The present study examined the stability of the general foreign language (hereinafter, FL) classroom anxiety construct across English, French, Japanese and Russian among Chinese undergraduate foreign language learners. Language majors learning simultaneously two foreign languages from three universities in central China participated in the study. They were categorized into three groups, one group learning English and French simultaneously, the other English and Japanese, and the third English and Russian. They reported the levels of general FL anxiety felt in each foreign language classroom by completing a questionnaire that included two Chinese versions of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS, Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1986), one for each language. Separate paired samples t tests were conducted within each group and one-way ANOVAs were performed between groups in order to measure the stability of the general FL anxiety construct across the four languages listed above. It was found that a statistically significant difference of overall anxiety levels existed across English and Japanese with the learning of Japanese provoking significantly lower levels of anxiety than English when both languages are simultaneously learned. The comparison between groups revealed that the group learning English and Japanese simultaneously perceived a significantly higher level of anxiety in English, the same first FL that all the three groups share, but a significantly lower level of anxiety in Japanese, the second FL, than the groups learning French and Russian as the second FL respectively. All the findings suggested that the levels of general FL anxiety may not be independent of the native languageforeign language pairing and may vary across languages according to the specific target language under learning.
목차
ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION LITERATURE REVIEW METHOD Participants Instruments RESULTS Research Question 1 Research Question 2 Research Question 3 DISCUSSION CONCLUSION THE AUTHOR REFERENCES APPENDIX
키워드
language anxietyForeign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS)stability across languagesChinese undergraduate foreign language learnersnative language-foreign language pairing
저자
Guo Yan [ Huazhong University of Science and Technology, P. R. China ]
The goals of Asia TEFL are to promote scholarship, disseminate information, and facilitate cross-cultural understanding among persons concerned with the teaching and learning of English in Asia. In order to accomplish this, Asia TEFL will pursue the following goals:
1. To link ELT professionals in joint research on issues and concerns regarding English teaching and learning in the Asian context.
2. To publish an academic journal, The Asia TEFL Journal, as an internationally recognized journal in the field of English language teaching.
3. To host conferences and seminars addressing important issues concerning ELT in Asia.
4. To develop proficiency guidelines and assessment methods designed for the needs of the Asian context.
5. To develop programs for Asian learners and teachers of English to build their English language proficiency and cultural understanding and provide them with the skills required to be efficient English teaching professionals.