An Investigation of Students'

Perspectives on Anxiety and Speaking

ABSTRACT Language anxiety isbecoming an
important area of mearrh in our profmion.
Debilitatinglanguage anxiety can haveprofound
consequences on the languagelearningprocess.
Thepurpose of thisstudy is to examine anxiety
and speakingfrom the students' pempective.Do
speaking activities indeed make students ner-
vous?Ifsq what is it about speaking that makes
students anxious? Which speaking activities
make studentsparticularly uncoMortable?Can
instructorsdo anything to reduce anxiety,par-
ticularly speaking anxietr, in the classroom?
A questionnairedesigned to identifv sources
of anxiety overspeaking in theforeign language
was administered to I35 university-levelbegin-
ning Spanish students and 109 high school
Dolly Jesusita Young
University of Tennessee
students. The questionnairehad threesections'
thejkst one asked students to agree or disagree
with twenty-fouritems related to languageanx-
iety; the second section asked students to in-
dicate their level of anxiety regarding certain in-
classpmcticq-the thirdsectionaskedleamem to
identifvinstructor chamcterkticsand instructor
practices that helped reduce language anxiety.
Results of the anabsis of data suggest, among
other things, that speaking in the foreign
languagein not Rxclusvely thesourre of student
anxiety,but that speaking infront of the class k.
Furthermore, the instructor 3 relaxed and
positive error-correction attitude can greatly
reduce language anxiety. Additional suggestions
for reducing languageanxiety are offered.

I dread going to Spanish class. My some to language learners. Speaking in the

teacher is kind of nice and it can be fun, foreign language is often cited by students as
but I hate it when the teacher calls on me their most anxiety-producing experience. We
to speak. I freeze up and can't think of know that public speaking in a native language
what to say or how to say it. And my pro- is often associated with fear and anxiety (Daly
nunciation is terrible. Sometimes I think and Stafford, 8; McCroskey, 20,21), and several
people don't even understand what I'm researchers have found that speaking the foreign
saying. language the classroom can also be very anxie-
-Anonymous Language Learner ty provoking. Krashen, Rmll and Omaggio (36)
and Rassias and Stevick (unpublished inter-
How many times have we heard our students views) intuitively judged speaking as more
voice comments similar to the one above about anxiety-producing than reading, writing or
their language class? An important challenge listening. Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (15)
facing the foreign language teacher is to identify found that language learners expressed more
the specific aspects of instruction most trouble- anxiety over speaking than any other language
skill, and Koch and Rrrell(18, p.113) report that
Dolly Jesllrita Young (Ph.D.,University of ' k a s at Austin)is speaking-orientedactivities received higher am-
Assistant Professor of Spanish at the University of 'Rnnessee iety ratings by language learners than any other
at Knoxville. in-class activities. More recently, Price (25, p.

