SECOND LANGUAGE ANXIETY AND ACHIEVEMENT

By Y. Teimouri, Julia Goetze, Luke Plonsky. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 2019

219 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Second language (L2) anxiety has been the object of constant empirical and theoretical attention for several decades. As a matter of both theoretical and practical interest, much of the research in this domain has examined the relationship between anxiety and L2 achievement. The present study meta-analyzes this body of research. Following a comprehensive search, a sample of 97 reports were identified, contributing a total of 105 independent samples (N = 19,933) from 23 countries. In the aggregate, the 216 effect sizes (i.e., correlations) reported in the primary studies yielded a mean of r = −.36 for the relationship between L2 anxiety and language achievement. Moderator analyses revealed effects sizes to vary across different types of language achievement measures, educational levels, target languages, and anxiety types. Overall, this study provides firm evidence for both the negative role of L2 anxiety in L2 learning and the moderating effects of a number of (non)linguistic variables. We discuss the findings in the context of theoretical and practical concerns, and we provide direction for future research.

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Citations in the corpus

Mindsets as sources of L2 speaking anxiety and self-confidence: the case of international teaching assistants in the U.S. (2021, background): “The emotion, de ﬁ ned as ‘ the feeling of tension and apprehension speci ﬁ cally associated with second language contexts ’ (MacIntyre and Gardner 1994, 284), has been found to negatively a ﬀ ect second language learning process and outcomes (Daubney, Dewaele, and Gkonou 2017; Teimouri, Goetze, and ”
L2 grit: Passion and perseverance for second-language learning (2020, background): “While the use of general instruments from psychology in early anxiety research in SLA generated inconsistent findings, the development and application of language-specific anxiety questionnaires (for instance, Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale or FLCAS; Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986) led to ”
A longitudinal study of foreign language anxiety and enjoyment (2021, background): “…found to be negatively associated with language learning performance (see reviews such as Horwitz, 2000; MacIntyre & Gardner, 1991; see also two recent meta-analyses: Teimouri, Goetze & Plonsky, 2019; Zhang, 2019), though anxiety can also be facilitative (Alpert & Haber, 1960; Kleinmann, 1977).”