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Horwitz - Language Anxiety
Horwitz - Language Anxiety
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ForeignLanguage Classroom Anxiety
ELAINE K. HORWITZ, MICHAEL B. HORWITZ, AND JOANN COPE
"IJUST KNOW I HAVE SOME KIND OF DISABILITY: I CAN'T students generallyfeel stronglythat anxiety is
learna foreign no matter
language howhardI try." a major obstacle to be overcome in learning to
"When I can'tthink
I'm inmySpanishclassI justfreeze! speak anotherlanguage, and several recentap-
ofa thingwhen callsonme.Mymind
myteacher goesblank." proaches to foreignlanguage teaching, such as
"IfeellikemyFrench is somekindofMartiandeath
teacher
community language learning and suggesto-
ray.I never knowwhenhe'llpointat me!"
pedia, are explicitlydirectedat reducinglearner
about
"It's timesomeonestudiedwhysome can'tlearn
people
"I anxiety. However, second language research
languages. has neitheradequately definedforeignlanguage
Such statements are all too familiar to anxietynor described its specificeffectson for-
teachers of foreign languages. Many people eign language learning. This paper attemptsto
claim to have a mental block against learning fill this gap by identifyingforeign language
a foreignlanguage, althoughthesesame people anxiety as a conceptually distinctvariable in
may be good learners in other situations, foreignlanguage learning and interpretingit
stronglymotivated, and have a sincere liking within the context of existing theoretical and
forspeakersofthe targetlanguage. What, then, empirical work on specific anxiety reactions.
prevents them from achieving their desired The symptoms and consequences of foreign
goal? In many cases, theymay have an anxiety language anxiety should thus become readily
reactionwhich impedes theirabilityto perform identifiableto those concerned with language
successfullyin a foreignlanguage class. Anxiety learning and teaching.
is the subjective feelingof tension, apprehen-
sion, nervousness, and worryassociated with EFFECTS OF ANXIETY ON LANGUAGE LEARNING
an arousal of the autonomic nervous system.2 Second Language Studies. For many years,
Just as anxietypreventssome people fromper- scholarshave consideredthe anxiety-provoking
formingsuccessfullyin science or mathematics, potential of learning a foreign language.
many people find foreignlanguage learning, Curran and Stevickdiscuss in detail the defen-
especially in classroom situations,particularly sive position imposed on the learner by most
stressful.
language teachingmethods;Guiora argues that
When anxiety is limited to the language
language learning itselfis "a profoundlyun-
learning situation, it falls into the category of settlingpsychological proposition" because it
specificanxietyreactions.Psychologistsuse the directlythreatens an individual's self-concept
term specific anxiety reaction to differentiate and worldview.4 More recently researchers
people who are generally anxious in a variety have attemptedto quantifythe effectsofanxiety
of situations fromthose who are anxious only on foreignlanguage learning, but these efforts
in specificsituations. Researchers have identi- have met with mixed results. While the perti-
fied several specific anxieties associated with nent studies have differedin the measures em-
school tasks such as test-takingand with aca-
ployed, theycan generallybe characterizedby
demic subjectssuch as mathematicsor science.3 their comparison of students' self-reportsof
Second language researchers and theorists
anxietywiththeirlanguage proficiencyratings,
have long been aware thatanxietyis oftenasso- obtained through a discrete skills task or a
ciated with language learning. Teachers and
global measure such as final course grade. In
his 1978 review of research, Scovel argues that
scholars have been unable to establish a clear-
TheModernLanguageJournal,70, ii (1986) cut relationship between anxiety and overall
0026-7902/86/0002/125$1.50/0
?1986 TheModernLanguage
Journal foreignlanguage achievement;he attributesthe
discrepant findingsat least in part to the in-
126 Horwitz,Horwitz & Cope