Foreign Language Learning Anxiety in China: Theories and Applications in English Language Teaching

232 Pages·2018·3.21 MB·English

by  Deyuan He (auth.)

Deyuan He
Foreign
Language
Learning Anxiety
in China
Theories and Applications in English
Language Teaching
Foreign Language Learning Anxiety in China
Deyuan He
Foreign Language Learning
Anxiety in China
Theories and Applications in English
Language Teaching
123
Deyuan He
Faculty of Arts andSocial Sciences
Universiti BruneiDarussalam
Gadong
BruneiDarussalam
ISBN978-981-10-7661-9 ISBN978-981-10-7662-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7662-6
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2017963006
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To Candice Qunying Zhang
Foreword
With more than 50 years’ development, the study on foreign language learning
anxiety (FLLA) still remains a popular research topic among scholars in western
countries. Though at its initial stage of development in China, FLLA has caught
increasing attention from Chinese researchers in recent years, and it has been
frequentlydiscussedinjournalandnewspaperarticles.FLLAisbelievedtobeone
important reason for students’ “dumb English.” Considering the paucity of
monographs on FLLA in China, this book attempts to bridge the gap. This book
reviews and discusses previous literature and current status and major issues cen-
teringonFLLAworldwideandexploresFLLAinChinamakinguseofinnovative
triangulated research methodology combining both quantitative and qualitative
methods, namely questionnaire surveys, focused interviews, and classroom obser-
vations. The book also highlights the significance and implications of the conclu-
sions drawn and then envisions the future of FLLA research globally with a
particular focus on China. Readers can derive from this book the latest develop-
ments and issues concerning FLLA, the reasons leading to FLLA, and the verified
effective strategies alleviating such anxiety, which will be of great interest and
benefit to them.
Through his in-depth investigation, Deyuan He reveals that China’s university
students, when compared to the participants in previous studies, demonstrated a
moderate level (M = 98.27, SD = 15.62) of FLLA as measured by the Foreign
Language Classroom Anxiety Scale. However, their foreign language speaking
anxiety (FLSA) was comparatively high (M = 110.95, SD = 8.80) when measured
bytheForeignLanguageSpeakingAnxietyScale(FLSAS).Thequestionnairedata
obtainedwiththeFLSASunderwentmultivariateanalysisofvariancewhichfound
that the participants displayed significant group differences in terms of identity
(teachers or students), school type (key or second-tier university), discipline
(science, arts, business, and engineering), and gender.
ThisworkrecognizesthehighimportanceofFLLAresearchinChina’sEnglish
asaforeignlanguage(EFL)education.ItisalsotimelytoreflectonFLLAresearch
in relation todaily teaching and learning of a foreign language to understand what
factorsinhibitstudents’learningandwhatstrategiesfacilitatetheirlearning.Witha
vii
viii Foreword
triangulated approach, Deyuan He identified 25 specific reasons which caused
students’ FLSA and 34 effective strategies which helped them overcome their
speaking anxiety. In addition, the author demonstrates that students’ FLSA levels
were negatively correlated with their self-evaluated general and oral English pro-
ficiencies,andtheirobjective Englishachievement scores,althoughthecorrelation
between FLSA and objective English achievement scores was not significant.
Furthermore, the author reveals that FLLA mainly debilitated Chinese students’
EFL learning, while the facilitating roles of the anxiety were not so obvious. Last
butnotleast,DeyuanHealsoidentified13reactionstoFLSAdisplayedbyanxious
EFL students in China’s universities, which may be a promising finding since
understanding reactions to FLSA is necessary for recognizing and reducing such
anxiety.
This work makes a significant contribution to the research on FLLA and has
pedagogicalimplicationsforEFLteachinginmainlandChinaandothereducational
settings with similar cultural and social backgrounds. With the help of the reasons
andstrategies identifiedinthisstudy,variousstakeholders,especiallytheforefront
EFL teachers and their students, may be sensitized to the debilitating effects of
FLLA and the importance of applying appropriate strategies to cope with such
anxiety. With the introduction of some strategy training or awareness raising,
hopefully, students’ EFL proficiency, their speaking skills in particular, will con-
tinually be enhanced.
Kowloon, Hong Kong Lindsay Miller
City University of Hong Kong
Acknowledgements
Publishing this book with Springer has been a highlight of my academic career so
far. With the help, support, and encouragement from many people, especially the
professional and efficient guidance from Ms. Rebecca Zhu and her Springer edi-
torial team, my publication of this book has become an enjoyable experience.
Firstandforemost,IacknowledgemydeepestgratitudetoDr.LindsayMillerfor
his years of steadfast support and encouragement, his valuable suggestions and
feedback while reviewing the text. I am enormously indebted to Prof. Kingsley
Bolton,Dr.Alice Chan,Prof. DavidDeterding,Prof. Elaine Kolker Horwitz, Prof.
Adam Jaworski, Mr. Anthony Lee, Prof. David C. S. Li, Prof. Angel Lin,
Dr.MathewPeacock,andDr.ElizabethWalker,whogavemegeneroushelpand/or
valuableadvice.MyspecialthanksgotoProf.JohnBacon-ShoneandDr.Candice
Zhangfortheirprofessionalcommentsandassistanceinquantitative dataanalysis.
My heartfelt thanks go to all the participants in the two universities in China.
Their views and comments gave me boundless inspirations. Without their coop-
erationandcontributions,thisbookwouldneverhavebeenpossible.Specialthanks
gotoXuHe,ShoubinLiu,ShenghuaYao,andWeiZhang,whohelpedmegetinto
