to Learners with Special Educational Needs

Pokrivčáková, S. et al. (2015). Teaching Foreign Languages to Learners with Special Educational Needs:
e-textbook for foreign language teachers. Nitra: Constantine the Philosopher University. 128 p.
ISBN 978-80-558-0941-0
6 Foreign language learning anxiety
Zdena Kráľová & Daniela Sorádová
DOI: 10.17846/SEN.2015.91-100
Objectives
There is a great deal of research focusing on foreign language anxiety. It is generally
conceived as a significant factor in foreign language learning, yet there are many inconsistent
conclusions. Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to summarize the most relevant research
findings on foreign language anxiety in a brief overview. The attention is paid to the definition
and classification of anxiety and its causes and consequences specific for foreign language
learning.
Introduction
Feelings and attitudes play an important role in perceiving everyday life. It is said that we get
constant reports to our mind about the world through our feelings. We scan the environment
and then infer the moods, feelings and create attitudes. As regards students, they often feel
stressed or even anxious about a certain subject.
As learning languages has its significance nowadays, there is a great deal of research focusing
on foreign language anxiety (FLA). The fact that some learners are more successful at acquiring a
foreign language (FL) than others even though the circumstances of a foreign language learning
are almost identical has led to investigations of individual characteristics as predictors of
successful FL learning, most of them agreeing with the following categories (Olivares-Cuhat,
2010):
a) cognitive factors (language aptitude, learning strategies);
b) affective factors (attitudes, motivation, anxiety);
c) metacognitive factors;
d) demographic factors.
The differences between studies over several decades in design and methodology have led
researchers to draw rather conflicting conclusions about the influence of certain factors on FL
learning. Their results have not been consistently replicated thus they require further
examination before any firm conclusions could be drawn. Due to a number of methodological
and conceptual divergences and the complexity of individual differences in FL learning, the
limited amount of research findings in this area could be generalized (Ehrman et al., 2003).
However, researchers had to accept the fact that personality traits such as self-esteem,
inhibition, anxiety, risk-taking and extraversion, may well shape the ultimate success in
mastering a second language (Dörney, 2005). As there is a growing acceptance within the FL
community of learners´ feelings and reflections within the learning process, one of the most
highly examined variables in the field of FL learning is foreign language anxiety (Horwitz, 2001)
and FL researchers widely conceive FLA as an obvious factor in FL acquisition.
Defining anxiety
Spielberg (1983) defines anxiety as “the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension,
nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the nervous system.” Scovel (1991, p. 18)
further states, that “anxiety is a psychological construct, commonly described by psychologists
as a state of apprehension, a vague fear that is only indirectly associated with an object”.
It is important to differentiate between the different types of anxiety. When anxiety is limited
just to a specific situation, such as speaking in a foreign language, we use the term specific
anxiety. On the other hand, the term generalized anxiety is used by those who are generally
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