Foreign Language Anxiety

It is a well-known fact that a new language comes with several positive outcomes
such as getting in touch with other people from other countries or possible future job
prospects etc. However, most language learners face some challenges while they are trying to
learn an aimed language, such as how to express things in another language, comprehending
the structure of the aimed language, or the anxiety that emerges during this process. Foreign
language anxiety can be defined as the anxiety and apprehension that occurs when it comes to
learning a new language. It is a significant problem because it usually prevents learners from
enhancing their language skills and obtaining their purposes regarding language. Even though
the causes of foreign language anxiety may change from person to person, there seem to be
three main causes of this issue.

First of all, communication apprehension is one of the major causes of foreign

language anxiety. “Communication apprehension is defined as the anxiety to communicate
with people, including both the production apprehension, and the reception apprehension”
(Kralova & Petrova, 2017). In other words, language learners who have communication
apprehension have difficulty in communication with the target language since they have a
great concern for the possibility of not understanding what the teachers or others say, and
they are afraid of not being understood while speaking a foreign language. Afterward, this
apprehension might get serious and become foreign language anxiety.

Secondly, the lack of self-confidence might cause foreign language anxiety in

students. Insecure students do not feel confident of themselves, and they assume that their
proficiency levels are lower than others, hence they might deeply get into a state of
nervousness and worry when it comes to the target language. Also, low self-confidence often
creates concern and apprehension from others about judgment and criticism. Namely,
students with low-self confidence are afraid of being judged by others when they do a
mistake. Therefore, to not fail and be criticized, they might not feel comfortable in the
language-related activities. Their level of anxiety might be increased by this feeling of
uneasiness.

The last cause of foreign language anxiety is not being good at native language skills.
Although languages are different from each other in terms of linguistics and pronunciation, it
cannot be denied that all languages are connected somehow. People whose proficiency levels
in their mother languages are not adequate might have much more difficulties while learning
another language. For example, while learning grammatical rules, students with a high
proficiency level in their native languages can associate the target language’s grammar to
their mother language’s grammar, and this makes the newly learned rules easier to apprehend
when it is compared to students with a low proficiency level in their native languages.
Therefore, the inability to make a relationship can cause anxiety in foreign language learners.

Foreign language anxiety with which most of the language learners struggle can be
caused by three main reasons which are communication apprehension, lack of self-confidence
and low proficiency level in the mother language. Although the effects of language anxiety
differ from person to person, there are two main effects that can be noticed in most anxious
language learners.

The first impact of foreign language anxiety is low performance. As they tend to skip
the language classes, they might fall behind their counterparts. Even if they attend all the
classes, during the tests, anxious language learners are more likely to forget what they know
due to the heavy stress and worry. Furthermore, Onwuegbuzie, Bailey and Daley (1999) state
that speaking and listening exams are prone to trigger anxiety for some language learners. If
they are not tested in isolation, students might have to deal with the highest level of anxiety,
and they might perform worse than they actually can.

Secondly, foreign language anxiety might negatively affect students’ health. At first,
their bodies start to respond to stressful situations with basic symptoms such as headaches,
perspiration or tension. Later, the symptoms may start to get worse, and sleep disorders,
nausea, diabetes or obesity can emerge in students who have foreign language anxiety. What
is more, there is the possibility of depression and depression might even bring along suicide.

In today’s world where knowing a second language is perceived as obligatory, many

students have to struggle with challenges in the learning process. Learning language anxiety
which is one of the main challenges that students face mainly results from the apprehension
of communication, low self-confidence and poor proficiency level in the mother language. It
negatively affects students’ academic performances and it might deteriorate students’ health.
Although it is seen as unimportant in the beginning, irreversible effects can occur as the level
of anxiety increases.
 REFERENCES

Kralova, Z., & Petrova, G. (2017). Causes and consequences of foreign language
anxiety. XLinguae Journal, 113.

Onwuegbuzie, A. J., Bailey, P., & Daley, C. E. (1999). Factors associated with foreign
language anxiety. Psycholinguistics, 233.