An exploration of foreign language anxiety and english. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to investigate the effects of foreign language anxiety and test anxiety on foreign language test performance and to see which one is more effective in this concern. Foreign language classroom anxiety scale horwitz, et al,1986flcas, hereafterwhich is designed to measureanxietyspecificallyfoundinaforeignlanguage. It was developed to investigate the specific factors of foreign language anxiety. This study investigated causes of learners speaking anxiety in foreign language classroom with the reference to grade nine in mizan secondary and preparatory school in bench maji zone in snnpr. Choi language anxiety in second language writing 4 research spotlight on l2 writing anxiety and on efl contexts. This 36item foreign language classroom anxiety scale was directly adopted from that in lius and liu and jacksons studies which was adapted from the scale developed by horwitz et al. This study aimed to investigate the latent constructs in the foreign language classroom anxiety scale using a research context of japanese undergraduates who learn english as a foreign language. The study conducted both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis against two different groups of japanese undergraduate students. Mar 14, 2018 this study aimed to investigate the latent constructs in the foreign language classroom anxiety scale using a research context of japanese undergraduates who learn english as a foreign language. With the increase in globalization, the study of english has become common in saudi arabia, but students experiences of foreign language anxiety fla have been underexamined. Foreign language anxiety of students studying english.
The participants completed the foreign language classroom anxiety scale flcas. Foreign language classroom anxiety scale horwitz, e. Foreign language classroom anxiety scale flcas including 33 items. Second, few achievement studies have looked at the subtle effects of anxiety on foreign language learning. Foreign language classroom anxiety scale, the english as a foreign language test anxiety, and the english learning selfefficacy scale in the present study were. Blackwell publishing, for permission to reproduce three items from the input anxiety scale, in macintyre, p. The flcas is a 33item, selfreport measure, scored on a fivepoint likert scale, ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree, and was developed to capture the specific essence of foreign language anxiety. Often credited with introducing the construct of fla foreign language anxiety as a situationspeci. In order to gauge the student levels of language anxiety, the foreign language classroom anxiety scale flcas has been used in the majority of the research involving anxiety. Only the research by gardner utilized a measure relevant to language anxiety, and it was restricted to french classroom anxiety. Horwitz, preliminaryevidence of the reliof induced anxietyon the denotative and interpretivecon ability and validity. Foreign language reading anxiety in a chinese as a foreign. Physical, emotional, expressive, and verbal reactions 3 cognitive tension when their expectations about the content and organization of a course are not met, and affective tension when there is unsatisfactory interaction with other learners or the instructor spielmann and radnofsky, 2001. Results of the study showed that there was a significant discrepancy between foreign.
The new questionnaire, called the arabic foreign language anxiety questionnaire. Is the foreign language classroom anxiety scale measuring. Classroom anxiety scale flcas and the foreign language reading anxiety scale flras, b a background information questionnaire, and c reading performance scores. Students perspectives on foreign language anxiety eric. Anxiety is found to have a detrimental effect on students confidence, selfesteem and level of participation. Participants were first given the foreign language classroom anxiety scale.
Use the link below to share a fulltext version of this article with your friends and colleagues. I never feel quite sure of myself when i am speaking in my foreign language class. Pdf foreign language learning anxiety has long been recognized as one of the factors affecting the effectiveness of language learning but. They developed their foreign language classroom anxiety scale flcas based on these three components. The hflcas is a 33item likerttype scale with five possible responses ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Also, according to daly 1978, writing apprehension. So foreign language classroom anxiety can be thought of in two ways, as a selfconcept, selfexpression, identity anxiety or as a development of negative experiences, in negative environments. Pdf revisiting the foreign language classroom anxiety scale. The underlying reason is that there is a lack of an appropriate measurement tool for fla among children. The effects of foreign language anxiety are particularly evident in the foreign language classroom, and anxiety is a strong indicator of academic performance. While the author of this measure recommends the use of one standard. For each statement, pleaseindicate whe slideshare uses cookies to improve functionality and performance, and to provide you with relevant advertising. Cheng, horwitz, and schallert 1999 stated that writing anxiety is a languageskill specific anxiety, which is different from a general classroom type of anxiety p.
Anxiety is the subjective feeling of tension, apprehen. The effects of foreign language anxiety and test anxiety on. The feelings may stem from any second language context whether it is associated with the productive skills of speaking and writing or the receptive skills of reading and listening. Let us now turn to explore the causes of language anxiety in students and the effects it can have on them. The questionnaire administered to the students was based on the foreign language classroom anxiety scale flcas developed by horwitz, horwitz, and cope 1986. Wherever a person is learning a language as a result of living in the country where it is spoken, or learning it with an instructor in a classroom, we will use the term foreign language learning. Saudi arabia and other arab countries are culturally distinct from the western world, where the most popular assessments of fla were developed. Causes of foreign language learning anxiety the causes of foreign language learning anxiety have been a major focus of research.
The evidence for the effect of language anxiety on achievement is welldocumented. First, exploratory factor analysis was used to extract. Therefore, reading anxiety is a distinct phenomenon from. Speaking anxiety in a foreign language classroom in. Accordingly, two questionnaires and a checklist were used. Mixed research method was used to conduct the study. Saudi arabia and other arab countries are culturally distinct from the. In their theory, horwitz, horwitz and cope 1986 acknowledged the uniqueness of foreign language anxiety and introduced the foreign language classroom anxiety scale flcas as an instrument to measure anxiety levels as evidenced by negative performance expectancies and social comparisons, psychophysiological symptoms, and avoidance behaviours. Participants were 97 nonenglish major college students in an ordinary university in china. Foreign language classroom anxiety scale flcas acewild.
