Individual Differences in SLA: Anxiety

Fundamental question: How do people differ

relative to anxiety, and how do these differences
influence the process of and success in SLA?
Facilitating v. debilitating anxiety
“Facilitating anxiety motivates the learner to ‘fight’
the new learning task; it gears the learner
emotionally for approval behavior. Debilitating
anxiety, in contrast, motivates the learner to ‘flee’
the new learning task; it stimulates the individual
emotionally to adopt avoidance behavior” -- Scovel,
T. (1978). The effect of affect on foreign language
learning; A review of the anxiety research.
Language Learning, 28, 129–142, p. 139. 1
 Individual Differences in SLA: Anxiety
Fundamental question: How do people differ
relative to anxiety, and how do these differences
influence the process of and success in SLA?
State v. trait anxiety
State anxiety is relative momentary, associated with
a particular situation – giving a speech, for example.
Trait anxiety is a “more permanent predisposition to
be anxious” (Scovel, p. 137).

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 Individual Differences in SLA: Anxiety
Fundamental question: How do people differ
relative to anxiety, and how do these differences
influence the process of and success in SLA?
Interaction among Anxiety and other individual
differences
Interaction between level of anxiety and IQ level.
“Higher states of anxiety facilitate learning at upper
levels of intelligence, whereas they are associated
with poorer performance at lower IQ levels” (Scovel,
p. 136).

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 Individual Differences in SLA: Affective Domain
Anxiety is one of many affective factors that may
influence SLA. Other affective factors include:
• self-esteem
• risk taking
• sensitivity to rejection
• empathy
• motivation

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 Individual Differences in SLA: Methods / Affect
One dominant methodology for SLA studies of the
affective domain; Elkhafaifi is no exception:
Correlation research

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 Individual Differences in SLA: Correlation
In correlation studies, researchers
• develop an instrument / questionnaire to measure
some aspect of difference (e.g., level of anxiety);
this is called “self-report” data.
• test students on some aspect of language
proficiency (vocabulary skills, e.g.), and
• examine the two for strength of correlation, as in:

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 Individual Differences in SLA: Instruments
Instruments for affective SLA studies include:
For extroversion / introversion,
• Eysenck Introversion – Extroversion Scale
• Marlowe – Crowne Scale of Reserved – Outgoing
Personality
For anxiety,
• Sarason Text Anxiety Scale
• Manifest Anxiety Scale
• Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale
• Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Scale
For sensitivity,
• Mehrabian Sensitivity to Rejection Scale 7
 Individual Differences in SLA: Instruments
Instruments for affective SLA studies include:
For empathy,
• Hogan Empathy Scale
• Micro-Momentary Expression Test (facial
expressions)
For tolerance of ambiguity,
• Budner Scale of Tolerance – Intolerance
For motivation,
• Attitude / Motivation Test Battery

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 Individual Differences in SLA: Self-Report Data
In correlation studies of SLA affect, informants
provide information about themselves (about their
anxiety, tolerance for ambiguity, motivation, and so
on) by completing the instrument (a questionnaire).
The results are called “self-report data.”
What are the pros and cons of self-report data?
Advantages: they provide a fast and easy way of
categorizing informants’ affective characteristics.
We could categorize informants ethnographically
(through observation), but this would require a
considerable investment in time and resources.
Self-report data represent a trade-off for
researchers in time-energy-accuracy. 9
 Individual Differences in SLA: Self-Report Data
Disadvantages:
Hawthorne effect: Informants may provide data
they think the researcher wants to receive.
Self-flattery syndrome: They may provide data that
present themselves favorably, but which may be
inaccurate.

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 Individual Differences in SLA: Correlation
Self-report data are then correlated with some
measure of SLA success (test scores, typically), so
that researchers can draw conclusions about the
relationship between affect (extroversion, self-
esteem, anxiety, and so on) and success in SLA.
Remember what correlation is not:
Causation
Correlation simply shows a relationship between
two things, not that one causes the other. With that
in mind, what is wrong with this statement?
“The majority of studies support the view that
anxiety contributes to poor performance, not the
reverse” (Elkhafaifi, p. 208). 11