The Effect of Foreign Language
Anxiety On Second Language
Achievement in the Classroom
"Foreign Language Anxiety"
“Foreign Language Anxiety” defines foreign language anxiety as a situation-specific anxiety that is experienced during second language learning, because it does not involve the “anxiety transfer” of trait, test, or public speaking anxiety but is specific to a certain situation, foreign language learning. Through forwarding other sources, such as Horwitz’s et. al “Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety”, the project describes the effects of foreign language anxiety and suggests that most correlation studies show that foreign language anxiety has a negative relationship upon second language achievement, grades, and communication in the target language. The source notes that some studies find that foreign language anxiety may be misinterpreted as poor performance in language class or as a student’s unwillingness to communicate in the target language.
Horwitz et al. argue that there are many sources of foreign language anxiety, such as the learner’s low self-esteem, the teacher’s teaching abilities, or the general environment of language learning. The authors argue for instructors to provide methods to reduce anxiety in the language-learning classroom. My understanding of “Foreign Language Anxiety” and the introduction of the source vary greatly. My summary suggests that the source’s aim in this project is to holistically describe development of the term foreign language anxiety, the definition, it implications, and solutions. The introduction to the project indicates the author’s aim is to bring the importance of foreign language anxiety to the forefront and to indicate the progression of research in the second language anxiety field.