Causes and consequences of foreign language anxiety

Abstract

There is a great deal of research focusing on foreign language anxiety (FLA). Though it is widely conceived as an obvious factor in foreign language learning, yet there are many inconsistent conclusions. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to summarize the most relevant information and research findings on FLA causes and consequences from the very beginning of its study in 1970s up to the present day.

Personality Factors and Foreign Language Pronunciation Anxiety: The Effect of Psycho-Social Training

“…The impact of psychosocial training on the participants' pronunciation and the correlation between pronunciation quality and pronunciation anxiety is the subject of a separate study. However, the current results as well as some previous research (Kralova et al, 2017) indicate the strong positive influence of psycho-social training on FL pronunciation and a significant negative relationship between pronunciation quality and pronunciation anxiety. 2 The participants were given the English-specific pronunciation anxiety scale, referred to as the Foreign Language Pronunciation Anxiety Scale, supposing the findings relate to general FL pronunciation anxiety issues.…”

“…After researchers in the second half of the twentieth century began recognizing affective factors as equally relevant in learning as cognitive factors, one of the most examined affective variables in the field of foreign language (FL) learning was foreign language anxiety (FLA) (Horwitz, 2010). FLA is considered more of a psychological (identity-based) construct than a linguistic (competence-based) construct (Alrabai, 2015), stemming most likely from the learner's perception of "self" (Scovel, 1991), where self-perceptions, perceptions of others, perceptions of FL learning and performance play important roles (Gardner, MacIntyre, 1993;Horwitz et al, 1986;Kralova, Petrova, 2017).…”

Foreign Language Anxiety: Classroom VS Distance Learning

“…The findings of studies on classroom foreign language anxiety are constantly updating due to researchers' interest to anxiety as an influential affective variable in foreign language learning and presence of issues which prompt further investigation. Recent research in this field supports a number of studies, which demonstrated negative correlation between anxiety and students' academic performance [8,9], gives extended summary of the information and research findings on foreign language anxiety causes and consequences [10,11], provides characteristics of various anxiety reducing strategies [12,13].…”

Effects of artificial intelligence on English speaking anxiety and speaking performance: A case study

“…A manageable level of FLA interference is viewed as an essential facilitative factor in FL learning (Chastain, 1975;Hsu, 2017;Jahangiri, 2015;Marcos-Llinás & Garau, 2009;Scovel, 1978;Selvam et al, 2016). FLA may serve as an adaptive reaction that mobilizes an individual's cognitive capacity to defend, avoid, or even attack any external or internal anxiety triggers (Kráľová & Petrova, 2017). This contention undermines the tenet that FLA is correlated with FL learning problems (Horwitz, 2017;MacIntyre, 2017;MacIntyre & Gardner, 1991;Teimouri et al, 2019).…”