Investigating Language Class Anxiety Using the Focused Essay Technique

FOR MANY STUDENTS, LANGUAGE CLASS CAN be more anxiety-provoking than any other course that they take (1; 13; 20).1 Anecdotal reports and an emerging body of empirical research suggest that language anxiety can have a pervasive impact at all stages of language learning and production (14; 19). In the language classroom, increased levels of anxiety can have a variety of negative effects. Anxious students are less likely to volunteer answers and to participate in oral classroom activities (5). They also tend to avoid difficult linguistic structures that the more relaxed students would be willing to attempt (16). Not surprisingly, therefore, language anxiety has been negatively correlated with language course grades (12) and teacher's ratings of achievement (33). While anxiety is correlated with these more global measures, its negative influence on the specific aspects of the language learning process must also be considered. Anxiety has been found to influence listening comprehension negatively (10). Anxious students will sometimes report that language class moves too quickly, that they feel left behind, and that they require more time for their studies --a fairly common response to anxiety in any instructional setting (32). Word production of anxious students also tends to be smaller than that of