Foreign Language Anxiety in the Classroom Tien-hui Yu 余天蕙 Seton Hall University

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.

Sources of Anxiety  Speaking the target language in front of peers  Teacher-centered classroom  Fear of losing oneself  Making errors  …………

Three Types of Foreign Language Anxiety (Horwitz,1986)  (1) Communication apprehension  (2) Test anxiety  (3) Fear of negative evaluation

The Influence of Anxiety  Severe language learning anxiety causes interlocking problems.  Language anxiety is one of the best predictors of foreign language achievement.

A Case Study Instrument: Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale ( Horwitz, 1986)

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.

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

Coping with Anxiety  Workshop  Learning training

A Less Stressful Classroom RR educing communication apprehension anxiety RR educing fear of negative evaluation RR educing test anxiety

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.