This study was an attempt to investigate the relationship between efl teachers effective classroom management and efl learners anxiety and learning strategies. Causes, manifestations, and implications of language anxiety. Efl teachers effective classroom management and learners. Foreign language classroom anxiety scale horwitz, et al,1986flcas,hereafterwhich is designed to measureanxietyspecificallyfoundinaforeignlanguage. Pdf anxiety in learning english as a foreign language. One area of research has examined situational variables, for example, course activities, course level, course organization, and instructor behavior jackson, 2002. Introduction foreign language anxiety has been discussed since 1980as by many researchers e. Language anxiety and its effect on oral performance in.
Therefore, reading anxiety is a distinct phenomenon from foreign language anxiety in general. Foreign language reading anxiety in a chinese as a foreign language context 156 reading in a foreign language 291 language use. Subjects of the study were one hundred fifty four systematically selected students and eleven purposively selected teachers teaching english in. Investigating the causes of learners speaking anxiety in.
The current study is motivated by the gap in the current literature about foreign language classroom anxiety, namely the underlying construct of fl anxiety with regard to the understudied relationship between anxiety, proficiency, and multilingualism. Comparison of two models of foreign language classroom. Although foreign language anxiety levels of the students were found at moderate level both in preparatory class and in fourth grade, students had slightly higher anxiety level in fourth grade than they had in preparatory class. Strategy inventory for language learning sill, foreign language classroom anxiety scale flcas, and murdochs checklist. Foreign language is not intended to be in contrast with second language. Flcas measures the level of foreign language anxiety in a classroom setting via a paperbased questionnaire. First, exploratory factor analysis was used to extract factors.
Exploring the components of the foreign language classroom. Gardner, 1994a, the subtle effects of language anxiety on cognitive processing in the second language, language learning, 442, 283305. Students were divided into three groups based on their scores on the foreign language classroom anxiety scale flcas. Pdf foreign language learning anxiety researchgate.
Therefore, the purpose of the study is to investigate the effects of foreign language anxiety and test anxiety on foreign language test performance and. Although research has not clearly demonstrated the effect. Foreign language classroom anxiety horwitz 1986 the. It is an instrument that was designed by horwitz and contains 33 statements that are assessed on a 5 point scale 1 strongly agree, 5 strongly disagree. From a perspective on foreign language learning anxiety to. Foreign language classroom anxiety scale flcas statements 3 refer to how you feel about learning arabic. Questionnaires are the personalized form of foreign language classroom anxiety scale flcas which was developed by horwitz et al in order to investigate the cause of speaking anxiety. The primary research in fl anxiety has centered on the difficulties caused by anxiety on oral performance aida, 1994. In this paper, one of the skillbased constructs, foreign language listening anxiety flla, is investigated to explore the internal. And also, interview semi structured interview and written reflection were conducted with purposively selected teachers and students to identify the cause. Foreign language anxiety, or xenoglossophobia, is the feeling of unease, worry, nervousness and apprehension experienced in learning or using a second or foreign language. Although fla forms a serious problem in the foreign language learning process for all learners, the effects of fla on children have been mainly overlooked. It is meant to assess the degree of foreign language anxiety in the efl classroom and in conversation with native speakers of english.
Reading anxiety affected the number of important high pausal units recalled, whereas foreign language classroom anxiety affected the number of supporting mid pausal units recalled. Discussion it is paramount that the individual results are discussed with the foreign language teacher of the student, so that adequate measures can be taken to. Revisiting the foreign language classroom anxiety scale flcas. Results of the study showed that there was a significant discrepancy between foreign language reading anxiety among course levels, individual. Foreign language classroom anxiety, the modern language journal, 702, 1252. This study addresses the issues of language anxiety and its effect on the oral performance of students in classroom. View the article pdf and any associated supplements and figures for a period of 48 hours. Classroom anxiety scale flcas, to measure foreign language anxiety.
This scale integrating three related components, i. After the introduction of the flcas and a number of other measures of foreign language anxiety e. Foreign language anxiety fla has been mainly associated with adult language learners. Foreign language classroom anxiety scale flcas the example above shows how a students level of anxiety decreased in each of the three categories, implicitly in the overall score. Revisiting the foreign language classroom anxiety scale. Thus, this study recruits 100 college students to fill out the foreign language classroom anxiety scale to investigate language learning anxiety.
Horwitz, foreign language classroom anxiety second language learning, languagelearning,27 1977, scale, unpubl. The flcas is a 33item individual self report likert scale that reflects three things. The effects of foreign language anxiety and test anxiety. Foreign language learning anxiety in japanese efl university. Then, this study designs and develops an affective tutoring system to conduct an empirical study. The participants also completed the foreign language classroom anxiety scale flcas developed by horwitz, horwitz, and cope 1986. Foreign language classroom anxiety wiley online library. Two types of interviews and a questionnaire were used for this study. Foreign language anxiety in inclass speaking activities. Esl students language anxiety in inclass oral presentations. After horwitz, horwitz, and cope 1986 proposed that a specific anxiety construct which they called foreign language anxiety was responsible for students uncomfortable experiences in language classes and offered an instrument, the foreign language classroom anxiety scale flcas, to measure this anxiety, findings concerning anxiety and. The flcas also investigates other anxieties such as communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation. These emphases on the effect of language anxiety such as beliefs and behaviors have. Foreign language learning anxiety has long been recognized as one of the factors affecting the effectiveness of language learning but research findings have shown conflicting results.