This book presents original research on the effects of foreign language anxiety (FLA) on young language learners. It includes suggestions for alleviating FLA and encouraging foreign language enjoyment which will ultimately facilitate more effective language learning and support children’s psychosocial wellbeing.

This article analyzes the relationship between Korean mothers’ beliefs about early childhood English education and preschoolers’ attitudes toward English learning. English experiences in the home were also projected to be significantly related to the aforementioned factors. Participants consisted of 159 mother–child pairs in South Korea. This study yielded three main results. First, correlations were found between the mothers’ education level and all three factors, while the fathers’ education and family income levels correlated only with preschoolers’ English experiences at home. Second, the subfactors of the mothers’ beliefs, the preschoolers’ home English experiences, and their attitudes toward learning English were revealed to be partly related. Third, the study showed that preschoolers’ English experiences at home mediated the relationship between the mothers’ beliefs in the importance of English education and the preschoolers’ attitudes. In effect, while the mothers’ beliefs about early childhood English education did not directly affect their children’s attitudes, indirect effects were found to be mediated by English experiences at home. Based on these results, we propose that it is necessary for parents to create a rich language environment in the home that engenders in children positive foreign language learning attitudes.

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