Foreign LanguageAnnals, 23, No.6,1990 539

540 FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS - DECEMBER 199O

105) describes the anguish her intervieweesoften language learning and performance cannot be
experiencedwhen compelled to speak publicly in viewed without taking into account an assort-
the foreign language: “having to speak in the ment of variables, such as languagesetting, anx-
foreign language in front of peers” was the iety definition, anxiety measure, age of subjects,
greatest s o w e of anxiety. With the current stress language skill and research design. Comparisons
on improvingstudents’oral proficiency,teachers across research are often hindered by a lack of
find themselvesscurrying to find new ways to get consistenciesin anxietyresearch. Factors that are
their students to speak in the foreign language. often overlooked when interpreting anxiety
The dilemma is that activities that encourage research results include: whether the research ex-
creative and authenticoral communication may amines foreign or second language learning con-
also tend to encourage student anxiety. texts; whether the anxiety definition and
The purpose of this study is to examine anx- measure are harmonious; whether the inter-
iety and speakingfrom the students’perspective. pretation of anxiety (i.e., state, trait, test anxie-
Do speaking activities indeed make students ty, facilitating or debilitating,classroom anxie-
anxious? If so, why? Which in-class, speaking- ty) has been defined in accordance with the
oriented activities make studentsparticularlyun- basic purpose of the research; and whether the
comfortable? Can instructors do anything to research is designed to examine one variable
reduce anxiety, particularly speaking anxiety, in (anxiety)or a number of variables (motivation,
the classroom? anxiety, personality, self-esteem,etc.). Research
that concentrates first on determining the rela-
Research on Foreign and Second tionship between anxiety and the separate
Language Anxiety language skills may lead to a better understan-
The deeper one probes into the phenomena of ding of the relationship between anxiety and
anxiety and their relation to foreign language language learning and performance.
performance or learning, the more complexthe
relationships become. The research on language Theoretical Concepts Related to
anxiety to date establishes the existence of Oral Communication
relationships and investigates their effect on The fear of speaking in a foreign language
languagelearning and performance Some of may be related to a variety of complex psycholo-
this researchsuggeststhat a negativerelationship gical constructs such as communication ap-
exists between anxiety and foreign or second prehension, self-esteem, and social anxiety.
language performance. Within this research, Speech communication research has indicated
some findings suggest there is no relationship that anxiety may affect an individual’s com-
between anxiety and performance (Backman, 1; munication or willingnessto communicateand
Brewster, 4; Pimsleur et al., 23; Westcott, 32) produce what McCroskey (21) has labeled “com-
while other findings suggest unexpected munication apprehension,” defined as “an in-
relationships: dividual’s level of fear or anxiety associated with
* two students low in proficiency scored at either real or anticipated oral communication
opposing ends of the anxiety measure: one with another person and persons” (21, p. 192).
scored the highest and the other the lowest (1). Socialanxiety, also highly related to oral com-
* second language performance was not munication, is defined as anxiety which surfaces
significantlyrelated to anxietybut did influence from “the prospect or presence of interpersonal
the quality of language performance (29). evaluation in real or imagined social settings
* some anxiety proved to enhance oral per- (Leary,19, p. 102). Accordingto Leary 09), con-
formance (17). structs such as speech anxiety, shyness, stage
Even within these studies, however, anxietymay fright, embarrassment,social-evaluativeanxie-
be positively (Chastain, 5; Tbcker et al., 31; Whit- ty and communication apprehension, although
tenborn et al., 33) or negatively related to one not exactly synonymous, encompass one
language skill and not another. psychological phenomcnon, social anxiety, but
The relationship between anxiety and in different kinds of social settings (p.98).
FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS -DECEMBER 1990
Self-esteem can also be related to speaking
and languageanxiety. Individualswith low self-
esteem tend to have high levels of language anx-
iety (25), communicationapprehension (9), and
social anxiety 09). Low self-esteem can be par-
ticularly significant in a language class where
students are expected to perform orally more
often than in larger history, government or
chemistry classes.
An examination of anxiety and speaking in
the foreign language class must consider
psychologicalphenomena related to the fear of
speaking in general. How much of students’ex-
pressed fear is related to speakingin general, and
how much is rooted specifically in a fear of
speaking the foreign language?
Research on Foreign and Second
Language Speaking Anxiety
Research findingsconcerning students’ anx-
iety related to speakingin the foreignor second
language class are relatively scarce. Kleinmann
(17) was one of the first to specificallyexamine
the effects of anxiety on speaking. In her study,
subjects’ oral performance was positively af-
fected by facilitating anxiety. Steinberg (29)
found a relationshipbetween state anxiety and
oral response styles. In her study, more anxious
individualstended to be less subjectiveand more
objectivein their oral responsesthan less anxious
individuals. More recently, Phillips (24)found a
negative relationship between several measures
of anxiety 6 and the quality and quantity of
foreign lamguage speech as reflected in the
number of dependentclauses and total number
of words per communicationunit.
In Horwitz et al. (15, p. 1%), counselors in a
study skills center specified speaking and listen-
ing as “the most frequentlycited concern of the
anxious foreign language students needing
help...” In this same study, subjects with high
anxietyscoresreported being “afraid to speak in
the foreign languageclass” (p. 129). Similar stu-
dent reactions to speaking were found by Koch
and Tkrrell(l8, p. 113),who claimed that the ac-
tivities examined in the Natural Approach,
students reported oral presentations, skits, role-
playing, definingwords in Spanish, dealing with
situations, and charades to be the most
anxiety-producing.
541
Price (25, p. 105) found speaking in the foreign
language the greatest source of anxiety in her
subjects. One student reaction to speaking was
as follows:
French classes were very, very stressful
for me, because I didn’t speak well ...
everything came out in a Tkxas accent,
which was horrible, because the professor
would stop me and make me go over and
over it and I still couldn’t get it right. The
more they made me do it, the more
frightened I became (p. 104).
Bailey (2, p. 96) analyzed language learners’
diary entriesand concludedthat competitiveness
can lead to anxiety when languagelearnerscom-
pare themselves to others, or to an idealized self-
image: “anxiety can be caused and/or ag-
gravated by the learner’s competitivenesswhen
he sees himself as less proficient than the object
of comparison.” For example, one student at-
tributed her anxietyto “the stressfulcompetitive
nature of oral public performance” in the
foreign language class (p. 27).
We see from these studies,then, that students
often associate anxiety with speaking in class
and that the effects of anxiety on speech are
often not clearly observable. Horwitz et al. (15)
was the first to examinecloselythe dynamicsof
foreign language anxiety. The present effort is
one of the first to take a more systematiclook
at the types of in-class, speaking-orientedprac-
tices that evoke anxiety in the language learner’s
view. This study also examines instructor prac-
ticeswhich studentsperceive as anxietyreducing.
Methodology
To examine student reactions to speaking, a
four-page questionnaire was developed by this
researcher to identify different types of inclass
activities, particularly speaking-oriented ones
which the researcher perceived as having poten-
tial to evoke anxiety. The questionnairewas ad-
ministered to 135 university-level Spanish
students enrolled in three first-semesterand five
intensive Spanish courses at the University of
Texas at Austin and 109 high school Spanish
students enrolled in one first-year and three
second-year Spanish classes in Austin high
schools. First- and second-year high school
Spanish classes were selected on the basis of
542 FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS - DECEMBER 19%)
similaritiesin curricula between first and second the university. As a result, students’levels of anx-
year high school and first-year (regular and in- iety may not necessarily reflect the levels of anx-
tensive) university level classes. The university in- iety experienced by students of less motivated,
tensive level classes consisted of students who less enthusiastic and less experiencedteachers.
had Spanishin high schoolbut did not place out This limitation assumes that the ability to reduce
of the first semester. Three different high school anxiety is a factor in evaluating others as
teachersat two middle-class public high schools “master” teachers.
and five different university level instructorswere
involved in this study. All of the teachers were Results:
recognized in the school districtor in the Spanish Data Analysis Procedures
department as experienced and outstanding Data were analyzed in the first section of the
languageteacherson the basis of their supervisor questionnaire by calculating the percentage of
and student evaluations. students who agreed and disagreed with each
item. This same procedure was applied for all
The Questionnaire twenty-four items to all three groups: High
The questionnaireconsisted of three sections. School, Intensive Spanish and First Year
The first section asked students to agree or Spanish. The Chi Square Procedure was then
disagree with twenty-four items related to used to determine whether there were any dif-
general foreign languageclass anxietyand to in- ferences among proportions (percentages) ac-
class activities.The aim of this sectionwas to ex- cording to group (i.e., High School, Intensive
pand on findings from previous research in Spanish and First Year Spanish).
foreign language class anxiety (15) and to ex- For the data in the secondsectionof the ques-
amine more closelyadditional activitiesobserv- tionnaire,where studentswere asked to rate their
ed by this researcher as interactingwith language anxiety level for each activity, the activitieswere
anxiety: pair work, preparedness, motivation. ranked according to their mean, and a Duncan’s
Test-retest for reliability of this section was Multiple Range Test was used to determine
satisfactory (r = .74, p < .O001). The second which activity types were significantlydifferent
section of the questionnaire asked students to from each other.
rate their anxiety level in the face of twenty dif- “idlieswere taken from the data from the last
ferent in-class activities. Studentswere to iden- section of the questionnaire, which consistedof
tify their level of anxiety for each activity using student comments regarding instructor
a five point Likert scale rangingfrom Very Relax- chamteristicsand techniquesthat helped reduce
ed, Moderately Relaxed, Neither Relaxed Nor language anxiety. If a comment (i.e., friendly)
Anxious, ModeratelyAnxious, to Very Anxious. occurred more than twice, it had potential
The in-class activities included in this section tabulation worth and therefore formed a com-
were developed from an examination of the ment item. A number of commentsoccurred on-
kinds of activitiesobserved and recorded by this ly once or twice and were not reported,since they
researcher over a two-year period as supervisor may have represented individual student
of high school student teachers and as a super- idiosyncracies.
visor of first-year Spanishcourses a the univer-
sity level. The last section of the questionnaire Speaking-Oriented In-ClassActivities
asked students to specify instructor behaviors ?)able I lists the items from section 1 of the
and characteristics that reduced anxiety in questionnaire along with the percentage of
class. studentsagreeingor disagreeingwith each ques-
I tionnaire item. Students were consistent across
Limitations language groups in their response to items
The instructorsand teachers in this study were related to three categoriesthat were selectedposf
considered “master” teachers who had the hoc activity task, speaking errors, and prep-
reputation of being excellent teachers in the aredness. Results and discussion will, therefore,
school district or in the Spanish department at follow these headings.
FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS - DECEMBER 19% 543

