Essay: Relationship between anxiety and language

Anxiety is the feeling of being nervous and tense in front of people. This usually happens when a person is not confident with their selves and of what they are doing, due to this; ideas were block in a person’s mind since it affects our mental thinking. According to Lee, “Psychologist and linguists claimed that there’s relationship between the anxiety scales and the achievement of a person”. Anxiety was defined by Basic (2011) as a fear of orally expressing oneself which could be recognized by some signs. These signs can ruin the ability of someone to speak because a person experiencing anxiety cannot focus on speaking during the process. Anxiety is developed through past traumatic experiences.  Low self-respect and self-esteem are the common causes of anxiety (Shahnaz et al 2014).
Foreign language anxiety According to Horwitz et al. (1986) arises from the differences of the process of language learning is a combination of different point of views, traditions and beliefs related to language learning. According to Huang (2010), Teachers should help learners deal with their problem which is anxiety and not only recognize the presence of language anxiety in them, also, peers have a great impact on the language learners because of the amount time they spend together especially those who share the same problems in dealing with language.  Basic (2011) stated that learners with anxiety are less noticed because of their passiveness and because they do not cause any trouble, even their calls for help are hardly noticed which causes them to become more silent. Students who are good in English language may reduce their level of anxiety and nervousness.
According to Alshahrani et al. (2015) Foreign Language Anxiety plays an important role because it affects the learning of a student. Due to this fact, researchers and educators were looking for a method and a factor that could help them and to their students especially to those who suffers from anxiety to reduce it (Oda et al, 2011).  Other than being a cause of miscommunication, anxiety also hinder the leanings of the students in English language. Since English language is considered as the “lingua franca” or simply known as the world language, people who acquire good English language communication skills are highly needed and demanded worldwide. Thus, students were required to learn English as their second language. (Kakamad et al, 2015).
People are afraid of failing, thus it is what stops them from expressing their ideas and improving their selves. As of the people who were anxious and diffident in English language, they avoided it whenever and wherever possible (Shahnaz et al, 2014). Learning language other than your mother tongue is a great challenge to anyone especially to the students. A student who lacks motivation and experience in learning foreign language are highly expected to face difficulties and are often considered as underachiever. There are also lot of factors and variables that affects the learning of a student in foreign language, namely; attitude, motivation, anxiety, beliefs and etc. of a student. Given this factors and variables, anxiety is one of the factors that give a great impact to a student’s learning in foreign language and it has been given much attention (Trang et al 2012).
Related Studies
A study by Bekleyen (2001) entitled “The Influence of Teachers and Peers on Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety”, the author investigated the influence of teachers and peers on foreign language classroom anxiety. The author collected the qualitative data through interviewing the students by asking questions related to foreign language classroom anxiety. Based on the results, the author concluded that teachers and peers might affect the anxiety levels of student in the classroom. But level of anxiety can be reduced if the teachers will understand the students that in learning it is normal to make mistakes in the subject.
In the study of Waseem et al. (2013) entitled “Anxiety amongst Learners of English as a Second Language: An Examination of Motivational Patterns in the Pakistani Context”, the authors investigated the effect of motivation in language anxiety among Pakistani Students. The authors collected the data through the use of questionnaire where they used the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale and the Motivation Scale. The mean, median, and mode were used to determine the anxiety towards the classroom and motivation in learning English and to find the relationship between motivation and anxiety, the authors used correlation and regression. Based on the results, instrumental motivation has a significant contribution towards foreign language anxiety that is similar to the previous replicated studies.
In the study of Hashemi et al. (2013) entitled “The Role of the Teacher in Alleviating Anxiety in Language Classes” the authors first identified the different causes of anxiety and suggested recommendations to the language teachers to reduce the anxiety of their students.
In the study of Shahnaz et al. (2014) entitled “An Analysis of Relationship between English Language Anxiety, English Language Interest and English Language Achievement” the authors examined the relationship of English language anxiety, English language interest, and English language achievement. The authors created their own research design and use the instrument of English language anxiety and English language interest. On the other hand, English language achievement, was based on the observation of the teachers. Based on the results, students who are interested in learning English are less anxious and have high achievements in English and vice versa. According to the study, one reason of the student’s anxiety is that English is their second language. And the authors observed that females are more anxious than males and there is significant gender difference of their scores in interest and their achievement.
In the study of Trang et al. (2012) entitled “Foreign language anxiety and its effects on students’ determination to study English: To abandon or not to abandon?” the study uses the experiences of students in learning English towards their determination in learning English. The author collected the data using autobiographies which are self- report based on their experiences and interviews to clarify the data from their autobiographies. Results showed that importance of English and volitional control in English is two factors that affect their determination in studying English.
In the study of Huang et al. (2010) entitled “The Relationship between Teacher and Peer Support and English-Language Learners’ Anxiety” the study examined the relationship between the teacher and peer support and English language anxiety.  All participants in their study have the same linguistic and cultural background and their first language is Chinese. They used three questionnaires; the background questionnaire, foreign language classroom anxiety questionnaire, and the classroom life measure. Based on the results, teacher support is the most pervasive variable correlated with English language anxiety and if the learners feel more academic support they are less anxious.
In the study of Basic (2011) entitled “Speaking anxiety: An obstacle to second language learning?” the author examine how the teacher affects the students to communicate orally. The study also aims to investigate second language anxiety among learners. The study is mainly about literature but it also includes interviews from language teachers. Based on the results, anxiety affects negatively how the student speaks but it is not a major problem in schools because some of the considered it normal for learners.
In the study of Wilson (2006) entitled “Anxiety in Learning English as a Foreign Language: Its Associations with Student Variables, with Overall Proficiency, and with Performance on an Oral Test” the researcher examine the relationship of foreign language anxiety and their proficiency in speaking English. English Proficiency Test, Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale, and Oral test were used to gather the data. Statistically, they used Pearson Correlation, Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) and Regression to examine the gathered data. Results showed that students with high interest in English and have low levels of anxiety have high oral grades while students who were female tend to have high levels of foreign language anxiety.
In the study of Oda et al. (2011) entitled “The Effect of Anxiety on Learning English as Foreign Language” the authors continually tries to look for a factor that could enlighten the student about the nature of foreign anxiety in English Language. They use Foreign Language Anxiety Scale to gather data. Results showed that students who are more anxious have low foreign language communication skills. They suggested that in order to reduce the level of anxiety of the students, the teachers must make their classroom comfortable in learning.
In the study of Alshahrani et al. (2015) entitled “An Investigation of Anxiety Among Elementary School Students Towards Foreign Language Learning” the researchers investigated the impact of anxiety levels of elementary students depending on their gender. They gathered the quantitative data through Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale and qualitative data by interviewing selected students. It showed that the quantitative data and qualitative data are similar to each other and gender has no role in determining the anxiety of the students. The researchers recommend the future studies to find a strategy in overcoming anxiety among students to develop their self-confidence.