| Anxiety is a serious problem in foreign and second language classrooms, experienced by perhaps one third to one half of students. Foreign language classroom anxiety has been identified as distinguished from other forms of anxiety and has been shown to have deleterious effects on the acquisition of and performance in a foreign language.; The present research identified factors that may increase anxiety in a foreign language classroom and factors that may assist in reducing anxiety, described student manifestations of anxiety, and correlated final grade with anxiety level. The research was accomplished by means of in-depth phenomenological interviews, a foreign language anxiety questionnaire, FLCAS (Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1986), and final grade correlation from students in diverse foreign language classrooms.; Foreign language anxiety has many sources; some may be associated with the student, the teacher, the methodology, or instructional practice. Anxiety may also originate in low self-esteem, specious beliefs regarding the learning of language, negative experiences associated with the foreign language or culture, or the general experience of language learning.; The findings of this study further clarified the role of anxiety in foreign language learning contexts. The findings seemed to corroborate other studies in suggesting that anxiety can negatively affect the language learning experience in numerous ways and that reducing anxiety seems to increase language acquisition and learner motivation.; Among the recommendations suggested by this study is that awareness of the problem of foreign language anxiety should be enhanced and taken seriously by teachers and students alike to assist both practitioners and learners in enriching the language learning experience.; Recommendations for future research include measuring anxiety levels according to length of exposure to the language. |