TABLE I
Questionnaire Items and Student Reactions to In-Class Activities Based on
Percentages in Agreement or Disagreement With Item
(n=109) (n=72) (n=63)
*A D N A D N A D N
Intensive Sp. First Semester Sp.
Item Questions High School University UdveRity
1 I would feel more confident
about speaking in class if
we practiced speaking more. 68% 31% 1% 83% 12% 5% 57% 40% 3%
2 I would feel less self-con-
scious about speaking in
class in front of others if
I knew them better. 56% 44% 0% 79% 18% 3070 57% 41% 2%
3 I feel very relaxed in class
when I have studied a
great deal the night before. 72% 28% 0% 93% 7% 0% 92% 8% 0%
4 I am less anvous in class
when I am not the only
person answering a
question. 65 070 35% 0% 85% 13% 2% 71% 29% 0%
5 I think I can speak the
foreign language pretty
well, but when I know I am
being graded, I mess up. 51% 49% 0070 68% 31% 1% 49% 46% 5%
6 I would be more willing
to volunteer answers in class
if I weren’t so afraid of
saying the wrong thing. 62% 37% 1% 74% 26% 0% 54% 46% 0%
7 I enjoy class when we
work in pairs. 77% 23 Vo 0% 79% 18% 3% 49% 43% 8%
a I feel more comfortable
in class when I don’t have
to get in front of the class. 75% 25 Vo 0% 68% 31% 1% 79% 19% 2%
9 I would enjoy class if we
weren’t c o m t e d at all in
class. 13% 87% 0% 32% 68% 0% 49% 49% 2%
10 I am more willing to
speak in class when we
discuss current events. 56% 43 To 1070 mqo 57% 3% 37% 54% 9%
11 I would get less upset about
my class if we did not have
to cover so much material
in such a short period of
time. 65% 35% 0@lo 82% 17% 1% 57% 33% 10%
12 I enjoy class when we do
skits in class. 54% 43 qo 3% 65% 32% 3% 51% 38% 11%
13 I would feel better about
speaking in class if the
class were smaller. 46% 54% 0% 35% 63% 2% 41% 54% 5%
Contd..
544 FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS - DECEMBER 1990

TABLE I (Continued)
QuestionnaireItems and Student Reactionsto In-Class Activities Based on
Percentages in Agreement or Disagreement With Item
(n = 109) (n =72) (n=63)
*A D N A D N A D N
Intensive Sp. First Semester Sp.
Item Questions High School University University
14 I feel comfortablein class
when I come to class
prepared. 87% 13% 0% 96% 4% 0% 95% 5% 0%
15 I am more willing to speak
in class when we have a
debate scheduled. 27To 72% 1To 35% 60% 5 vo 14% 62% 24%
16 I am less anxious in class
when I am not the only
person answering a
question. 63Vo 36% 1% 89% 8% 3To 67% 25% 8%
17 I like going to class when
we are going to role play
situations. 47To 53% 0% 47% 41% 6% 38% 51% 11%
18 I would not be so self-
conscious about speaking in
class if it were commonly
understood that everyone
makes mistakes, and it were
not such a big deal to make
a mistake. 83 070 17% 0% 90% 8% 2% 67% 24% 9%
19 I prefer to be allowed to
volunteer an answer instead
of being called on to give
an answer. 79% 19% 2% 82% 17% 1Qo 43% 46% 11%
20 I am more willing to
participate in class when the
topics we discuss are
interesting. 94% 6% 0% 89% 10% 1To 75% 19% 6%
21 I would be less nervous
about taking an oral test in
the foreign languageif I got
more practice speaking
in class. 46% 20% 34% 86% 13% 1% 56% 27% 17%
22 I enjoy class when I can
work with another student. 77% 23 yo 0% 92% 8% 0% 57% 33% 10%
23 I would feel uncomfortable
if the instructor never
corrected our mistakes in
class. 63 '70 28% 9% 74% 25% 1% 57% 38% 5%
24 I feel uneasy when my
fellow students are asked
to correct my mistakes
in class. 41% 58% 1To 47% 47% 6% 30% 57% 13%

*A = Agree D = Disagree N = No Answer

FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS -DECEMBER 1990 545

Activities The students here reported they

would feel more confident about speaking in TABLE II
class if they practiced speaking more (Item l),
but their level of comfort or anxietydependedon
Chi Square of Subjects Agreeing with
Items by Group Membership
the kind of activity they were asked to perform
orally in the foreignlanguage. Students feel less
anxiouswhen they feel they are not the only per- Item Significance
sons answering a question (Item 4); most No. df N Value level
studentsprefer to volunteer an answer than to be
1 2 238 13.20 p, <.001*
-
called on to give an answer (Item 19); and
studentsreport feeling more comfortablewhen 2 2 241 13.21 p, <.001*
they don’t have to get up in front of the class -
(Item 8). Students also reported being less will- 3 2 243 18.12 p,
- <.OOo *
ing to speak in class when a debate was schedul-
ed (Item 15). 4 2 242 10.63 p, <.005
- *
Most students reported more willingness to 5 2 241 6.48 p, <.039 *
-
participate in class when the topics b e i idiscuss-
ed were interesting (Item 20), and high school 6 2 243 5.66 p,
- <.059
studentsparticularly agreed on this item (94Oro).
Students reported enjoying class when they 7 2 237 14.52 p, <.001*
-
could work with another student (Item 22 and 8 2 242 2.39 p, <.302 *
-
Item 7) 9 First-semester university Spanish
students, however, were split on this item. One 9 2 243 27.87 - <.OOo *
p,
possible explanationis that one teacher reported
10 2 256 4.27 p, <.118 *
seldomto never having students work in groups -
of two in her class in contrast to other classes in 11 2 237 8.30 p, <.016 *
which pair work was reported by the teacher as -
more common. It may be that studentsfrom that 12 2 232 2.47 p, < . 2 w
-
class were unfamiliar with paired work and
feared exposing themselvesto another student. 13 2 239 1.84 p, <.398
-
SpeakingErrors. Most subjectsreported they 14 2 244 5.67 - <.059
p,
would be more willing to volunteer answers if
they weren’t afraid of saying the wrong thing 15 2 223 4.63 - <.098
p,
(Item 6). Horwitz et al. (15) found similar reac-
tions; 65% of their subjects disagreed with the
16 2 236 16.92 p, <.OOo
- *
statement“I don’t worry about making mistakes 17 2 233 0.62 p,
- <.730
in language class” (p. 129). Students appear
afraid to speak in the foreign language class in 18 2 237 7.23 p, <.027
- *
front of each other and their instructor. Perhaps 19 2 234 25.51 p, <.OOo *
they fear making a mistake in front of their peers -
and/or teachers, or maybe they simply do not 20 2 239 7.75 p, <.021 *
-
want to risk self esteem by having to publicize
their errors in the foreign language. According to 21 2 195 8.65 - <.013 *
p,
Item 18, a strong majority of the students feel 22 2 238 15.28 p, <.OOo *
that they would not be so self-consciousabout -
speaking in class if it were commonly understood 23 2 231 3.25 p,
- <.196
that everyone make mistakes. Interestingly
enough, most students report wanting to have 24 2 231 3.02 p, <.221
-
their mistakes corrected, particularly the high * indicates level of significanceless than .05.
school students. A majority of all the students
546 FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS - DECEMBER 1990
here reported they would feel uncomfortable if
the instructor never corrected their mistakes
(Item23), and they disagreedwith the statement,
“I would enjoy class if we weren’t c o m at all
in class” (Item 9). lo
PEpamdness.Items 3 and 4 on the question-
naire were related to general class anxiety and
preparedness. A large majority of students felt
that they were more relaxed in class when they
had studieda great deal the night before or when
they came to class prepared (Item 3 and 4).
Results of a Chi Squarereported in Tmble I1in-
dicates that there was a statisticallysignificant
relationship for fourteen out of twenty-fourrela-
tionships between subject response and group
membership.
An inspection of the contingencytable shows
that the high school Spanish students and the
first-semester university Spanish students res-
ponded more similarly than students in the in-
tensive university Spanishcourse. In most cases
all the responses were similar in directionof res-
ponse, i.e., agree or disagree, but the percentages
tended to be higher for the intensive university
Spanish course. For example, Item 2 states “I
would feelless self-consciousabout speakingin
class in front of others if I knew them better.”
While 56% of the high school and 57% of the
first-semester university Spanish students agreed
with the statement, a larger percentage of the in-
tensive university Spanishstudents (799’0) agreed
with it.
All subjects, on the other hand, reacted
similarlyto having to get up in front of the class
(Item 8), discussingcurrent events (Item lo), do-
ing skits in class (Item l2),speaking in a smaller
class (Item 13), speaking in a debate, (Item U),
role playing situations (Item 17), and having er-
rors corrected (Items 13 and 14).
Activities Arranged by
Anxiety Level
In the second section of the questionnaire
students were asked to rate their level of anxiety
when called on to participatein a number of in-
class activities (See Tmble I11 on page 547). The
list is neither exhaustive nor reflectiveof any par-
ticular foreign language teaching method.
The mean range in anxiety level spanned
“moderately anxious’yto “moderatelyrelaxed,”
displaying few responses at the extreme anx-
ioushlaxed ends of the continuum.
Four of the five activities within the highest
level of anxiety reported as “moderately anx-
ious,” were speaking-oriented activities. This
cluster of activities has one particularly note-
worthy feature in common- a high student ex-
posure requirement. There is little to no risk of
exposure involved, for example, in writing a
composition at home, repeating as a class after
the instructor, or reading silently. The activities
for which subjects reported being neither anx-
ious nor relaxed include speaking-orientedac-
tivities, but students are not overly exposed in
these activities. Such findings,then, suggest that
foreign language students experience a fear of
self-exposure; they are afraid of revealing
themselves or being spotlighted in front of
others.
Performance of a Duncan’s Multiple Range
Bst indicates the difference between means
should be at least 396 to be considered signifi-
cant. (See Tmble IV on page 548).
An interesting pattern surfaced among the
results. Activities 1 through 6 were not signifi-
cantly differentfrom each other and activities 15
through 20 were also not significantlydifferent
from each other statistically. The common
denominator of activities 15 though 20 is that
students must get up in front of the class. Even
though students do not have to speak,they have
the same reaction to writing their work on the
board as to speakingin fmnt of others. It is easy
to discern from these data that students ex-
perience higher levels of anxietywhen they have
to speak in the foreign language, but the real
anxiety-evokingsituation is having to speak or
perform in front of others.
Instructor Characteristics and Tkchniques
Related to Anxiety Reduction
The last section of the questionnairecontained
two questions: Items 26 and 27 asked students to
comment on what the instructor does to decrease
foreign language class anxiety and to describe
instructor characteristics that tend to reduce
students’ foreign language speaking anxiety.
From 244 students, there were 195 responses.
Tmble V on page 549 presents of a summary of
these comments.
FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS -DECEMBER 1990 547

TABLEm

Activities Arranged by Anxiety Level by Means

Anxiety Level Meall Activity

Moderately
Relaxed 4.54 1. Read silently in class.
4.38 2. Repeat as a class after the instructor.
4.05 3. Write a composition at home.

Neither Anxious
Nor Relaxed 3.94 4. Do exercises in the book.
3.90 5. Work in groups of 3 or 4.
3.69 6. Work on projects (i.e., newspapers
filmstrips, photo albums).
3.53 7. Compete in class games by teams.
3.53 8. Repeat individually after the instructor.
3.51 9. Open discussion based on volunteer
participation.
3.50 10 Interview each other in pairs.
3.30 11 Work in groups of two and prepare a
skit.
3.26 12. Read orally in class.
3.13 13. Listen to questions and write answers
14. to the questions.
3.07 15. Speak individually with the instructor
in hidher office.
3.02 16. Write a composition in class.

Moderately
Anxious ' 2.83 17. Write your work on the board.
2.47 18. Present a prepared dialog in front of
the class.
2.26 19. Make an oral presentation or skit in
front of the class.
2.23 20. Speak in front of the class.
2.12 21. Role play a situation spontaneously
in front of the class.
548 FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS - DECEMBER 19W

I TABLE IV
SignificantDifferences Between Activity Qpes
I
Activities

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
2 n
3 n n
4 n n n
5 n n n n
6 n n n n n
7 y n n n n n
8 y n n n n n n
9 y n n n n n n n
10 y n n n n n n n n
11 Y Y n n n n n n n n
12 Y Y n n n n n n n n n
13 Y Y y n n n n n n n n n
14 Y Y y n n n n n n n n n n
15 Y Y y y n n n n n n n n n n
16 Y Y y y y n n n n n n n n n n
17 Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y ~ ~ ~ ~
18 Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y ~ ~ ~ ~
19 Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y ~ ~ ~ ~
20 Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y ~ ~ ~
I 1
See Table 3 for the activity that corresponds to each number.
y = yes, there is a significant difference
n = no ,there is not a significant difference
p
-
< .05

Students’ comments to item 26, “What, if studentsto provide responses; 9% felt that work-
anything, does your instructor do to decrease ing in small groups was anxiety-reducing.
any anxiety you may have in your foreign Student comments to item 27, “What
language class?” could be grouped into two characteristics does your instructor have which
categories: 1) commentsrelated to error correc- tend to reduce your anxiety about speaking in
tion, and 2) comments related to activity- class?”, are also useful. The following instruc-
typeltask. While 58% of the comments dealt tor characteristics were cited by the greatest
with error corrections (mistakes in oral produc- number of students: friendly (17Vo), good sense
tion), 43% dealt with inclass activities. Within of humor (18%), patient (9070)and relaxed
the domain of the 58% dealing with error cor- (10%).
rection, 18% of the students felt that their in-
structor reduced foreign language class anxiety Discussion
by not “making a big deal” over mistakes; 17% Language learners in this study consistently
felt that instructors helped decrease anxiety by expressedhigher levels of anxiety in response to
helping students realize that everyone makes three general areas: activity-task, speaking er-
mistakes. Within the domain of the 43% dealing rors, and preparedness. The results obtained here
with activities, 12% of the students felt that in- corroborate similar student reactions on
structors helped reduce anxiety by letting preparedness and speakingin Horwitz et al. (15)
students volunteer answers instead of calling on and speaking in Price (25)and on activity-task
FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS - DECEMBER 19% 549
~

