New Insights into Language Anxiety: Theory, Research and Educational Implications

Abstract

Language anxiety (LA), as one of the key factors in individual differences in second language acquisition (SLA), has been studied for about 40 years. The Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) in Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) brought the research to a stage where anxiety in language learning was being explored in specific contexts. With the dynamic turn in SLA (Dörnyei and Ushioda, 2009), LA research has been taking on a new look with the emergence of interdisciplinary theory-guided and multiple methods-driven studies. The volume under review is committed to the mission of clarifying the confusions and misunderstandings about LA in the past, presenting the latest studies, and highlighting theoretical and pedagogical implications for future research. It thus brings together new insights to make yet another beginning in the journey of LA research. This volume opens with an introduction, where the authors present the aims, major themes and the structure of the book. The rest of the book is divided into three parts: (1) theoretical discussions about past and present trends in the development of LA research and interpretations of misreadings of Horwitz’s classical research (Chapters 2 and 3); (2) empirical investigations into LA in light of recent theories, for example, the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS, Dörnyei, 2005) (Chapters 4 to 9); and (3) implications for practice, such as designing some activities based on positive psychology to reduce LA (Chapters 10 to 12).