contact with my participants. I would like to extend my gratitude to many friends
and fellow researchers, Dr. Joseph Alvaro, Dr. Marc Zhichang Xu, Dr. Di Zou,
among many others, and my dear colleagues at Universiti Brunei Darussalam for
their kind support and willingness to share ideas and feelings. In particular, I owe
my appreciation to the earnest stafffrom Springer for their enthusiasm in the book
and their support at every stage.
Last, but by no means least, I wish to express my profound gratitude to my
family.Theyhavebeensosupportiveandencouraging,likealways,throughoutthis
endeavor.Iamparticularlythankfultomywife,Candice,whoseloveisaconstant
source of courage and inspiration.
ix
Contents
1 Framework for Foreign Language Learning Anxiety . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Conceptualizing FLLA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1.1 Anxiety. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1.2 Language Anxiety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.3 Foreign Language Anxiety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.4 Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 Current Issues and Emerging Trends in Researching FLLA. . . . . . 4
1.2.1 FLSA as a Specific Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2.2 The Significance of FLSA Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3 Organization of the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2 History of and Major Developments in FLLA Worldwide . . . . . . . . 13
2.1 Anxiety and Language Learning: General Theories. . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.1.1 State Anxiety Versus Trait Anxiety. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.1.2 General Anxiety Versus Specific Anxiety . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.1.3 Facilitating Anxiety Versus Debilitating Anxiety . . . . . . . 16
2.1.4 Unitary Anxiety Versus Multidimensional Anxiety. . . . . . 18
2.2 Research on FLA and Foreign Language Learning. . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.2.1 Research on FLA and Foreign Language Learning
Before 1980s. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.2.2 Research on FLA and Foreign Language Learning
in 1980s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.2.3 Research on FLA and Foreign Language Learning
After 1980s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.3 Research on the Sources of FLLA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.3.1 Personal and Interpersonal Anxieties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.3.2 Learner Beliefs About Language Learning. . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.3.3 Instructor Beliefs About Language Teaching . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.3.4 Instructor-Learner Interactions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
xi
xii Contents
2.3.5 Classroom Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2.3.6 Language Testing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2.3.7 Motivation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
2.3.8 Cultural Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
2.3.9 Frequency of Language Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.3.10 Context of Language Acquisition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.4 Strategies for FLLA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2.4.1 Limited Research on Strategies Coping with FLLA . . . . . 39
2.4.2 Effectiveness of FLLA Coping Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.5 Competing Models of FLLA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3 Developments in the Field of FLLA in China. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.1 Overview of FLLA Research in China. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.1.1 Reasons Leading to and Strategies Coping
with FLLA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.1.2 FLLA and Computer-Web Assisted Language
Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
3.1.3 FLLA: Self-efficacy and Language Achievement . . . . . . . 61
3.1.4 FLLA: Motivation and Self-esteem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
3.1.5 FLLA in Different Language Skills. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
3.1.6 FLLA: Other Correlational Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
3.1.7 FLLA: Its Research Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
3.1.8 FLLA: Its Research Scales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.1.9 FLLA: Review Articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
3.1.10 A Summary of FLLA Studies Published in China . . . . . . 71
3.2 Status of English as a Foreign Language in China . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
3.2.1 Desire for English and Effectiveness of English
Learning in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
3.2.2 Influence of FLLA on English Learners in China. . . . . . . 73
3.3 Limited FLLA Research in China Published in English . . . . . . . . 75
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
4 Major Reasons Leading to FLSA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
4.1 Methodology of the Study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
4.1.1 Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
4.1.2 Questionnaire Surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
4.1.3 Interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
4.1.4 Classroom Observations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
4.1.5 Application and Verification of the Strategies to Be
Found . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
4.1.6 Design of the Present Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
4.2 Reasons from Questionnaire Surveys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
4.2.1 Descriptive Statistics of the Questionnaires . . . . . . . . . . . 107