TABLE V
Student Comments to Items 26 and 27
Item 2 6 What, if anything, does your instructor do to decrease any anxiety you may
have in your foreign language class?
Error Correction No. of Comments Percent
1. Instructor has attitude that mistakes
are no big deal. 22 18%
2. Instructor has attitude that mistakes
are made by everyone. 20 17%
3. Instructor does not make you feel
stupid when you make a mistake. 14 12%
4. Instructor’s manner of correction is
not harsh. 9 8070
5. Instructor does not over-react to
mistakes. 3 3‘70
Activities
6. Students are not put “on the spot.” 22 17%
7. Students can volunteer answers and
are not called on to provide
responses. 14 12%
8. Students are asked to work in
groups or pairs. 11 9%
9. All students are called on equally. 8 7%
10. Instructor prepares class well and
reviews 5 4 Yo
11. Students get practice speaking. 5 4 yo
Item 27: What characteristics does your instructor have which tend to reduce your anx-
iety about speaking in class.
Instructor Characteristic No. of Comments Percent
a. Good sense of humor 23 18%
b. Friendly 22 17%
c. Relaxed 13 10%
d. Patient 11 9 ‘)70
e. Makes students feel comfortable 10 8VO
f. Encourages students to speak 10 8070
g. Understanding 9 7 (‘70
h. Helpful 6 5 (‘70
i. Compliments students 6 5 070
j . Explains material well 6 5%
k. Creates casual atmosphere 5 4%
1. Smiles 4 3h
!
m. Cares 2 2%
550 FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS - DECEMBER 1990
in Koch and Terrell (18). These results lend
themselves to several theoretical interpretations
of languageanxiety. First and foremost,students
are saying that they become more anxious when
they have to speak in front of others. Their anx-
iety is not totally rooted in fear of speaking the
foreign language as it is in communication ap-
prehension. Their anxiety decreases as a reaction
to pair work or small-groupwork. Communica-
tion apprehensionwould be, therefore, an integral
part of any theoretical model of languageanxiety.
Students’reactions to error correction as ex-
pressed in this study suggest that social anxiety
may be another component in a theoreticalmodel
of language anxiety. Students fear being nega-
tively evaluated, not only by their peers, but by
the instructor. The social context that frames
their anxiety over negative evaluationis the lan-
guageclassroom.Wheninstructorscreateawarm
social environment by having a good sense of
humor and being friendly, relaxed and patient,
students report feeling less anxious and tense.
A third componentworthy of considerationin
a theoreticalmodel of languageanxietyis learner
self-esteem. Findings in this study, such as stu-
dents’ fear of speaking in front of others, anxiety
over making a mistakein front of their peers and
instructors,willingnessto participate in activities
that do not require them to be “spot-lighting”
could relate to low self-esteem.Most of Price’s
(25, p.106), highly anxious language learners
seemed to have low self-esteem. She reports
that the majority of her subjects believed
that their languageskills were weaker than
those of other students...that they weren’t
doing a good job and that everyone else
looked down on them...that they should
have done much better than they did, that
if they had only worked a little harder, they
could have been successfulat this task.
Although communication apprehension,
social anxiety and low self-esteemare vital com-
ponents of language anxiety, any theoretical
model would also have to consider those
socio/psychological phenomena specifically
associated with language learning and possibly
languageanxiety, such as Krashen’s (36) concept
of “club membership,” l2 Terrell’s (36) idea of
“target language group identification,” l 3
Schumann’s(26) concept of “social distance,”
Guiora’s (13) idea of “language ego,” and
Clarke’s (6) theory of “clash of consciousnessor
cultural assimilation.“ These socio/psycholo-
gical concepts are particular to the foreign
language class and merit examination for their
relation to language anxiety, if we are to unders-
tand fullythis phenomenon and its ramifications
in our language learners.
Classroom Implications
Student reactions to items in this question-
naire indicate that students do not want to be
“put on the spot” or singled out to speak in the
foreign language in front of their peers. If we
want to provide our students with speaking-
oriented activitiesthat are less anxiety-evoking,
what speaking-orientedactivitiesdo we consider
for the foreign language class? Results of the
questionnairegive someinsight into what can be
done to help reduce languageanxiety. For exam-
ple, teachers may want to provide interesting
discussion topics, have students work in small
groups or in pairs, and maintain a relaxed at-
titude over error correction.
When we want our students to speak in front
of the classroom, we can tailor activities to help
reduce their anxiety. For example, Foss and
Reitzel(l4, p. 448) describean oral interpretation
activity that takesinto account the learner’sanx-
iety over speaking in front of the class. In this ac-
tivity students practice reading a script orally
before an audienceonly after they have practiced
it extensively in a group l4
The desire on the part of students to have their
mistakes corrected may originate in some
preconceived notion about how foreignlanguage
classes work. Perhaps students have come to
believe that improvement comes through error
correction, a belief reinforced throughout the
schooling acculturation. Whatever the reason,
the fact remains that students believe their
mistakes need correcting. In light of this finding,
anxiety and fear of making a mistake may be
more directly related to how, how often, and
when errors are corrected than to the fact that
they are corrected (Omaggio, 22).
One way to provide correction input without
much anxiety is to model students’ responses,
that is, simplyrepeat the correct version of what
the studentsare attempting to say. In a modeling
FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS -DECEMBER 1990
approach to error correction, students are not
spotlightedin front of their peers and coITected,
but correct feedback is provided for those lan-
guage learnerswho feel they need it. If modeling
is to work, however, students must learn to listen
carefully and strategically (Young, 34). For ex-
tremely anxious learners, teachers can suggest
some form of supplementalinstruction or sup-
port group, e.g., work with a tutor, join a lan-
guage club, do relaxation exerCises and/or prac-
tice self-talk. Self-talkcan be particularly useful
for coping with state anxiety (anxiety due to an
evaluative situation). The following (from the
Learning Resource Center at the University of
lkxas,Austin) is an example of self-talk.
Situation. Walking toward the front of the
room for an oral presentation.
Anxiety Pmvoking Seu-lhlk “I can’t talk in
public. I’ll forget everything... I’ve always
