2. An Overview of Language Anxiety Research and Trends in its Development
Open accessAbstract
It is safe to say that language anxiety has been the most widely studied emotion in SLA, perhaps because it is both an intense and frequent experience. For the purposes of this review, the research literature on language anxiety will be broken into three broad approaches, reflecting both historical trends and assumptions about the topic. The first might be called the Confounded Approach because the ideas about anxiety and their effect on language learning were adopted from a mixture of various sources without detailed consideration of the meaning of the anxiety concept for language learners. The second trend might be called the Specialized Approach wherein anxiety experiences that were specifically associated with language were identified, defined and studied. A third, relatively recent line of research reflects a contextualized Dynamic Approach in which anxiety is studied in connection with a complex web of language experiences. Although these are fuzzy categories, they help to organize the issues as research into language anxiety has developed.
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Before the introduction of the FLCAS in 1986, cross-comparisons of research on anxiety and its effect in the foreign language classroom were nearly impossible due to divergent measures and definitions.
“Indeed, before the introduction of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) in 1986, cross-comparisons of research on anxiety and its effect in the foreign language classroom was nearly impossible due to the divergent measures and definitions used -a period labelled the “Confounded Approach” by MacIntyre (2017).”
From The Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale and Academic Achievement: An Overview of the Prevailing Literature and a Meta-analysis (2020) · cites this paper as MacIntyre, 2017
The publication of the FLCAS allowed comparability across studies by using the same instrument.
“The publication of the FLCAS heralded of the start of the “Specialised Approach” where the use of the same instrument allowed comparability across studies (MacIntyre, 2017).”
From The Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale and Academic Achievement: An Overview of the Prevailing Literature and a Meta-analysis (2020) · cites this paper as MacIntyre, 2017
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- Authors
- MacIntyre, P. D.
- Corresponding author
- MacIntyre, Peter D.
- ORCID
- MacIntyre, Peter D.
- Venue
- New Insights into Language Anxiety
- Publisher
- Multilingual Matters
- Published
- 2017-12-31
- Pages
- 11-30
- OpenAlex
- W2900995365
- Cited by
- 477
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 25 · 2025: 54 · 2024: 84 · 2023: 68 · 2022: 104 · 2021: 59 · 2020: 36 · 2019: 22 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 7
- FWCI
- 87.69
- Type
- book chapter
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc-nd
- Locations
- Multilingual Matters eBooks (publishedVersion)
- CBU Scholar (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Communication in Education and Healthcare
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Second Language Acquisition and Learning
- Keywords
- language anxiety, second language acquisition, emotions in language learning, dynamic approach
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