Gender Differences in Strategies for Coping with Foreign Language Learning Anxiety

Abstract

We investigated gender and differences in level of anxiety in regard to use of coping strategies for foreign language learning anxiety (FLLA). Participants were 122 Taiwanese university students enrolled in English as a foreign language courses. Results of multivariate analysis of variance showed that the female students scored significantly higher than did the male students in two coping strategies: peer seeking and positive thinking. In contrast, the male students were more inclined to use relaxation as a way of coping. There was no difference between the groups with different levels of anxiety in their choice of coping strategies and no interaction effect between gender and anxiety level in the coping strategies used. Results thus showed that gender played a significant role in university students' choice of strategies to cope with FLLA.

The Mediating Role of a Xu-Argument Based Iterative Translation Continuation Task in the Dynamic Relationships Between Translation Learning Anxiety and Foreign Language Learning Proficiency and Translation Strategies

“…Foreign language learning anxiety, as one of the most important variables in foreign language learning, is significantly related to the tolerance of foreign language learning ambiguity and flexibility ( Horwitz et al, 1986 ; Zhang and Wang, 2006 ; Dewaele, 2013 ). Language use is linked to culture and way of thinking, and different languages have different cultures and ways of thinking ( House, 2015 , 2020 ; Wang and He, 2016 ), due to which foreign language learning can be an ambiguous situation where foreign language learners may suffer from foreign language learning anxiety, affecting almost every aspect of their foreign language learning ( MacIntyre and Gardner, 1994 ; Zhang and Wang, 2006 ; Kao et al, 2017 ). Translation, as an inseparable part of foreign language learning, is “an act of re-contextualization” and is “both an interlingual and an intercultural process” during which an intercultural understanding is very crucial because the translators need to achieve functional equivalence between the source language and the target language ( House, 2020 , pp.…”

Gender and Learners' Beliefs in Corrective Feedback in Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language: A Network Questionnaire Survey Report

“…Besides, males and females are proven to be different in cognitive styles or psychological differentiation (Witkin et al, 1962;Kao et al, 2017). Evidence suggests that girls were better at recognizing faces than boys (Rehman & Herlitz, 2006;Sasson et al, 2010).…”

Relationships Between Teacher Feedback and Student Motivation: A Comparison Between Male and Female Students

“…Generally speaking, female students tend to have stronger motivations towards and abilities in first language learning: for instance, studies showed that female students, compared to male students, had higher intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy ( Yeung et al, 2011 ; McGeown et al, 2012 ), and that they had higher extrinsic motivation ( D’Lima et al, 2014 ). In addition, female students showed being able to control their test anxiety with more efficacy – by seeking help from peers and positive thinking – than their male counterparts ( Kao et al, 2017 ). However, most previous studies were conducted in the context of foreign language learning, so little is known about these gender differences regarding student motivation in the context of first language learning, thereby limiting the possibility of generalizing research findings that relate to gender differences in studies on students’ motivation.…”