stumbled over my words when it really counts.
Last time I was so nervous I sounded like a
robot.. .”
Productiveself-lik “Ican handle this...Just
re1ax... take a deep slow breath and I’ll start as
I rehearsed it.” (7) l5
Studentsreported anxiety when they came to
class unprepared; therefore, teachers may want
to motivate studentsto come to class preparedby
thinking of ways to reward them, such as short
5-10 minutes pop quizzes.
An interesting finding in this study was the
similarity in responses between the first-year
university students and high school Spanish
students as compared to the intensiveuniversi-
ty Spanish students. A probable explanationfor
this rests with the nature of the intensivecourse.
Students in the intensive university Spanish
course cover the entire first year book in one
semester. The course is known among the stu-
dents as “turbo Spanish,”and may be inhemtly
anxiety producing because of the amount of
material for which students are responsible. In
additionto this, studentsin this coursehave had
Spanish before and either did not place out of
the first semester or felt insecure about taking
second semester. Studentsin this type of course
may alreadyexperience some type of discomfort
with the language. Therefore, particularly in
those intensive language courses into which
often students are placed because of previous
551
negative experience, teachersmay want to be sen-
sitized to the effects of anxiety during the
languagelearning process and be aware of anx-
iety reducing strategies.
Conclusion
This study examined languageanxietyin rela-
tion to in-class activitiesand instructor behavior.
The results suggest that speakingactivitiawhich
require “on the spot” and “in front of the class”
performanceproduce the most anxiety from the
students’ perspective, and instructor charact-
ristics such as a non-harsh attitudetoward e m r
correction, a positive, friendly and relaxed
general attitude toward students can reduce
students’ anxiety.
For theoreticians,these findingscontributeto
research that attempts to develop a conceptual
model of languageanxiety (Dally,9;Horwitz et
al., 15). Anxiety over speaking in public has
generally been an accepted and at times expected
psychological phenomenon, but until recently it
has not been closely examined in the language
learning experience. Studiessuch as this one may
lead to a better understanding of the complex
construct of language anxiety.
NOTES
1 For studies on language anxiety in regard to
foreign language see, e.g. Backman, 1; Bartz, 3;
Brewster, 4; Chastain, 5; Gardner and Grunet, 11;
Gardner and Gliksman, 12; Horwitz, 15; Kleinman,
17; pimsleur, 23; Scott,27; Scovel, 28;Swain and Bur-
naby, 30.
2 For studies on effects of language anxiety on
language learning and performance see, e.g. Bartz, 3;
Brewster, 4;Chastian, 5; Dunkel, 10; Gardner et al.,
11; Gardner et al., 12; Kleinman, 17; Scott, 27; Swain
and Burnaby, 30; lbcker et al., 31, Young, 35.
s For studies on negative relationships existing
between anxiety and foreign/second languageperfor-
mance see, ag. Chastain, 5; Daly and Stafford, 8;
Garnder and Grunet, 11; Gardnerand Gliksman, 12;
Kleinman, 17; Steinberg, 29; Swain and Burnaby, 30;
lbcker et al., 31; Whittenborn et al., 33.
4 State anxiety refers to an unpleasant emotional
condition or temporary state, while tmit anxiety refers
to a stable propensity to be anxious. ’Itaitis a perma-
nent personality chamcteristic Anxiety leading to im-
proved performance is call facilitating anxiety and
anxiety leading to impaired performanceis called de-
bilitating anxiety lht anxiety refers to the unpleasant
552 FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS - DECEMBER 19%
emotion due to a given task, such as a test (35).
In this study, studentswere given the Multiple Af-
fect Adjective Checklist (MAACL) which consists of
a list of adjectives from which students select those
that describe how they feel at that moment (i.e., state
anxiety).
In this study, five separate measures of anxiety
were used: the State-nait Anxiety Inventory, the
Foreign Language Class Anxiety Scale (see 15), the
MAACL, and teachers and student reportsof anxiety.
This research was conducted prior to the Price (25)
and Koch and Terrell(18) studies, which were incor-
porated into the review of the literature here to
demonstrate the growing interest in the students’
perspective on language anxiety. The above two studies
are forthcoming in a volume on language anxiety
(Horwitz,et al., 16).
The questionnaire usedin Horwitz et al. (IS), ex-
amines language anxietyin relation to a) test anxiety,
b) communication apprehension, and c) fear of
negative evaluation. The questionnaire used in this
study incorpomtessome items on communication ap-
prehension and fear of negative evaluation, but most
items are specifically related to foreign language
speaking in-class activities.
Koch and Terrell(18, p. 120) similarlyfound that
interviewing their classmates (paired/group work)
made their students feel significantlymore comfor-
table than did an array of other activities. They con-
clude that “working in smallgroups, discussing rele-
vant topics, and relating grammar and vocabularyto
their personal interestswill make students feel comfor-
table” (p. 120).
lo Students in Koch and Terrell (18) also reported
anxiety due to not having speech errors co- lack
of m r cocrectionmade 32%nervous and 42% angry
(p. 118-19).
I1 Horwitz et al., (15, p. 130) reported that 49% of
their subjects disagreed with the statement ‘‘I get ner-
vous when the languageteacher asks questions that I
haven’t prepared in advance,” and 49% agreed with
the statement “I start to panic when I have to speak
without preparation in language class” (p. 29).
l2 Krashen (36) posits that anxiety in the language
learning context is wrapped up in the phenomenon he
refers to as “club membership.” In short, he argues
that the affective fidter is down when one wants to
become a “member of the group” -in this context,
a member of the Spanish, French, German club, or
whatever the target language group is.
lJ Terrell(36) associates foreign language anxiety
with what he calls “target languagegroup identifica-
tion,” similar to Krashen’s “group membership”
phenomenon but with an added dimension: Terrell
suggests that attentiveness to the language input is
essential.
l4 See Foss and Reitzel for detailed information on
this technique as some understanding of how it works
is necessary for success.
Is For a variety of strategies for lowering general
language anxiety, including the ase of “self-talk,” see:
Rebecca Oxford, LanguageLearning Strategies. San
Francisco: Newbury House, 1990.
Acknowledgements: I would like to acknowledge
several colleagues who read this article and respond-
ed with insightfuland important suggestions: Elaine
Horwitz and Rebecca Oxford, and the miewers of
Foreign Language AnnaIs.
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