The influence of teachers' anxiety-reducing strategies on learners' foreign language anxiety

By Fakieh Alrabai. 2015

169 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This quasi-experimental study investigated the effects on learner anxiety of anxiety-reducing strategies utilized by English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers in Saudi Arabia. The study was conducted in two stages. In the first stage, sources of foreign language (FL) anxiety for Saudi learners of English (N = 596) were identified using The Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS). In the second stage, 465 learners were divided almost equally into two groups (experimental vs. control) and 12 teachers were recruited. Anxiety-reducing strategies were implemented exclusively in the treatment group for approximately eight weeks. These strategies targeted the sources of FL anxiety identified at the first stage of the study like fear of negative evaluation, communication apprehension, and the negative attitudes toward English language class. At the second stage, a classroom observation scale was used to evaluate teacher's anxiety-reducing practices. FLCAS was used to assess learners' FL anxiety levels before and after treatment. Statistical analyses (e.g. ANOVA and ANCOVA) were used to evaluate the study findings. These findings revealed that the intervention led to significantly decreased levels of FL anxiety for learners in the experimental group compared with increased levels of anxiety for those in the control group.

Subfields: Language and Linguistics, Literature and Literary Theory, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d8a5fa99ef88e493527e8b3e627023b6f90428d4

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Language and Linguistics

1. E. Miller
2. Christina Gkonou
3. Fakieh Alrabai
4. Abdullah Alamer
5. Jean–Marc Dewaele
6. Anne-Marie Barraja-Rohan

In Literature and Literary Theory

1. Christina Gkonou
2. E. Miller
3. Fakieh Alrabai
4. Abdullah Alamer
5. Anne-Marie Barraja-Rohan

In Social Psychology

1. Christina Gkonou
2. E. Miller
3. Fakieh Alrabai

Citations in the corpus

• Caring and emotional labour: Language teachers’ engagement with anxious learners in private language school classrooms (2019, background): “Though often left implicit, much of the LA research typically casts the teacher as responsible for doing as much as possible to reduce learners’ anxiety in relation to language learning tasks and practices (Alrabai, 2015; Arnold & Fonseca, 2007).”
• A Model of Foreign Language Anxiety in the Saudi EFL Context (2014, background): “Alrabai (2014a) conducted an experimental study to explore the effects of the teacher’s anxiety-reducing strategies on learners’ FLA in the Saudi context.”
• Factors Underlying Low Achievement of Saudi EFL Learners (2016, background): “…are many recent resources that EFL teachers in Saudi Arabia should consult because they provide practical methods for addressing learner anxiety (Alrabai, 2015; Alrabai, 2014a; Alrabai, 2014d; Hashemi & Abbasi, 2013; Javid, 2014; Kondo & Ling, 2004; Nagahashi, 2007; Tallon, 2008; Tsiplakides &…”