Is " Facilitating Anxiety " All in Your Head (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Impact of Anxiety in Learning English as a Foreign Language
Debilitating anxiety is a psychological and mental barrier that blocks foreign language learners from acquiring the foreign language and might lead to having bad outcomes. While on the other hand, facilitating anxiety plays a strong predictor in language achievement over time, and it might lead to having positive outcomes on learners' motives and attitudes. Thus, the primary purpose of this review is to explore the existing literature on foreign language anxiety. Second, to give further details on its relationship with other variables, and also its types. Finally, it clarifies the causes of language anxiety and how it affects language learners' abilities.
Anxiety and Second Language Learning
1995
Anxiety can be an e]ement impairing the language ]earning process, consuming attentten and cognitive resources that could otherwise be spent on learning. The purpose of the present paper is to examine the sources and treatment of anxiety occurring in language learning situations which rnay offer suggestions for English teaching. First part tries to reveal the sources of anxiety. Second part addresses the problem of how to manage anxiety.
This study examined the relationships between students' foreign language classroom anxiety and cognitive test anxiety and their College English Test Band 4 (CET-4) performance. A questionnaire was distributed to 921 Chinese university students to understand the nature and degree of of the examined relationships. Follow-up interviews with twelve students were used to shed further light on uncovering mechanisms of relationships found in the survey. Results revealed three factors of anxiety, explaining 43.14% of the total variance examined in the questionnaire items. Means, standard deviations, the internal consistency for each factor, and zero-order correlations among the three factors were calculated. Correlation and multiple regression of the anxiety factors and test scores were then conducted. Results confirmed that cognitive test anxiety factor was a significant predictor of language achievement. Interview results did not fully support the relationships found in the survey. Most students did not perceive themselves to be very anxious in their university settings, either in classrooms or in testing situations. However, they did express their anxiety toward English speaking skills in the classroom. The differential perspectives of anxiety revealed from both analyses indicate that a better understanding of language classroom anxiety and cognitive test anxiety can help students and teachers to optimize their foreign language learning and teaching practices.
7. LANGUAGE ANXIETY AND ACHIEVEMENT
This chapter considers the literature on language learning anxiety in an effort to clarify the relationship between anxiety and second language learning. It will first argue that langua ge anxiety is a specific anxiety rather than a tra it anxiety and discuss how this conceptualization has helped clarify the research literature. After Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986) proposed that a specific anxiety construct which they called Fore ign Langu age An xiety was r espo nsible fo r stud ents unco mfor table experiences in langua ge classes and o ffered an instrum ent, the Foreign Langu age Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), to measu re this anxiety, findings concerning anxiety and language achieve ment have be en relatively uniform, indicating a consistent moderate negative relationship between anxiety and achievement. However, some rese archers (Sp arks and Gans chow and the ir colleagues) have suggested that poor langu age learning is a cause r ather than a resu lt of language anxiety. This review conclud es that anxiety is indeed a cau se of poo r language learning in some individuals and discusses po ssible source s of this anxiety, including difficulty in authentic self-presentatio n and various langu age teaching pra ctices. In addition, it reports on new trends in language anxiety research that attempt to identify aspects of language learning (e.g., reading anxiety or writing anxiety) which provoke anxiety for some individuals.
The Role of Anxiety in Second Language Learning
Anxiety is an important factor in second language learning so that it can filter amount of input which learners are exposed to. In other words, Learners with high level of anxiety are poor in performance, whereas learners with low level of anxiety absorb more input. Therefore, analyzing this issue can be helpful in the field of second language learning. For this reason, this paper focuses on origins of language anxiety such as perfectionism, fear of negative evaluation and self-confidence. After that, it offers some solutions and strategies for L2 teachers to reach their educational goals.
The Manifestation of English Learning Anxiety in
Journal of Classroom Interaction, 2019
This study investigates students' English learning anxiety within the context of Kuwaiti ESL (English as a Second Language) classrooms in a private university. The aim of this study is to find out the manifestation of the anxiety in the ESL classroom and suggest some teaching strategies in order to effectively reduce language anxiety in the learners. A questionnaire adapted from Gardner's AMTSB (2004) version was used to assess the attributes of interest. The results reported having moderate to high level of anxiety in English classrooms, and possible teaching strategies suggested by ESL instructors which may reduce anxiety in the students.
Anxiety in Foreign Language Learning
The aim of this research is to analyse the phenomenon of anxiety in the situation of foreign language learning and teaching. A survey has been carried out to ascertain the state of anxiety among students of Ca' Foscari University of Venice specializing in foreign languages. Basing my analysis on the data collected using a questionnaire FLCAS 1 I will attempt to verify whether university students are affected by the feeling of anxiety with regard to the foreign language learning. Further research query is to decide which of the three aspects dominates among anxious students: communication apprehension, test anxiety, or fear of negative evaluation. After having analyzed the data, I will discuss the results and draw some conclusions.