“It makes my whole body hurt”: Foreign language anxiety through the ages

Arianna Bassetti

doi:10.54475/jlt.2023.013

Authors

Arianna Bassetti Queen Mary University of London

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54475/jlt.2023.013

Keywords:

foreign language anxiety, E. K. Horwitz, Thomas Mann

Abstract

Learning a foreign language in a classroom setting can be a veritably miserable experience. Nowhere is this better described than in Buddenbrooks, where Thomas Mann dissects his young protagonist’s feeling of negative anticipation before a language class, with its attendant physical and behavioural symptomatology. Skipping forward eight decades, this essay gives a brief overview of how applied linguists started using the construct of Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA) in the 1980s to explain deficient performance and a series of deviant learner behaviours in foreign language classes. It briefly clarifies how FLA fit into the institutional landscape of US higher education, and explains how the construct has since been refined by a wider body of empirical evidence. It concludes by discussing some implications for language teaching in similar instructional contexts today, while recognising that a classroom is not where the majority of people learn a foreign language.

Author Biography

Arianna Bassetti, Queen Mary University of London

Arianna Bassetti teaches Spanish and Comparative Literature at Queen Mary University of London. A Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, she completed her PhD on testimonial graphic novels in 2021 and is now studying for an MSc in Applied Linguistics at the University of Oxford. She has a special interest in heritage learners of Spanish and in English for Academic Purposes.

References

Aida, Y. (1994). Examination of Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope's construct of foreign language anxiety: The case of students of Japanese. The Modern Language Journal, 78(2), 155–168. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.1994.tb02026.x

Alrabai, F. (2015). The influence of teachers' anxiety-reducing strategies on learners' foreign language anxiety, Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 9(2), 163–190. https://doi.org/10.1080/17501229.2014.890203

APA (2023). Anxiety. In APA Dictionary of Psychology. Retrieved January 2, 2023, from https://dictionary.apa.org/anxiety

Brown, L. (2008). Language and anxiety: An ethnographic study of international postgraduate students. Evaluation and Research in Education, 21(2), 75–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500790802152167

Chang, S. C. (2011). A contrastive study of grammar translation method and communicative approach in teaching English grammar. English language teaching, 4(2), 13–24. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v4n2p13

Chen, T. (2003). Reticence in class and on-line: Two ESL students’ experiences with communicative language teaching. System, 31(2), 259–281. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0346-251X(03)00024-1

Chen, T. Y., & Chang, G. B. Y. (2004). The relationship between foreign language anxiety and learning difficulties. Foreign Language Annals, 37(2), 279–289. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.2004.tb02200.x

Cheng, Y. S., Horwitz, E. K., & Schallert, D. L. (1999). Language writing anxiety: Differentiating writing and speaking components. Language Learning, 49, 417–446. https://doi.org/10.1111/0023-8333.00095

Cohen, Y., & Norst, M. J. (1989). Fear, dependence and loss of self-esteem: Affective barriers in second language learning among adults. RELC journal, 20(2), 61–77. https://doi.org/10.1177/003368828902000206

Dewaele, J.-M., & Thirtle, H. (2009). Why do some young learners drop foreign languages? A focus on learner-internal variables. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 12(6), 635–649. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050802549656

Dowker, A., Sarkar, A., & Looi, C. Y. (2016). Mathematics anxiety: What have we learned in 60 years? Frontiers in psychology, 7, 508. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00508

Friedman, D. E. I., & Silverstone, J. T. (1967). Treatment of phobic patients by systematic desensitisation. The Lancet, 289(7488), 470–472. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(67)91093-8

Gregersen, T. S. (2003). To err is human: A reminder to teachers of language-anxious students. Foreign Language Annals, 36, 25–32. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.2003.tb01929.x

Gregersen, T., Macintyre, P. D., & Meza, M. D. (2014). The motion of emotion: Idiodynamic case studies of learners’ foreign language anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 98(2), 574–588. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12084

Horwitz, E. K. (1986). Preliminary evidence for the reliability and validity of a foreign language anxiety scale. TESOL Quarterly, 20(3), 559–562. https://doi.org/10.2307/3586302

Horwitz, E. K. (2000). It ain't over 'til it's over: On foreign language anxiety, first language deficits, and the confounding of variables. The Modern Language Journal, 84(2), 256–259.

