Gabriel Jones & Christina Lee
As future Japanese language teachers, a major concern of ours is the anxiety, especially in listening and speaking, felt by students in foreign language classrooms. This anxiety can hinder students from fully realizing their educational potential, because it affects their confidence, motivation, and emotional well-being.
From our initial research, we have identified three types of anxieties in the foreign language classroom: communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation (Horwitz et. al 127). In other words, students are hesitant and even embarrassed to communicate in the target language, fear failure on tests, and dread being viewed negatively by peers and teachers. Although these feelings are present in all subject areas, the anxiety felt in foreign language classrooms are distinct because language learning essentially “threatens an individual’s self-concept and worldview” in the sense that students are essentially put in an unfamiliar space where they are not able to communicate freely (Horwitz et. al 125). Therefore, we want to conduct inquiry into greater understanding of the anxiety and its detriments, as well as possible strategies of alleviating such anxieties in the foreign language classroom.
In order to attain a deeper understanding of this issue, we intend to read a variety of scholarly articles pertaining to anxiety, natural teaching methods, and assessment in the foreign language classroom. We hope to make use of the research and identify potential roots of those anxieties, in order to create and foster a positive classroom environment that will help to lessen stress felt by students during our long practica. Our ultimate goal is to recognize students’ distress and collaboratively create ways of overcoming those obstacles in the foreign language classroom.
Works consulted:
Grenfell, Michael, and Vee Harris. Modern Languages and Learning Strategies: In Theory and Practice. New York: Routledge Falmer, 1999. Print.
Clark, Ann. “Boys into Modern Languages: An Investigation of the Discrepancy in Attitudes and Performance between Boys and Girls in Modern Languages.” Gender and Education 7.3 (1995): 315-26. Print.
Aida, Yukie. “Examination of Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope’s Construct of Foreign Language Anxiety: The Case of Students of Japanese.” The Modern Language Journal 78.2 (1994): 155-68. Print.
Bernhardt, Elizabeth, and Joann Hammadou. “A Decade of Research in Foreign Language Teacher Education.” The Modern Language Journal 71.3 (1987): 289-99. Print.
Terrell, T. D. “The Natural Approach to Language Teaching: An Update.” The Modern Language Journal 66.2 (1982): 121-32. Print.
Hendrickson, James M. “Error Correction in Foreign Language Teaching: Recent Theory, Research, and Practice.” The Modern Language Journal 62.8 (1978): 387-98. Print.
Horwitz, Elaine K., Michael B. Horwitz, and Joann Cope. “Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety.” The Modern Language Journal 70.2 (1986): 125-32. Print.
Sung-Yeon Kim. “Is Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Context Free Or Context Dependent?” Foreign Language Annals 43.2 (2010): 187-9. Print.
Sparks, Richard L., and Leonore Ganschow. “Is the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale Measuring Anxiety Or Language Skills?” Foreign Language Annals 40.2 (2007): 260-87. Print.
Categories: