Foreign Language Anxiety in the Classroom

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Foreign Language Anxiety in the Classroom

• Tien-hui Yu ???
• Seton Hall University

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Definition

• Foreign language anxiety a distinct complex of
  self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings, and
  behaviors related to classroom learning arising
  from the uniqueness of the language learning
  process.

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Sources of Anxiety

• Speaking the target language in front of peers
• Teacher-centered classroom
• Fear of losing oneself
• Making errors

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Three Types of Foreign Language Anxiety

(Horwitz,1986)

• (1) Communication apprehension
• (2) Test anxiety
• (3) Fear of negative evaluation

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The Influence of Anxiety

• Severe language learning anxiety causes
  interlocking problems.
• Language anxiety is one of the best predictors of
  foreign language achievement.

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A Case Study

• Instrument
• Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (
  Horwitz, 1986)

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Results

• Anxiety does exist in the Chinese language
  learning classroom.
• Learners from different levels are influenced by
  anxieties.
• Learners who suffered from one of the anxieties
  are affected by the other two anxieties
  simultaneously.
• Learners who experienced higher anxiety levels
  had lower self-esteem and got lower grades, while
  less anxious learners had higher self-esteem and
  got higher grades.

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Pedagogical Implications

1. Coping with the anxiety
2. Making the learning context less stressful

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Coping with Anxiety

• Workshop
• Learning training

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A Less Stressful Classroom

• Reducing communication apprehension anxiety
• Reducing fear of negative evaluation
• Reducing test anxiety

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Conclusion

• No teacher can guarantee that a class will be
  anxiety-free however, teachers should be aware
  of trying to minimize the anxiety in the
  classroom to strengthen language learning
  efficiency.
• For further research, there is a need for
  empirical evidence concerning how effective
  anxiety reducing techniques are in second
  language learning classrooms.