though the 3.1% explained variance in performance indicates other unmeasured contributing factors. Semi-structured interviews with 15 participants further unpacked learners’ strategy use, motivation drivers and novel anxiety triggers across knowledge, text, individual, environmental, technological and psychological dimensions, offering theoretical insights for EFL metacognitive awareness research and practical implications for integrating strategy instruction and multimodal curriculum design to reduce learner anxiety.