Horwitz, E. K. (2001). Language anxiety and achievement. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 21, 112–126. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0267190501000071

Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M. B., & Cope J. (1986). Foreign language classroom anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 70(2), 125–132. https://doi.org/10.2307/327317

Kasbi, S., & Elahi Shirvan, M. (2017). Ecological understanding of foreign language speaking anxiety: Emerging patterns and dynamic systems. Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education, 2(1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40862-017-0026-y

Kim, J. (2002). Anxiety and foreign language listening. English Teaching, 57(2), 3–34.

MacIntyre, P. D. (1995). On seeing the forest and the trees: A rejoinder to Sparks and Ganschow. The Modern Language Journal, 79(2), 245–248. https://doi.org/10.2307/329623

MacIntyre, P. D., & Gregersen, T. (2012). Affect: The role of language anxiety and other emotions in language learning. In S. Mercer, S. Ryan & M. Williams (Ed.), Psychology for language learning: Insights from research, theory & practice (pp. 103–118). Palgrave Macmillan.

MacIntyre, P., & Gardner, R. (1989). Anxiety and second-language learning: Toward a theoretical clarification. Language Learning, 39, 251–275. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1989.tb00423.x

MacIntyre, P., & Gardner, R. (1991). Language anxiety: Its relationship to other anxieties and to processing in native and second languages. Language Learning, 41(4), 513–534. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1991.tb00691.x

Mann, T. (1994). Buddenbrooks: The decline of a family (J. E. Woods, Trans.). Vintage.

Onwuegbuzie, A., Bailey, P., & Daley, C. (1999). Factors associated with foreign anxiety. Applied Psycholinguistics, 20(2), 217–239. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716499002039

Rogers, C. R. (1983). Freedom to learn for the 80’s. Charles E. Merrill Publishing Company.

Saito, Y., & Samimy, K. (1996). Foreign language anxiety and language performance: A study of learner anxiety in beginning, intermediate, and advanced-level college students of Japanese. Foreign Language Annals, 29(2), 239–251. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.1996.tb02330.x

Saito, Y., Horwitz, E. K., & Garza, T. J. (1999). Foreign language reading anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 83, 202–218. https://doi.org/10.1111/0026-7902.00016

Sarason, I. G. (1978). The test anxiety scale: Concept and research. In C. D. Spielberger & I. G. Sarason (Ed.), Stress and Anxiety: Vol. 5 (pp. 193–216). Hemisphere.

Saunders, D. B. (2010). Neoliberal ideology and public higher education in the United States. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 8(1), 41–77.

Serraj, S., & Noordin, N. B. (2013). Relationship among Iranian EFL students' Foreign Language Anxiety, Foreign Language Listening Anxiety and their listening comprehension. English Language Teaching, 6(5), 1–12. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/elt.v6n5p1

Sparks, R. J., & Ganschow, L. (1991). Foreign language learning differences: Affective or native language aptitude? The Modern Language Journal, 17(1), 2–16. https://doi.org/10.2307/329830

Sparks, R. J., & Ganschow, L. (2007). Is the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale measuring anxiety or language skills? Foreign Language Annals, 40(2), 260–287. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.2007.tb03201.x

Sparks, R. J., Ganschow, L., Pohlman, J. (1989). Linguistic coding deficits in foreign language learners. Annals of Dyslexia, 39, 179–195.

Zhang, X. (2013). Foreign language listening anxiety and listening performance: Conceptualizations and causal relationships. System, 41(1), 164–177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2013.01.004

Zhang, Y. (2017). On the application of cognitive behavioral therapy in treating Foreign Language Listening Anxiety. Studies in Literature and Language, 15(2), 26–31. https://doi.org/10.3968/9880