Anxiously Anxious: How Foreign Language Anxiety Affects Students’ Academic Performance (original) (raw)
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This study explores the relationship among three variables: cognitive load, foreign language anxiety and academic performance; focusing specifically on tasks such as oral presentations and listening comprehensions. The author hypothesised that these tasks would elevate the rate of anxiety within a pupil thus affecting and lowering their test scores. In addition to academic causes of anxiety the author has investigated variables such as social aspects that have been found to elevate foreign language anxiety in children. Several pedagogical strategies were also offered to assist instructors in helping learners acknowledge, cope with, and reduce anxiety, as well as to encourage them to make the learning context less stressful to their students.
Journal of College …, 2010
The present study examines anxiety in English undergraduate classes with regard to the type of situations that provoke anxiety during different stages of the learning process and the relationship of anxiety with learners' achievement. Participants of the study include 149 undergraduates enrolled in second and sixth semester of different departments of University of Sargodha who are learning English as a foreign language. The questionnaire used in this study is the abbreviated form of Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS). An inventory is also used to determine different situations that provoke anxiety. Finally, students' GPA in English classes is taken to find its relationship with language anxiety. The results show that language anxiety and achievement are negatively related to each other. It is also found that female students are less anxious in learning English as a foreign language than male students. 'Speaking in front of others' is rated as the biggest cause of anxiety followed by 'worries about grammatical mistakes', 'pronunciation' and 'being unable to talk spontaneously'. It is suggested that the classroom environment should be encouraging and motivating. Moreover, teachers need to deal with anxiety-provoking situations carefully.
Foreign Language Anxiety and Performance of Language Learners in Preparatory Classes
This study aims to determine whether there is a relationship between foreign language anxiety levels and language performance of 331 A1 level university preparatory students learning English as a foreign language in Turkey by Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale. Foreign language anxiety levels were measured by FLCAS, and language performance was determined by the achievement test scores. The findings of the study are: (1) the participants in the current study exhibited relatively low levels of anxiety in their English classes (2) female students were more apt to suffer from foreign language anxiety; (3) there was a statistically significant negative relationship between foreign language anxiety and language performance. Keywords: Foreign language anxiety, language performance, gender
Anxiety in Second Language in Relation to Students’ Speaking Performance
Sprin Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Language anxiety is thought to hinder language learning, and if the learners are truly anxious in class, they are probably not fully engaged, if at all. With the help of the Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety Scale (FLSAS) and a free-speaking exercise, this study intends to ascertain the association between language anxiety and speaking performance among undergraduate and graduate students. Frequency count, percent, mean, and Kruskal Wallis were used as statistical techniques to total, tabulate, and further analyze and interpret scores. An extensive, unstructured phenomenological interview with the students was undertaken to ascertain the causes of their language anxiety, and the thematic analysis was carried out using Giorgi's phenomenological method. Students did less satisfactorily in speaking performances and were found to be moderately worried. Language anxiety and speaking abilities, particularly in vocabulary and comprehension, are significantly correlated. This is ascribe...
Foreign language anxiety and learning
2013
This study investigates foreign language anxiety that can have some serious effects not only on the students’ performance but also on the whole process of learning among students learning a new language. Studies have shown that students who suffer from stress, anxiety or nervousness face considerable complications in foreign language acquisition. Their performance abilities in acquiring the new language are impeded and thwarted and that will illicit to difficulty or failure in second language acquisition. Keywords : anxiety, language acquisition, thwarted performance, cognition, the negative impact.
Examination of University Students' Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety
Examination of University Students’ Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety, 2016
Anxiety has been found to interfere with many types of learning. And, many researches such as MacIntyre and Gardner (1989) indicate there is a negative relationship between anxiety and second language learning achievement. In current study, it was aimed to determine whether the students' foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA) display significant differences on the basis of gender, language level, receiving English preparatory training, and the kinds of high school they graduated from. The research group included 320 male (65.6 %) and 168 female (34.4 %) English preparatory students at Istanbul Technical University. Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale developed by Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) and adapted in Turkish by Aydın (2001) was used as the data collection tool. Data were analysed using independent samples t-test, one-way ANOVA and the Scheffe's post-hoc test. T-test results showed female students' FLCA score is higher. But, there was not a statistically significant relationship between FLCA and receiving preparatory training. ANOVA results indicated high school differentiation does not affect it. Yet, Scheffe's test findings demonstrated the students' FLCA change over depending on their language level. In other words, female students are more appropriate to suffer from FLCA and FLCA is affected by students' language level.
This study aims to determine whether there is a relationship between foreign language anxiety levels and language performance of 331 A1 level university preparatory students learning English as a foreign language in Turkey by Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale. Foreign language anxiety levels were measured by FLCAS, and language performance was determined by the achievement test scores. The findings of the study are: (1) the participants in the current study exhibited relatively low levels of anxiety in their English classes (2) female students were more apt to suffer from foreign language anxiety; (3) there was a statistically significant negative relationship between foreign language anxiety and language performance.
Foreign Language Anxiety among Students Studying Foreign Languages
2014
Background: Learning a foreign language is multi-dimensional and considered a source of stress. The purpose of the present study is to investigate foreign language classroom anxiety among university students in Jordan. The study makes use of a cross-sectional correlation design to collect data from 488 university students, employing a self-reported questionnaire of Foreign Language Anxiety. Results: 63.4% (n = 310) of the 488 students suffer foreign language classroom anxiety; mean score for communication apprehension is 54.7 (SD = 11.0), while the mean score for fear of negative evaluation is 22.8 (SD = 5.6), and mean score of test anxiety is 17.7 (SD = 3.1). The analysis shows that the highest anxiety level is experienced in terms of fear of negative evaluation and testing, while communication apprehension has the lowest level of fear. Conclusion: University students of foreign languages in Jordan have a high level of anxiety, which is undoubtedly associated with the level of acad...
This study was carried out in order to identify to what extent the Turkish students’ English classroom anxiety affects their academic achievement in English language. In this quantitative descriptive study, a correlational survey model was employed, and the convenience sampling was done. In order to collect data, the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale developed by Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) was used. The latest validity-reliability of this scale was conducted by Gürsu (2011), in which the three-factor structure of the scale was confirmed. The test-retest correlation of the scale was found as .85. This study was conducted with 271 university engineering students receiving compulsory prep-class education at Fırat University during the academic year of 2012-2013. The data of the study were analyzed with the logistic regression analysis. According to the findings, the foreign language anxiety at the beginning of the prep-class education was not effective as the predictor of the academic achievement. On the other hand, it was observed that the students’ anxiety, at the end of the education, accounted for the academic failure with its speaking anxiety in language class dimension, and predicted academic achievement with its interest towards language class dimension. This study revealed that the students’ anxiety evolving and ever-increasing during their English prep-education powerfully predicted their academic performance. Whatever its source may be, anxiety in learning environments is mostly an unwanted situation. Therefore, it has always been underlined in the literature that in order to facilitate learners’ language learning process, the effect of anxiety should be minimized
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.