scholarly journals Exploring affective barriers in virtual exchange: the telecollaborative foreign language anxiety scale

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (SI) ◽  
pp. 37-61
Author(s):  
Marta Fondo ◽  
Pedro Jacobetty
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Language Anxiety ◽  
Foreign Language Anxiety ◽  
Item Questionnaire ◽  
New Learning ◽  
Situational Anxiety ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Learning Scenarios ◽  
Professional Requirements

The technological revolution of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has brought about new learning scenarios as well as new professional requirements, such as the development of intercultural and Foreign Language (FL) skills. In this regard, Virtual Exchange (VE) projects provide students with learning opportunities through online social interaction and collaboration (Dooly, 2017); allowing authentic intercultural experiences for students who do not have the opportunity of travelling (O’Dowd, 2016) and promoting 21st-century skills development (Jager, Kurek, & O’Rourke, 2016). However, interacting online in the FL with a person from a different culture can entail an affective challenge for students and might give rise to Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA). FLA is a dysphoric and situational anxiety suffered by one out of three FL students which inhibits communication and learning (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986). Due to the impossibility of finding an available tool to investigate the presence and effects of FLA in VE environments, the Telecollaborative FLA Scale (T-FLAS) was designed. This article presents the development of the T-FLAS, a 21-item questionnaire with a five-point Likert scale, aiming to provide researchers and practitioners with a tool to explore FLA in VE.

Foreign Language Anxiety

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 82-97
Author(s):  
Marta Fondo ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Language Anxiety ◽  
Foreign Language Anxiety ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Learning Scenarios ◽  
Negative Feelings

Have you ever felt nervous, inappropriate, insecure or worried when trying to communicate in a foreign language? Have you ever feared to make mistakes, being negatively judged or misunderstood when talking to foreigners? Do you know someone who has experienced those situations? If yes, please, keep on reading. All these negative feelings are common in many and diverse situations when using a foreign language. They are the result of experiencing Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA) a situational, dysphoric and debilitating anxiety coined by Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope in 1986. Nowadays, multiculturalism and multilingualism are part of our daily lives as well as communication in a foreign language and with foreigners. Hence, FLA is not a problem restricted to foreign language learning scenarios anymore. This innovative session aims to inform and raise awareness of FLA presence and effects in professional and educational contexts, beyond FL classrooms and learning settings.

scholarly journals Foreign Language Anxiety and Student Interpreters’ Learning Outcomes: Implications for the Theory and Measurement of Interpretation Learning Anxiety

2010 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 589-601 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yung-Nan Chiang
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Outcome Measures ◽  
Trait Anxiety ◽  
Language Anxiety ◽  
Foreign Language Anxiety ◽  
Learning Anxiety ◽  
Exam Scores

Although anxiety has been documented as an important variable in both interpretation performance and second language acquisition, there has been virtually no research on the interconnections between the anxiety reactions induced by these two cross-linguistic / cultural endeavors. A review of the literature on anxiety and interpretation performance finds that most of the existing studies have treated the anxiety induced by interpretation as a transfer of other general types of anxieties, such as trait anxiety, without considering the probable role of second language anxiety in interpretation performance. In order to determine the role of foreign language anxiety in 213 Chinese-English interpretation students’ learning outcomes, which were indexed by the participants’ mid-term exam scores and semester grades, this study employed Spielberger’s (1983)Trait Anxiety Inventoryto measure the students’ trait anxiety, while utilizing Horwitz, Horwitzet al.’s (1986)Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale(FLCAS) to measure the participants’ foreign language anxiety. Results of correlation analyses showed that a) trait anxiety was not related to either mid-term exam scores or semester grades, b) foreign language anxiety was significantly and negatively associated with both outcome measures, c) after controlling for the effect of trait anxiety, the relationship between foreign language anxiety and interpretation learning outcomes remained significant, and d) a vast majority of theFLCASitems had significant and negative associations with both outcome measures. Implications for developing a theory of and a measurement instrument for interpretation learning anxiety are suggested.

scholarly journals THE RELIABILITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANXIETY SCALE IN MALAY VERSION BASED ON CRONBACH’S ALPHA

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-47
Author(s):  
Rosnah Mohd. Sham ◽  
Mohd Nazri Latiff Azmi
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Objective Measure ◽  
Anxiety Scale ◽  
Language Anxiety ◽  
Foreign Language Anxiety ◽  
Cronbach’S Alpha ◽  
School Students ◽  
Cronbach's Alpha ◽  
The Government

This paper is part of a study which addresses the reliability of Foreign Language Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) in Malay version.  Researchers find that the reliability of an instrument is closely associated with its validity and an instrument cannot be valid unless it is reliable. However, the reliability of an instrument does not depend on its validity. Therefore, this paper investigates the reliability of the instrument called FLCAS in Malay version.  FLCAS is widely used in collecting data relating to language anxiety and perhaps the most reliable and comprehensive tool in language anxiety.  This paper objectively measures the reliability of FLCAS by using Cronbach’s Alpha, the most widely used objective measure of reliability.  The sampled population involved 302 respondents from the government secondary schools in Putrajaya Federal Territory, Malaysia.  The items had been translated into the Malay language and back translated into English.  Results show that the internal consistency of Crobanch’s Alpha 0.90.  It can be concluded that FLCAS in Malay version is an appropriate instrument to measure the levels of language anxiety among the Malaysian secondary school students who learn English as a second language.

scholarly journals ESP SPEAKING STRATEGIES AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANXIETY IN HIGHER EDUCATION CLASSROOM

1970 ◽  
Vol 45 (5) ◽  
pp. 181-203
Author(s):  
Милевица Десимир Бојовић
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Individual Performance ◽  
Language Anxiety ◽  
Foreign Language Anxiety ◽  
High Anxious ◽  
Medium Level ◽  
Anxious Group

The study examines the undergraduate students’ perceived use of foreign language speaking strategies, their levels of foreign language anxiety, and the potential relationships between them. Two instruments were used in the study—Inventory of Speaking Strategies in a Foreign Language, based on the instrument Strategy Inventory in Foreign Language Learning, and Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale. The results showed that students’ overall perceived use of speaking strategies in English as a foreign language for specific purposes was frequent. The findings also revealed that the students’ foreign language anxiety was at a medium level; individual performance anxieties remained at the same medium levels. A few differences were found between the low-anxious and high-anxious groups on the speaking strategy use: the former uses circumlocutions and synonyms when stuck with a word in English more frequently while the latter is paying attention more often when someone is speaking in English. The results also suggest that the medium-anxious group uses gestures when unable to think of a word during a conversation in English less frequently than the low-anxious group.

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