The link between Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety, Second Language Tolerance of Ambiguity and Self-rated English proficiency among Chinese learners

Abstract

Previous research has suggested that high levels of Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (FLCA) have a negative effect on foreign language learning (Horwitz, 2001;Lu & Liu, 2011) while moderate levels of Second Language Tolerance of Ambiguity (SLTA) are believed to boost foreign language learning (Ely, 1995). There is prima facie evidence that both dimensions are inversely related as Foreign Language Learning contexts are full of ambiguities which may contribute to anxiety. However, the relationship between FLCA and SLTA has been under-researched. The present study is an attempt to fill this gap by investigating the link between SLTA and FLCA in English of 73 secondary school students in Hong Kong. They filled out an online questionnaire consisting of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986) and the Second Language Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale (Ely, 1995). Statistical analyses revealed that FLCA, SLTA and Self-rated English proficiency predict half of the variance in each other; in other words, students who were more tolerant of second language ambiguity were less anxious in their EFL classes and they also felt more proficient.

Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety of Arab learners of English: The effect of personality, linguistic and sociobiographical variables

“…The finding that self-perceived proficiency appeared as the strongest predictor of FLCA is not entirely unexpected (Arnaiz & Guillén, 2012;Liu & Chen, 2013;MacIntyre & Gardner, 1994;Sparks & Ganschow, 2007), but the amount of variance explained (over a third) is much higher than in Dewaele and Shan Ip (2013), where it amounted to a mere 6.6% of variance. The frequency of use of English explained a modest additional 1.5% of unique variance in the present study.…”

“…The authors argue that FLA could be seen as an emotion, one which students who score high on EI might be better able to control: "These students would draw on their emotional competence (e.g., by stimulating their motivational resources or using moderation techniques to reduce their anxiety in English class)" (p. 924). Dewaele and Shan Ip (2013) investigated the relationship between FLCA and Second Language Tolerance of Ambiguity (SLTA) among 73 secondary school students in Hong Kong. SLTA was defined as feeling comfortable with uncertainty and displaying a willingness to try out guesses (Rubin, 1975, p. 45).…”

Chinese University EFL Learners’ Foreign Language Writing Anxiety: Pattern, Effect and Causes

“…Horwitz (1986) further examined the construct validity of the FLCAS and its correlation with other specific anxieties. Since then, both the definition and the scale have been widely accepted and applied in empirical research in a multitude of SL/FL contexts (Aida, 1994;Chen, 2002;Cheng, Horwitz, & Schallert, 1999;Dewaele & Thirtle, 2009;Dewaele & Tsui, 2013;Ewald, 2007;Horwitz, 2000Horwitz, , 2001Hurd & Xiao, 2010;Liu, 2006Marcos-Llinás & Garau, 2009;Mills et al, 2006;Tallon, 2009;Shao et al, 2013). These studies have predominantly found that FL anxiety and SL/FL performance are negatively correlated and that anxiety may lead to deficiency in SL/FL learning and performance.…”

“…Though it is generally agreed that FL anxiety exists in various aspects of second/foreign language (SL/FL) learning such as listening, reading, speaking and writing (Kinoshita & Bowman, 1998;Liu & Hu, 2009;Sellers, 2000;Vogely, 1998), only speaking anxiety has been predominantly researched (Chen, 2002;Dewaele & Tsui, 2013;Ewald, 2007;Horwitz, 2000Horwitz, , 2001Hurd & Xiao, 2010;Liu, 2006Shao, Ji, & Yu, 2013;Tallon, 2009), while anxiety concerned with reading, listening and writing has not been adequately investigated. As English writing has become increasingly important in Chinese universities in recent years, the present study aimed to investigate foreign language writing anxiety in terms of pattern, effect and causes in Chinese university EFL learners.…”

The two faces of Janus? Anxiety and enjoyment in the foreign language classroom

“…There is a long list of potential sources of FLA, including harsh error correction (Gregersen, 2003;Young, 1991), self-presentation concerns (Cohen & Norst, 1989), competitiveness among learners (Bailey, 1983), incompatibility between teacher and student , personality traits such as neuroticism (Dewaele, 2002(Dewaele, , 2013a, perfectionism (Dewaele, Finney, Kubota & Almutlaq, 2014;Gregersen & Horwitz, 2002), tolerance of ambiguity in the second language (Dewaele & Shan Ip, 2013), and many other factors (Horwitz, 2010). Indeed, language learning is a process that is particularly prone to anxiety-arousal, in part because error correction is both an indispensible part of learning and a key source of anxiety (Gregersen, 2003).…”