A Study of Foreign Language Anxiety with Romanian Students

AuthorCocorada, E. - Maican, M.A.
PositionDepartment of Psychology and Training in Education, Transilvania University of Brasov - Department of Literature and Cultural Studies, Transilvania University of Brasov
Pages9-18
Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov
Series VII: Social Sciences • Law • Vol. 6 (55) No. 2 - 2013
A STUDY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE
ANXIETY WITH ROMANIAN
STUDENTS
E. COCORAD1 M.-A. MAICAN2
Abstract: The anxiety connected to learning a foreign language is revealed
in negative self-perception, beliefs, feelings and behaviours which negatively
impinge upon language learning. This form of anxiety is correlated with
academic performance and with certain personality traits. This study
explores English language anxiety with Romanian participants, its
relationship with the respondents’ achievement, age, number of years they
studied English. These objectives are preceded by the adaptation of the
Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale for the Romanian learners and
the study of the psychometric qualities of the version put forward. The
findings show good psychometric qualities.
Key words: foreign language anxiety, psychometric qualities, Romanian
students.
1 Department of Psychology and Training in Education, Transilvania University of Braşov.
2 Department of Literature and Cultural Studies, Transilvania University of Braşov.
1. Introduction
Although academic activity is generally
thought to be accompanied by positive
emotions, most of the qualitative and
quantitative research studies have revealed
the prevalence of anxiety among students
[13], [21], [9], [29]. The import ance of this
emotion is also underlined by the
introduction of the phrase academic
anxiety, defined as a collection of anxieties
experience while in school [2].
The study of anxiety, initiated by Charles
Spielberger [24], was centred on
investigating state anxiety and trait
anxiety. Anxiety was defined by
Spielberger as a subjective feeling of
apprehension, tension, self-doubt,
nervousness and frustration, which are
accompanied by a stimulation of the
nervous system. The author emphasized
that state-anxiety is transitory, fluctuating
over time, whereas trait anxiety is
relatively stable at all times and in all
settings.
Since the 1970s, anxiety has been
studied in connection with learning foreign
languages, as a type of specific anxiety,
expressed in behaviours, self-perception,
beliefs and feelings that may reduce
language learning [10], [3].
From Horwitz’s perspective, anxiety
connected to foreign language learning is
not a form of general anxiety transferred
to foreign language learning. As an
argument, the force of correlations is
used: anxiety connected to foreign
language learning weakly correlates with
general trait anxiety, its correlation with
language proficiency being stronger than

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