Emic perspectives on young Danish learners’ foreign language classroom anxiety

Abstract

This study explores what young Danish learners found anxiety-provoking or difficult in their English as a foreign language (EFL) classes. Participants ( n = 32) were early and later starters (ages 8 years vs. 10 years) at two primary schools where children were not assessed in English. The qualitative inquiry aimed to examine what differences characterized 8- and 10-year-old children’s views and how their foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA) changed over time. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with each child in one-on-one settings and the answers were analysed by thematic analysis. The emerging themes revealed three main categories of situations that made children anxious. The first one concerned being afraid of making mistakes. The second category comprised social situations in which children were asked to speak in English in front of their peers and they were anxious that other children would criticize them or laugh at them. The third category comprised situations in which children felt insecure, for example, they did not understand their teacher’s talk in the target language, did not know the meaning of words they were supposed to learn, did not understand the task at hand, or they had to do tasks they thought were beyond their abilities. Children who experienced a decrease of FLCA after one year of instruction indicated that appropriate support from the teacher had reduced FLCA in some of these situations. Pedagogical implications of the different causes of anxiety are discussed.

Linking motivation and willingness to communicate in online L3 learning context: The influence of emotions and perceived positive language interaction

“…The FLCA scale (Horwitz, 2017) Dörnyei & Taguchi, 2009;Fenyvesi, 2021). The Chinese version of the scale was validated before (Jiang & Dewaele, 2019) and showed good reliability (α = 0.87).…”

“…The FLCA scale (Horwitz, 2017) was used to measure students’ anxiety, nervous tension, and lack of confidence in online L3 classes. It has been validated in populations of different countries and age groups (Dewaele et al., 2019; Dörnyei & Taguchi, 2009; Fenyvesi, 2021). The Chinese version of the scale was validated before (Jiang & Dewaele, 2019) and showed good reliability (α = 0.87).…”

Motivationsorienteringer i tyskundervisningen. En kvantitativ og kvalitativ undersøgelse på tværs af uddannelsesniveauer

“…Om danske børns tilegnelse af engelsk i indskolingen fandt Fenyvesi (2020) dog, at de primaere motivationsfaktorer var rejseaktivitet og kommunikation med andre på engelsk. Fenyvesi (2021) peger videre på, at angst (anxiety) for at lave fejl er en vigtig udfordring i denne aldersgruppe, hvilket er et kendt faenomen i L2-litteraturen.…”

The Causes of Anxiety in Highly Anxious Students in Japanese Communicative EFL Classes

“…FLCA arises due to fears and frustrations when even people who have no language disability cannot understand what foreigners say and cannot express what they want to say in a TL. Fenyvesi (2021) identified three categories of situations that make students anxious: 1) Students are afraid of making mistakes, 2) students are asked to speak in English in front of their peers and worry about being criticized or laughed at, and 3) students do not understand what the teacher says in the TL and cannot complete any of the tasks.…”