1. Framework for Foreign Language Learning Anxiety
Modern technology has turned the world into a small village, and today the Internet can carry English, the global lingua franca, to every corner of the world. Since China adopted the Open Door Policy in 1978, and especially after China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001 and began hosting such international events as the 2008 Olympic Games and the 2010 World Expo, the importance of English has become increasingly prominent for the country, and hence the demand for Chinese professionals who can speak decent English is higher than ever. University students, tomorrows professionals, should ideally have a good command of communication skills in English so as to prepare for their future careers and lives. However, as a teacher who has taught college English for more than ten years in China, I regretfully see that most university students who are given at least six years of English instruction and can pass English examinations with high grades are actually weak at communicating in English in real life situations. Some even lack the courage to open their mouths at all to try and speak, or stumble and stammer when they speak (Huang & Shao, ).
What is more, in the context of English being the global lingua franca, it is recognized that China has the largest English-learning population in the world (Bolton, Graddol, & Mesthrie, ).
In effect, communication in English with others is a challenge for many university students in China, especially for the non-English majors for whom very limited oral English lessons are provided each semester, which is also the main reason why they are likely to be chosen as participants in studies concerning FLLA (Alrabai, ). In short, helping Chinese university students to overcome FLLA and to enhance their English performance, oral English proficiency in particular, is becoming a matter of great importance, which is also one of the main incentives and significances of this book.
To be specific, this book is concerned with foreign language learning anxiety from the perspectives of non-English majors and their teachers in mainland China (hereafter, China). It endeavors to explore into Chinese non-English majors FLLA by focusing on the reasons resulting in and the strategies helping to cope with such anxiety. This chapter introduces the theoretical basis of this book, and points out the issues and research questions in focus, before stating the expected significance and organization of the whole book.
1.1 Conceptualizing FLLA
To begin with, I will define some of the technical terms. Four key terms that are relevant to this book are: anxiety, language anxiety, foreign language anxiety, and foreign language speaking anxiety.
1.1.1 Anxiety
The term anxiety refers to the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the autonomic nervous system (Spielberger,
1.1.2 Language Anxiety
Language anxiety can be defined as a distinct complex of self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings, and behaviors related to classroom language learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learning process (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, , p. 3) argued that as the learner progresses through schooling, changes in self-perception are thought to be involved in increasing levels of anxiety.
1.1.3 Foreign Language Anxiety
Foreign language anxiety (FLA) is fear or apprehension occurring when a learner is expected to perform in a second or foreign language (Gardner & MacIntyre, , p. 82) defines communication anxiety (in his term, communication apprehension ) as an individuals level of fear or anxiety associated with either real or anticipated oral communication with another person or persons.
1.1.4 Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety
With regard to the term foreign language speaking anxiety (FLSA), there is no existing definition up to now. However, following the above discussion, I believe it can be conceptualized as an individuals fear or nervousness associated with either real or anticipated oral communication in foreign language with another person or persons.
1.2 Current Issues and Emerging Trends in Researching FLLA
FLLA has been a widely and heatedly discussed topic for more than 60 years around the world (e.g., Alpert & Haber, ), among others. Ever since late 1990s, FLLA has also become a key issue for English language teaching in China and drawn considerable attention from Chinese scholars and researchers. A myriad of studies on FLLA have been conducted and research articles been published. However, efforts in verifying the effectiveness of the anxiety-reducing strategies are lacking in the existing literature, both in and out of China.
Overall, for FLLA research in 1980s and before, the exploration of general FLA among university students took center stage. There appeared new trends afterwards in researching FLLA, for example, studying anxieties in more specified aspects of foreign language learning, like listening anxiety (e.g., Chen & Liu, ). This book attempts to take FLSA as a specific case to study FLLA as a whole.
1.2.1 FLSA as a Specific Case
Walker (). In addition, FLLA is closely related to other psychological constructs and other factors, including shyness, self-perception, social anxiety and competitiveness.
However, all these findings and my impressions from previous teaching experience need to be tested empirically in China. FLLA research in China only started in late 1980s. Recent years have witnessed increasing interest in FLLA research from Chinese scholars and teachers alike. A wide range of aspects surrounding FLLA have been studied, including the measurement of FLLA level, the test of the relationship between FLLA and FL learning performance, the identification of the reasons leading to and the proposition of strategies helping reduce such anxiety. Nevertheless, none of the previous studies has verified the effectiveness of anxiety-reducing strategies they claimed or proposed. What is more, while various aspects of FLLA have been studied by previous researchers, little work has been done to investigate specifically the FLSA, which is possibly the most prevalent type of learning anxiety among Chinese university students, the reasons leading to FLSA, and the strategies to reduce it. These issues are of great significance considering the relationship between FLA and foreign language learning/proficiency, and the large number of English learners in China as mentioned earlier.
Against the above background, theoretical bases and conceptualizations, and also the broader context of FLLA in general, this book aims to address some key issues concerning FLSA while at the same time depicting the bigger picture of FLLA. The issues (research questions) in focus are: (1) what are the levels of FLSA possessed by the non-English majors in China? (2) what are the differences in FLSA among various participant groups? (3) what reasons contribute to students FLSA? and (4) what strategies are helpful to reduce their FLSA? The strategies mentioned here will be verified through application of them into daily FL teaching and learning to see whether they are effective or not in reducing FLSA. Such verification is of particular importance since it would only be meaningful if the strategies are used in FL learning and found to be effective.
