Towards the Alleviation of Language Anxiety : A Qualitative Study

Language anxiety is known as one of the affective factors which troubles learners in second or foreign language learning situations. Over the last few decades, previous studies have revealed that language anxiety negatively impacts the language learning and performance of learners. In order to deal with its negative effects, it is imperative to find ways of alleviating language anxiety of learners. The current study employed semi structured interviews to both high anxious and low anxious Japanese EFL learners after 15 weeks of interventions. This study aimed to investigate: the sources of language anxiety among high-anxious students, 2) the reactions of high anxious students to anxiety reducing strategies, and 3) the reactions of low anxious students to anxiety reducing strategies. Participants of this study were 7 high anxious and 4 low anxious students extracted from a total of 48 students. From the qualitative analysis of the interview data, student anxiety sources were found to be: fear of negative evaluation from others, underestimation of one’s ability, and fear of interacting with others. This study also attempted to understand the perceived effectiveness of multiple anxiety reducing strategies. Although cooperation with others was perceived positively in both groups of students, doing pair work and group work was perceived differently. Low anxious students mostly mentioned the superiority of p air work and group work over individual work, but high anxious students mentioned that it was rather the cause of their language anxiety. Findings of the current study showed a clear gap between the reactions of high anxious and low anxious learners to the anxiety reducing strategies.