Knowing and teaching a language can be considered by numerous as an extremely tough and demanding job due to what the procedure itself implies. Could you think of how each language student feels when he/ she is asked to perform an activity or just to speak in front of the class? A few of them will feel very comfortable but what about those whose hearts typically pound really difficult, break out in a cold sweat and find it tough to capture their breath.
The conditions presented previously corresponds to what a considerable amount of foreign language students deal with whenever they are asked to do something in the classroom called: Anxiety, a term linked to an unpleasant sensation but which can likewise be useful when finding out a language. To begin with, stress and anxiety in the language learning is thought about as one of the most crucial affective aspects, which has actually been studied because the 1970s. It is very important to understand what anxiety is, in general terms anxiety is a psychological construct that is referred to as a state of apprehension, a vague worry that is only indirectly related to an item (Hilgard, Atkinson, & & Atkinson, 1971).
It can likewise be defined as a subjective sensation of tension, apprehension, uneasiness, and concern related to an arousal of the automatic nerve system (McIntyre & & Gardner, 1994) or in simple words it is described as a sensation of uneasiness or worry. But making a relationship between language and stress and anxiety it is discovered that according to what McIntyre (1999) specified, language stress and anxiety is the concern and unfavorable psychological response aroused when discovering a 2nd language.
Second of all, stress and anxiety has been discovered to be a negative sensation however helpful in some ways when learning a language. According to Hortwitz (1986) assisting in or practical stress and anxiety encourages students to eliminate the new learning task, making them to expend extra efforts to overcome their feelings of stress and anxiety. This kind of positive anxiety is required because trainees who are not distressed under any condition will feel too unwind and they will not even appreciate their knowing process which will cause them to stop working at learning a language. For example, a trainee who feels anxious but he uses it favorably as a method to motivate him to pass the course and find out the target language effectively will obtain exceptional results.
However, there is a probable risk that is helpful anxiety can easily become harmful anxiety. It is claimed that one third of students learning a foreign language experience some kind of anxiety (Horwitz, et al., 1986). Students facing anxiety is a real and common phenomenon that takes place in the classroom which is normal and helpful at some point but when the level of anxiety starts increasing without any control it will be very harmful so that students should be very careful and recognize the anxiety and do something positive about it before they react to this negative anxiety in a very negative way. What is more, according to some experts as the one mentioned previously Horwitz stated that helpful anxiety occurs only in the accomplishment of simple learning tasks, but not with more complicated learning such as language learning.
Lastly, the type of anxiety is an issue that should be identified in the classroom and overcome possible difficulties related to it. Teachers can identify anxiety due to the fact that most of the time when anxiety takes place there are very observable evidence such as physical symptoms, general avoidance or physical actions but what sometimes is difficult for educators is to tackle in the language learning. Some suggestions have been made for teacher to overcome anxiety such as being supportive, encouraging students to relax through music or games, using fair tests, providing meaningful activities, giving meaningful rewards, being clear about classroom goals, helping students to assess their performance, encouraging risk taking and creating a comfortable environment among others.
To conclude, it must be said that learning a language implies many affective factors but anxiety is one of the most relevant and an inevitable feeling among second language learners. The matter is Do my students know how to identify anxiety symptoms and do something positive about it? What is more Do I know what to do to diminish language anxiety? When learning a language the answers to these questions can be the difference. To ignore language anxiety within a classroom is not the solution; it will just drive to failure.
References
Hilgard, E. R., Atkinson, R. C., & Atkinson, R. L. (1971). Introduction
to psychology (5thed.). New York: Harcourt.
Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M., & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign language classroom anxiety. Modern Language Journal, 70(1), 125-132.
MacIntyre, P. D., & Gardner, R. C. (1994). The subtle effects of language anxiety on cognitive processing in the second language. Language Learning, 44, 283-305.
Robertson, P & Adamson, J (2011). Language Learning Strategies, Beliefs, and Anxiety in Academic Speaking Task. The Philippine ESL Journal, (7), 95-100. Retrieved from http://www.philippine-esl-journal.com/Volume-7.pdf
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