Pedagogical perspectives on the sources and implications of foreign language anxiety

As has been stated before, earlier research on FLA has proved that anxiety has implications on language learning. In order to understand these implications, we need to examine the sources of anxiety from a pedagogical perspective. This chapter summarizes the findings of relevant earlier studies related to the sources of FLA and the factors affecting it, and discusses these sources of anxiety from a pedagogical point of view. The results and discussion sections in chapters 5 and 6 reflect on the findings discussed here.

Based on the analysis of their study, Young theorizes the following: “language anxiety arises from:

1) personal and interpersonal anxieties; 2) learner beliefs about language learning; 3) instructor beliefs about language teaching; 4) instructor-learner interactions; 5) classroom procedures; and 6) language testing” (1991: 427). Examples of learner-related beliefs, personal or interpersonal anxieties are: low self-esteem, competitiveness or comparison to peers, low self-perceived foreign language ability, and unrealistic beliefs, such as, memorizing all grammar rules or pronouncing the TL “perfectly” (Young, 1991: 427–428). Teachers who believe that intimidation promotes students’ performance or object being too friendly with the students because they fear losing authority are examples of instructor beliefs that contribute to FLA, while “a harsh manner of correcting student errors” is a good example of the instructor-learner interactions that cause FLA (Young, 1991: 428–429). Examples of classroom procedures, or in other words, certain situations in the classroom that cause anxiety are mostly related to oral language production in front of others, such as, giving presentations or having to volunteer an answer (Young, 1991: 429). Language testing situations cause the most anxiety in learners when the test situation is new, ambiguous or highly evaluative (ibid.).

One of Toth’s most crucial findings related to the pedagogical implications of FLA was, that a high level of L2 proficiency does not always amount to a confident second language user. They claim that advanced L2 learners face high expectations from others as well as from themselves and therefore have a high ambition to speak the foreign language as effortlessly and as elaborately as native speakers do. Therefore “discrepancies between this ambition and their actual L2-related self-perceptions can be a great source of anxiety and frustration for them”. What is more, Toth’s open-ended question and interview results indicate that “instructional practices, classroom atmosphere, classroom procedures, instructor qualities, teacher attitudes toward learners, methods of error correction and other teacher behaviours…are seen by learners as factors that…affect how much anxiety they experience in the L2 classroom” (Toth, 2010: 189).

Huang points out that from a pedagogical perspective FLA stems from the students’ personal factors, the teachers’ instructional methods, and the learning environment, which is of course, strongly affected by the instructional methods (2012: 7, 106–107). The open-ended questions in Huang’s two studies on the FLA of Chinese university freshmen proved that the greatest self-perceived sources of FLA for them were related to self-self-perceived insufficient English/foreign language skills, personal issues (e.g. lack of motivation, lack of confidence, or shyness), lack of effective learning strategies (e.g. insufficient class preparation), teacher factors (e.g. teachers’

excessively strict behavior or unclear instructions), grading/testing concerns (e.g. test anxiety or worry about receiving negative feedback), difficulty of the foreign language, and poor attitude towards learning (Huang, 2012: 108–117). The former of these categories proved to be the greatest source of anxiety for the participants with 43,3% of the responses in the first study, and 32,1% of the responses in the second study (ibid.). Grading/testing concerns (6,7% of responses) as well as

poor attitude towards learning (5,4% of responses) were the smallest sources of anxiety for the studied groups of Chinese university students (ibid.).

Tikkanen’s semi-structured theme interviews with 13 Finnish foreign language university students proved, that the causes (or sources) of anxiety are related to the learner, the teacher, and the peers (2014: 31–34, 44–73). The identified causes of FLA related to the learner were: being a language student, perceived inadequacy/fraudulence, i.e. imposter syndrome, perfectionism, and inability to express authentic personality (Tikkanen, 2014: 44–57). The causes of FLA connected to the teacher had to do with the teachers’ behavior or the learners’ beliefs about the teacher: “The participants feel anxious when they see the teacher as an observer who sees and corrects all language errors and demands perfect language output from his or her students” Tikkanen explains (2014: 57).

Tikkanen’s results also suggest that factors related to the peers cause FLA in some learners: The participants reported that if they know the other students in the class, they feel less anxious because they feel more comfortable about making mistakes around familiar people (2014: 63–65).

Furthermore, they reported that their anxiety stems from the belief that the peers are more skilled in the TL than they are (Tikkanen, 2014: 66–67). Regarding the implications of FL anxiety on learning Tikkanen states the following: “anxiety severely affects learners’ eagerness to persevere with their efforts to learn” (2014: 73).

To summarize and to simplify, the sources of FLA in the language classroom are related to the learner, the teacher (or the instructional methods), and the learning environment, and FLA interferes with the students’ ability to learn the TL. Fortunately, teachers can also aid learners in overcoming FLA. Acknowledging the existence of FLA is the first step teachers must take to eliminate or minimize anxiety in the foreign language classroom (Horwitz et al., 1986: 131). Young

advices the teachers in this matter as follows: “It might be useful for instructors to consciously examine their own language teaching beliefs to help dispel those beliefs that negatively impact learners” (1991: 431). As earlier studies have demonstrated, the teachers’ role in helping the learners overcome FLA cannot be neglected. Therefore, chapter 6.1 discusses some of the actions that teachers can take in order to help learners who suffer from symptoms of FLA.