Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety: A Study of Chinese ...

1 Foreign Language Speaking anxiety : A Study of Chinese Language Learners Han Luo Northwestern University Abstract This Study investigates Chinese Language Speaking anxiety and its associated factors among college-level students who learn Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) in the Although the Speaking anxiety scores of the participants were not high on average, but frequency analyses showed that quite a number of learners experienced high levels of anxiety when Speaking Chinese . The results of ANOVA analyses indicated that gender had a significant effect on Speaking anxiety , but proficiency level and the elective-required status did not. Correlation and multiple regression results showed that perceived difficulty level of the Chinese Language , self-perceived Language learning ability, and self-perceived achievement in Chinese classes were significant predictors of Speaking anxiety and altogether accounted for of the variance in Speaking anxiety .

2 Introduction anxiety has been identified as a common emotional reaction in Foreign Language classrooms. Researchers have found that one-third of Foreign Language learners experience at least a moderate level of Foreign Language anxiety (Horwitz, 2001). Researchers have also found that Foreign Language anxiety has a wide range of potential negative effects on Foreign Language learning (see Luo, 2013b for a detailed review). Therefore, Foreign Language teachers and scholars have been interested in finding out the causes of Foreign Language anxiety . Among the four skills, Speaking has been recognized as the most anxiety -provoking. In spite of numerous studies on general Foreign Language anxiety , research exclusively focused on Foreign Language Speaking anxiety has been scarce.

3 As China is playing an increasingly important role in world economy, a worldwide interest in learning the Chinese Language has 100 Luo emerged. Due to its character-based writing system and tonal nature, the Chinese Language is a relatively difficult Foreign Language for most learners, which might lead to higher levels of anxiety . However, studies on Chinese Language learners Foreign Language anxiety in general and Speaking anxiety in particular have not been rich. Thus, this Study investigates CFL learners Speaking anxiety and its associated factors, hoping to provide some practical suggestions for Language teachers and some meaningful recommendations for future research.

4 Research Background The literature on anxiety generally distinguishes three types of anxiety : trait, situation-specific, and state anxiety (see Cattell & Scheier, 1963; MacIntyre & Gardner, 1989, 1991; Spielberger, 1966). Trait anxiety refers to a general tendency to become nervous in a wide range of situations (Spielberger, 1983). Since trait anxiety is a feature of an individual s personality, it is therefore stable over time. In other words, people with trait anxiety are anxious about many things under many circumstances. State anxiety is the feeling of worry or stress that takes place at a particular moment under a particular circumstance (Spielberger, 1983) and often accompanies physical signs such as perspiration, sweaty palms, dry mouth, muscle contractions and tension, and increased heart rate.

5 A state anxiety is not stable and is likely to change from moment to moment and from circumstance to circumstance. A situation-specific anxiety is similar to trait anxiety in that it is stable over time, but it may not be consistent across situations. Rather, it is subject to change from situation to situation. Public Speaking anxiety is an example of situation-specific anxiety . Early studies on anxiety and Language learning conceptualized Foreign Language anxiety as a transfer of other types of anxiety ( , trait anxiety , test anxiety , or public Speaking anxiety ) in the Language learning context, which produced mixed and even contradictory results. At the time, some studies found negative relationships between anxiety and Language achievement, some studies found no relationship, but others found positive relationships (Chastain, 1975; Kleinmann, 1977).

6 Scovel (1978) argued that the inconsistent results of the early studies may be due to the fact that researchers used various constructs and measures of anxiety . Since that time, some researchers ( Foreign Language Speaking anxiety 101 Gardner, 1985; Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope, 1986) suggested that Foreign Language anxiety should be viewed as a situation-specific anxiety unique to Foreign Language learning and independent of other types of anxieties. Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986) defined Foreign Language anxiety as a distinct complex set of self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings, and behaviors related to classroom Language learning arising from the uniqueness of the Language learning process ( ).

7 They also identified three anxieties related to Foreign Language anxiety - communication apprehension (McCroskey, 1970), fear of negative evaluation (Watson & Friend, 1969), and test anxiety (Sarason, 1978) - to help Language teachers and scholars understand the nature of Foreign Language anxiety . In addition, they offered an instrument, the Foreign Language Classroom anxiety Scale (FLCAS), to measure Foreign Language anxiety . After the introduction of the FLCAS and a number of other measures of Foreign Language anxiety ( Gardner, 1985; MacIntyre & Gardner, 1994), researchers were able to measure Foreign Language anxiety relatively more precisely. Studies in a variety of Language learning contexts have found that approximately one-third of students studying a Foreign Language experience at least a moderate level of Foreign Language anxiety ( Aida, 1994; Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1986; Horwitz, 2001; Le, 2004).

8 In addition, a large number of studies have investigated the relationship between Foreign Language anxiety and second Language achievement. These studies generally report a consistent moderate negative relationship between measures of Language anxiety and Language achievement (Horwitz, 2001). Speaking has been generally recognized as the most anxiety -provoking skill associated with Foreign Language learning. For example, Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) identified communication apprehension to be conceptually relevant to Foreign Language anxiety . Among many other researchers, Palacios (1998) found that Speaking caused the most anxiety among the learners. Price (1991) reported that the most anxiety -provoking thing in learning a Foreign Language , according to her students, was to speak the target Language in front of their peers.

9 102 Luo To date, the FLCAS has been the most widely used instrument to measure Foreign Language learners general anxiety in Foreign Language classrooms. Although the FLCAS includes quite a number of items addressing students anxious feelings of Speaking the Foreign Language in the classroom setting, many other items in the FLCAS tap students general anxious feelings towards Foreign Language learning, anxiety associated with listening, test anxiety , or attitude towards Foreign Language learning. Therefore, the FLCAS does not exclusively measure Foreign Language Speaking anxiety and there have been very few studies focused on Foreign Language Speaking anxiety .

10 Due to the big differences between Chinese and English, it is widely recognized that Chinese is a challenging Language for Americans to learn. The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) of the Department of State has defined four categories of Foreign languages on the basis of the difficulty for native speakers of English. According to the FSI, the most commonly taught languages Spanish and French are both Category I languages, whereas the less commonly taught languages, such as Japanese, Chinese , Korean, and Arabic, on the other hand, are classified as Category IV. According to FSI figures, students need to take 1320 hours of instruction in a Category IV Language to reach Level 2 (limited working proficiency)5 in comparison with only 480 hours of instruction in Category I languages (Walker, 1989).