Dr CHRISTINA GKONOU(cgkono@essex.ac.uk)

Anxiety in foreign language learning and teaching: Listening to students

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Workshop outline

Your own ideas.

Theoretical background.

My research.

Implications for foreign language teaching/teacher education.

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Sharing experiences...

With your partner, discuss the following questions:

Have you ever had any highly anxious students in your class?

Can we see anxiety in students? Have you (as teachers) ever experienced anxiety when

teaching? If yes, when? Think of your own experience/s of learning a foreign

language. Is/Was there anything that would make you anxious?

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Language anxiety

“a distinct complex of self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings, and behaviours related to classroom language learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learning process” (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986, p. 128).

Communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation, test anxiety.

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Language anxiety (cont.)

Situation-specific.

“initially, anxiety is an undifferentiated, negative affective response to some experience in language class”, but...

...“with repeated occurrences, anxiety becomes reliably associated with the language class and differentiated from other contexts”.

(MacIntyre & Gardner, 1991, p. 297)

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Language anxiety (cont.)

Largely debilitating: “language anxiety interferes with acquisition, retention, and production of the TL [target language]” (Gregersen & MacIntyre, 2014, p. 4).

At times closely associated with the learner, and...

...at others with the teacher!

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My research project

Participants:128 adult Greek EFL learners.2 private language schools in Thessaloniki,

Greece.44 male, 84 female students.Four proficiency levels: B1, B2, C1, C2

(CEFR, 2001).86 studying at HEI in Thessaloniki, 42

working.Highly anxious: score range: 93-147

(min=33, max=165).

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Students said...

While speaking, my interlocutor is waiting for my reply. If I had time to think about my answer, that would be fine. But this is impossible. Time flies and I need to say something. I am like this when I am driving. I am thinking that if someone comes and stops right behind me, I am bothering him/her and I have to go. I have to be quick.

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Students said...

I feel that if I make a mistake in speaking my teacher knows that in an attempt to express what I have in mind I got confused and chose the wrong preposition or the wrong word. On the contrary, in writing, I very often fear that when my teacher will read what I wrote, she will think like “Why did she make so many mistakes? She had time at her disposal, she could use a dictionary or her notes, and still she made mistakes”.

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Students said...

K: I really fear making mistakes, not because I’ve made a mistake and that means that I haven’t studied enough, but rather because I tremble from my teacher’s and my peers’ reaction to it. I know that my teacher calls on us in a predictable order and I know when it is my turn to speak. So I read my question again and again to make sure that I can give as accurate an answer as possible, but I ignore everything else that goes on in the classroom at that time.

C: From your experience, what could your teacher’s reaction be like?K: I don’t know. I think that my teacher will have a condescending

attitude and will tell me that I am not well prepared. And that my classmates will laugh at my mistake.

C: Does this happen in the end?K: Well, I think that in a class there will possibly be one or two students

that you don’t like or they don’t like you. That’s why I am expecting them to laugh at my mistake. As for the teacher, I think I want to show him that I am doing my best. But now that I come to think about it, maybe it’s just a situation I’ve created in my mind. It may be something like a phobia.

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Students said...

I see my teacher as my boss. When I know I am seeing someone who is superior to me and I know that I will be judged by the way I’ll answer his/her questions, I get nervous. I am not self-confident and I feel that my level of English is low.

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Students said...

When I haven’t studied, I am no nervous at all. I get extremely anxious when I am well prepared. Because you’ve expended some effort, and you don’t want to fail. If you don’t do well despite having studied, you feel even worse.

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Students said...

Classmates can make me anxious in two different ways. First, they are anxious too, they are getting hysterical, and they make me anxious, and this is something very common. I mean you are on your way to the lesson and you are relaxed, but as soon as you enter the school you realise how anxious they are, so you become anxious too. Second, they can be a bit of a snob and you know that they are stronger students than you actually are. So, you try to be like them, but by the time you realise that that’s not possible, your feelings of anxiety overwhelm you.

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Sharing experiences again...

How can we deal with language anxiety? What strategies can we use?

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Implications for teaching

The role of the teacher: open-minded and understanding; motivating and interested; willing to work with students.

Student-teacher interaction: appreciate students’ contributions; correction methods particularly important.

Time: allow time for students to think, prepare, and

practise language.

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Implications for teaching (cont.)

Activities, themes and materials important: participation and growing confidence linked to

interest in materials and activities.

Introduce explicit discussion of LA (and other affective factors): make this part of normal classroom activities/teacher education programmes.

Classroom organisation: group work, pair work may need to be explored

before whole class and individual presentations.

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Suggestions from positive psychology

A situation-analysis technique involves: (a) thinking about a time/event when positive emotion,

such as pride, gratitude, pleasure, satisfaction, interest, or hope, were felt;

(b) recalling situational details; (c) giving the situation a name; and (d) specifying the emotion(s).

With this information, learners can be aided in “setting up moments of genuine positivity” for themselves (Seligman, 2011, p. 141).

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Suggestions from positive psychology (cont.)

Positive self-talk: “I love _______ about this language,” “My favorite

part of the language is _____,” and “I will stop worrying about the outcome and instead focus on _______” (Oxford, 1990, 2011);

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Suggestions from positive psychology (cont.)

Becoming proficient in a foreign language requires that learners take responsibility for their own learning.

Useful to teach learners how to generate alternative pathways towards a particular goal (pathways thinking) (Oxford, 1990, 2011).

Setting realistic/plausible/achievable goals.

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Empowering students...

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References

Gregersen, T., & MacIntyre, P. D. (2014). Capitalizing on language learner individuality: From premise to practice. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M. B., & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign language classroom anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 70(2), 125-132.

MacIntyre, P.D., & Gardner, R.C. (1991). Language anxiety: Its relation to other anxieties and to processing in native and second languages. Language Learning, 41(4), 513-554.

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References (cont.)

Oxford, R. L. (1990). Language learning strategies: What every teacher should know. Boston: Heinle.

Oxford, R. L. (2011). Teaching and researching language learning strategies. Harlow, UK: Pearson Longman.

Seligman, M. E. P. (2011). Flourish: A visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being. New York: Free Press.

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Coming out soon...

Gkonou, C., Daubney, M., & Dewaele, J.-M. (forthcoming). New insights into language anxiety: Theory, research and educational implications. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION AND PARTICIPATION!