Foreign Language Enjoyment and Classroom Anxiety of Chinese EFL Learners With Intermediate and Low English Proficiency

Driven by Positive Psychology, research on emotions in second language acquisition has moved from The Anxiety-Prevailing Phase to Positive and Negative Emotions Phase (Dewaele & Li, 2020). A growing number of scholars begin to study learners’ emotions from a more holistic perspective. The present study investigated the levels and sources of foreign language enjoyment (FLE) and foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA) of 231 Chinese EFL undergraduates with intermediate and low English proficiency. The study found moderate levels of both FLE and FLCA among participants. However, the level of FLE was much lower than the international and domestic samples, while the level of FLCA showed the opposite pattern. There was no significant gender difference emerged for FLE, while female participants reported more FLCA than their male counterparts. Moreover, no significant difference was found in the levels of both FLE and FLCA between intermediate and low English proficiency students. Qualitative data analysis confirmed that FLE was closely related to teacher factors while FLCA was more related to learners themselves. Based on these findings, pedagogical implications were provided for EFL teaching in China.

How Classroom Environment and General Grit Predict Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety of Chinese EFL Students

Interest in the role of learners’ personality, emotions and the learning environment in foreign language (FL) learning has grown exponentially in the past decade. The introduction of personality psychology in the field of applied linguistics has led to the inclusion of a set of personality dimensions in research designs like resilience and grit, which have been shown to be significant predictors of FL achievement. The abrupt emergence of COVID-19 in 2020 forced universities around the world to move their courses online, which has been named Emergency Remote Teaching. The sudden change in FL learning environment offers a unique opportunity to researchers to investigate whether the relationships between learners’ personality and classroom emotions in traditional ‘in-person’ classes, and the predictors of those emotions, also exist in the new online environments. The present study examined the foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA) of Chinese secondary students at different instruction levels and its links with learner-internal and external factors, namely general grit and the classroom environment (CE) of the online English classes. A total of 1,526 Chinese secondary students completed an online questionnaire. Pearson correlation analyses and regression analyses revealed that general grit and CE predicted FLCA either independently or jointly. The findings are discussed and interpreted in the light of existing research on person-environment interaction. We identify avenues for further research and propose a number of pedagogical implications for optimizing online FL teaching.

The predictors of exam performance of Kazakh university students and secondary school pupils learning Turkish

The present study investigates the effect of sociobiographical, emotional, attitudinal characteristics and teacher perceptions of 275 Kazakh secondary school pupils and 317 university students on their exam performance in Turkish as a foreign language (FL). Multiple regression analyses reveal that exam results in Turkish of secondary school pupils are predicted by teacher gender, participant’s age, attitude towards the FL and FL Classroom Anxiety. A very different picture emerges for university students, where FL level, participant’s gender, FL Enjoyment, FL Classroom Anxiety and teacher’s age explain more than twice as much variance. FL exam scores for both groups are thus underpinned by different sets of complex interactions between multiple learner-internal and learner-external variables and the effect of emotions is much stronger among university learners.

THE CORRELATION BETWEEN EFL ANXIETY AND STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION”.

The objective of the current study examined whether there was any significant correlation between foreign language classroom anxiety and students’ reading comprehension. In this regard, hopefully, this study provided English language lecturers to recognize the most provoking factor that affect learning a foreign language, such anxiety and helped students to solve language anxiety to become better English language students. This researcher was conducted at Lakidende University, particularly 32 university students of English Language Teaching Department who enrolled in academic year 2018/2019. The data were obtained from students’ reading comprehension test and questionnaire that is Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) and to analyze the data this study applied Pearson Correlation analysis. The finding revealed that there was a significant relationship between foreign language classroom anxiety and students’ reading comprehension, p (.061) 0.05. Meanwhile, the strength of correlation between reading anxiety and students’ reading comprehension was categorized “moderate” according to table Guidelines of Interpreting Pearson's Correlation Coefficient (r =.381). It might be the fact that most of students frequently experienced moderate level of foreign language classroom anxiety in their reading comprehension class.

Validating the Short-Form Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (S-FLCAS)

Foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA) is a popular construct in applied linguistics research, traditionally measured with the 33-item Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS). However, recent studies have started utilising the 8-item Short-Form Foreign Language Anxiety Scale (S-FLCAS). There is therefore a need, which this study addressed in five sequential steps, to validate the S-FLCAS in order to ensure the validity and reliability of the scale. A sample of n = 370 foreign language learners was utilised in the validation efforts, which included exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, the establishment of convergent and discriminant validity, and invariance testing. The S-FLCAS was found to have a unidimensional structure with the 8 items loading on a single latent variable. Evidence was provided of the internal consistency and the convergent and discriminate validity of the S-FLCAS. In addition, the measure was found to be fully invariant across age, gender, educational levels, and L1 groups. It is therefore with some considerable confidence that we can recommend the future use of the S-FLCAS in peer-reviewed research.

Influencia de la ansiedad en el aprendizaje del idioma inglés como lengua extranjera en estudiantes de educación superior

La presente investigación tuvo como objetivo determinar el nivel de ansiedad frente al aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera, como el caso del idioma inglés, por lo que se consideró como referencia a 37 estudiantes de un instituto de educación superior de Lima, Perú. La muestra la conformaron mujeres y varones. Los instrumentos utilizados fueron: The Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) para evaluar la ansiedad y un instrumento para medir la habilidad speaking como parte del aprendizaje del idioma inglés. Se observó un nivel de ansiedad medio y el principal componente fue la ansiedad ante los exámenes.

A Review of the Effectiveness of Foreign Language Enjoyment and Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety on Learners' Engagement and Attainment

Cognitive factors are not the fundamental determinants of success in language learning. Foreign language attainment depends on both cognitive and affective factors, highlighting the deeper impacts of the former. Some scholars started to investigate affective issues, particularly negative emotions in language learning studies; nevertheless, reducing negative emotions such as anxiety should be accompanied by the development of positive emotions (e.g., well-being, autonomy, and enjoyment). Since then, a great number of researchers have examined the impact of anxiety and enjoyment in foreign language literature, particularly after the introduction of reliable and valid foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA) and foreign language enjoyment (FLE) scales. So, the present study aims to review contemporary scholarly articles and books in this regard. Findings suggest that there has been a major interest in the evaluation of FLCA and FLE across a variety of dimensions including personality traits, interpersonal characteristics, and classroom conditions. The central issues are summarized into three categories of the relationship between FLCA and FLE, the robustness of respective scales, and the impact of individual and interpersonal factors. Hence, this research attempts to highlight probable gaps and areas for further examinations to help enrich the literature and improve the theoretical knowledge.

Anxiety in adult foreign language learning: The case of Ghanaian undergraduate students of Spanish

This study investigates students’ anxiety levels through the administration of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) among Spanish learners at a Ghanaian University. The differences according to level of instruction, the association between classroom anxiety and performance, as well as the possible relationship between language immersion and anxiety are also analysed using descriptive statistics, and Pearson’s Moment Correlation Coefficient. The findings indicate that the majority of student participants experienced foreign language classroom anxiety. Nonetheless, contrary to previous research findings, anxiety was not found to decrease systematically as proficiency increased. Additionally, as confirmed by previous studies, the result of the Pearson correlation analysis showed that students’ overall Spanish classroom anxiety and their classroom achievement had a negative association.