Research in foreign language learning has notably revealed that foreign language anxiety has been a crucial area in applied linguistics. Therefore, this study tends to give a comprehensive review of literature on foreign language anxiety. This review also tries to add an additional explanation to the earlier studies of this issue. It clarifies the concept of foreign language anxiety and how it is different from other related types of anxiety. Finally, it shows the main causes and effects of foreign language anxiety that influence language learners.

Speaking and communicating in English language can be a traumatic experience for many Chinese EFL university learners in class and in public. In many situations, they prefer to remain silent and passive listeners. This study aims to detect linguistic, psychological, socio-cultural hindrances and lends a sympathetic ear to Chinese university EFL learners enrolled in a public sector university in Wuhan and sheds light on their perspective that cause apprehension in communicating English as a FL/SL. Horwitz's FLA, Krashen's input hypothesis, affective filter hypothesis, Tanveer's learners' perspective, Vygotsky's and Feuerstein's social constructivism have been used as theoretical frameworks. The present study employed a qualitative method for collecting data and directed content analysis was conducted with deductive and inductive approach. Focus group discussion and semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight Chinese EFL university students within an academic and social context. The respondents were from social sciences discipline and had enrolled in fall semester for attending one course of English oral communication skills in the department of FL. The results of the directed content analysis indicated that respondents experienced communication apprehension and anxiety due to their own self-related psychological, cognitive, linguistic, academic, social and cultural aspects. They felt anxiety due to personality traits, low language proficiency, perceived academic issues, scholastic competence, poor pronunciation, and above all lack of lexical knowledge in TL.

Anxiety has been an important topic of discussion in foreign language learning. Listening comprehension anxiety can have negative effects on learners' performance. Therefore, this paper aims at exploring the effects of listening comprehension anxiety on Saudi English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners at Majmaah University, Saudi Arabia. This qualitative case study research design involves 15 participants. The findings show that the learners experienced high level of listening comprehension anxiety in their listening classes. Three main themes emerged from the interview data in relation to the effects of listening comprehension anxiety from the learners' perspectives: 1) personal effect: losing concentration, feeling depressed and avoiding listening skill classes, 2) social effect: isolating oneself from others and showing bad behavior, and 3) academic effect: getting low performance and achievement.

Speaking is an essential and fundamental aspect of human Language. By acquiring and learning language, individuals can speak and conversate with each other, transmit information and interact. However, in practical aspects, it is somehow, difficult for second and foreign language learners to practice English in their day-to-day life. Despite being competent in their relevant field, many people and professionals worldwide endeavor and struggle due to lack of good communication and speaking skill. Language disorders can be one of the hindrances for many people including EFL university leaners. This study was guided by socio-cultural theory of Vygotsky, comprehensible input hypothesis of Krashen and foreign language anxiety theory of Horwitz. By adopting semi-structured interviews and focus group discussion technique, this study unveiled the psychological, cognitive and socio-cultural perceived hindrances that cause foreign or second language speaking anxiety in Pakistani EFL university learners. The participants of this study were recruited from public sector university in Lahore, Pakistan and were non-English majors (N=8) and aged between (20-26). The collected data was analyzed by employing content analysis technique. The findings indicated that speaking anxiety can originate from students’ own self-perceptions related to thinking process, cognition and linguistic issues such as vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, unfamiliarity with topics, genre, psychological and affective factors like anxiety, anxious and introvert personality, low self-esteem, lack of confidence, pre-university language experience, time pressure, fear of negative evaluation, instructors’ remarks; socio-cultural factors like lack of comprehensible input and exposure to TL, gender, and role of parents, geographical background, social status and were detected as speaking anxiety inducing factors. This study ventures to contribute to the existing literature on foreign language speaking anxiety among Pakistani EFL university learners. Thus, it can be practically implied from the above-mentioned factors that maximum exposure to English is of great importance and when learning process is mediated by more knowledgeable others and a person or a learner is scaffolded in the company of more knowledgeable others (parents or teachers) he gets the targeted results. Furthermore, friendly classroom environment can be very effective in overcoming speaking disorders and anxiety. The findings of this qualitative research have practical implications for second and foreign language EFL learning.

Research in foreign language learning has notably revealed that foreign language anxiety has been a crucial area in applied linguistics. Therefore, this study tends to give a comprehensive review of literature on foreign language anxiety. This review also tries to add an additional explanation to the earlier studies of this issue. It clarifies the concept of foreign language anxiety and how it is different from other related types of anxiety. Finally, it shows the main causes and effects of foreign language anxiety that influence language learners.