For decades language researchers have known that anxiety is associated with language learning.
Anxiety is defined as the feeling of worry, fear, nervousness or even panic (Abu-Rabia, 2004: 711;
Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope, 1986: 125; Toth, 2010: 5). In the worst-case scenario, anxiety related to language learning can prevent the learner from reaching desired goals (Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope, 1986: 125). For example, Phillips suggests that language anxiety negatively affects the oral exam performance of university level L2 learners of French (1992: 16, 21–22). Educators should be able to identify signs of foreign language anxiety and support the learners.
Understanding the uniqueness of the individual human mind has long been the focus of psychological studies (Dörnyei, 2005: 1). Because psychology is a focal part of language studies, individual differences have naturally also been researched in the field of linguistics, particularly in the SLA context (Dörnyei, 2005: 2). In the field of psychology this has led to the formation of a subdiscipline called individual difference research (ibid.). Individual differences (IDs) are stable personal characteristics, such as, personality and intelligence, that make us different from one another, and these IDs are variables that affect language learning (Dörnyei, 2005: 1–8). Anxiety is an ID variable in which the current study focuses on. Anxiety in the SLA or L2 context has been researched since the 1970s along with ID and learner characteristics studies (Tikkanen, 2014: 10).
The research has proven, inter alia, that language learning related anxiety is a unique type of anxiety that interferes with language learning and language performance (Gardner, 1985: 34; Horwitz et al., 1986: 127).
I chose to investigate foreign language anxiety in my pro gradu thesis, because I have personal experiences of anxiety related to foreign language learning and foreign language usage situations.
I remember having feelings of anxiety in English lectures, especially in my first years of university studies: I felt nervous when I was called to speak in front of other students. I felt that I did not have a vast enough vocabulary or did not pronounce English sufficiently enough. I was scared that other students might laugh at me. I felt like an imposter among the other English majors, even though in reality I was a proficient English language user. These feelings, or rather, symptoms fit to the description of foreign language anxiety described in Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (Horwitz et al., 1986) and in several other studies conducted later. After reviewing literature on foreign language anxiety, I discovered that anxiety in the L2 context is a quite commonly researched and a rather interesting phenomenon. However, there are gaps in research and consequently, this topic needs to be researched further.
The aim of this study is to examine the foreign language anxiety of Finnish university learners of English. More specifically, the aim is to study the degree, features, and sources of foreign language anxiety, and the factors affecting it among a group of English and non-English major Finnish university students. The focus of this study is on the learners’ own experiences of foreign language anxiety, and therefore the data for the current study is derived from a questionnaire. Students who are studying a foreign language at the university level, i.e. advanced language learners, are a neglected group in foreign language anxiety studies (Toth, 2010: 3). Thus, there is a need for the study of foreign language anxiety experienced by advanced language learners. Furthermore, as this study compares the experiences of two different learner groups, English and non-English majors, and therefore provides us with more fruitful and generalizable results. My ambition is that this study produces research results that may be utilized in the development of language teaching in
Finnish universities. I also aim to aid language learners in overcoming foreign language anxiety by raising awareness on this phenomenon.
From here on out the abbreviation FLA and FL anxiety is used to refer to foreign language anxiety.
These two abbreviations are used interchangeably in the present study. The abbreviation FLA is also commonly used for foreign language acquisition in linguistic research. To avoid confusion, I do not use this term for foreign language acquisition in the current study.
As mentioned earlier, FLA has been studied since the 1970s. However, there are gaps in research, especially related to the FLA of language learners from different proficiency levels and from different countries or cultures. My ambition is to bridge some of these gaps with this study.
Previous studies on FLA have mostly been conducted in the United States and Canada (Toth, 2010:
2; Tikkanen, 2014: 29) and only a handful of studies, such as Pihko (2008, 2009), Renko (2012), Tikkanen (2014), and Mäkinen (2019) have been conducted in Finland. Tikkanen’s Master’s thesis (2014) on advanced language learners' experiences of foreign language anxiety is, to the best of my knowledge, the only extensive study on the FLA of university level English learners conducted in Finland in the 2010s, as Renko (2012) focused on Finnish primary school EFL learners’
perceptions on errors, corrective feedback and foreign language anxiety, and Mäkinen’s (2019) aim was to examine the relationship of communication apprehension and the length of full-time employment among university graduates. Therefore, there is a need for the study of FLA of advanced English learners in the Finnish context. In addition, as mentioned earlier advanced language learners have been a neglected group in earlier FLA studies (Toth, 2010: 3). By diversifying the field of FLA studies, we are able to provide the educators and learners better tools
to cope with FLA. Horwitz et al. (1986: 131) state the following regarding the pedagogical implications of FLA:
“[E]ducators have two options when dealing with anxious students: 1) they can help them learn to cope with the existing anxiety-provoking situation; or 2) they can make the learning context less stressful. But before either option is viable, the teacher must first acknowledge the existence of foreign language anxiety.”
Indeed, recognizing the students’ individual needs and providing students with a safe and supportive learning environment is the basis of high-quality education and comprehensive learning.
The research questions first examine the degree, features and sources of FLA as well as the factors affecting it as experienced by Finnish university learners of English. Second, the research questions compare the differences in the degree, features and sources of FLA between English major and non-English major learners. These research questions are designed in a way that they are in line with Toth’s study (2010) and Tikkanen’s Master’s thesis (2014). Thus, the results of the current study are easily comparable to earlier studies, and will contribute to earlier research of FLA. The research questions are elaborated further in chapter 3.
This study consists of six main chapters. Chapter 2, explains the key terms and conceptualizations, such as FLA and different types of anxieties. This chapter also includes the theoretical background of this thesis consisting of a review of previous studies of FLA, a review of the perspectives and approaches adopted in earlier studies, a review of tests and scales used to measure FLA, as well as a summary of the findings on the sources and implications of FLA from a pedagogical perspective.
Chapter 3 presents the research questions, and chapter 4 describes the data collection process and methods of this study. Moreover, chapter 5 consists of my report on the data analysis process as well as the results of the study. Finally, chapter 6 summarizes the main findings, presents the
limitations and discusses the main accomplishments of the study, as well as presents ideas for further research.