INVESTIGATING ADVANCED LEARNERS’ USE OF AFFECTIVE STRATEGIES FOR DEALING WITH TEST ANXI-ETY
PDF (Język Polski)

Mots-clés

language learning anxiety
test anxiety
language learning strategies
af-fective strategies

Comment citer

Mystkowska-Wiertelak, A. (2018). INVESTIGATING ADVANCED LEARNERS’ USE OF AFFECTIVE STRATEGIES FOR DEALING WITH TEST ANXI-ETY. Neofilolog, (46/1), 45–58. https://doi.org/10.14746/n.2016.46.1.04

Résumé

Language anxiety has been researched for many decades now and its significance for attainment cannot be questioned. In numerous research accounts anxiety related to learning a foreign/second language comes in different guises, as speaking anxiety, or communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation, and finally, test anxiety. In fact, developing linguistic competence in the formal setting is inherently fraught with the need to have one’s skill and knowledge verified in the form of informal and formal, low- or high-stakes tests and examinations. Alleviating the negative consequences of anxiety seems imperative for effective learning, which in the opinion of the present author, will not be possible without gaining a deeper insight into the ways in which learners deal with negative feelings evoked by language study or use. Hence, an attempt has been made to explore the range of strategies employed by a specific group of learners – English majors in their final year of study – to cope with a stressful situation such as a regularly-scheduled achievement test in one of the components of the practical English course. What distinguishes this group of learners is their level of proficiency, which is C1 or nearing C2, but most importantly of all, their long-term experience of dealing with stress that has extended throughout formal education including the duration of MA studies in English Philology. Data collected by means of immediate reports and questionnaires revealed that the participants employed quite a limited scope of stress-reducing strategies and that there were characteristic trends, the analysis of which could serve as a point of departure for offering effective strategy instruction capable of relieving the consequences of negative affective states.

https://doi.org/10.14746/n.2016.46.1.04
PDF (Język Polski)

Références

Aida, Y. 1994. “Examination of Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope’s construct of foreign lan-guage anxiety: The case of students of Japanese”. The Modern Language Jour-nal, 78: 155-168.

Chamot, A. U. 2004. “Issues in language learning strategy research and teaching”. Elec-tronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, 1: 14-26.

Cohen, A.D. 1996. Second Language Learning and Use Strategies: Clarifying the Issues. Minneapolis, MN: National Language Research Centre, University of Minnesota.

Cohen, A.D. 2003. “The learner’s side of foreign language learning: Where do styles, strategies and tasks meet?”. IRAL 41: 279-291.

Cohen, A.D. 2012. “Strategies: The interface of styles, strategies, and motivation on tasks”. (in) Language Learning Psychology: Research, Theory and Pedagogy. (eds. Mercer, S., Ryan, S. and Williams, M.). Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave: 136-150.

Daley, C. E., Onwuegbuzie, A. J., and Bailey, P. 1997. Predicting achievement in college-level foreign language courses. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Mid-South Educational Research Association, Memphis, TN. ERIC Document Re-production Service No. ED415273

Dewaele, J.-M. 2007. “The effect of multilingualism, sociobiographical, and situational factors on communicative anxiety and foreign language anxiety of mature lan-guage learners”. The International Journal of Bilingualism, 11: 391-409.

Dewaele, J.-M. and MacIntyre, P.D. 2014. “The two faces of Janus? Anxiety and enjoy-ment in the foreign language classroom”. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 4: 237-274.

Dörnyei, Z. and Ryan, S. 2015. The Psychology of the Language Learner Revisited. New York: Routledge.

Dörnyei, Z. and Skehan, P. 2003. “Individual differences in second language learning”. (in) The Handbook of Second Language Acquisition (eds. Doughty, C.J. and Long, M.H.). Oxford: Blackwell: 589-630.

Gardner, R.C. and MacIntyre, P.D. 1993. “A student’s contribution to second-language learning. Part II: Affective variables”. Language Teaching, 26: 1-11.

Griffiths, C. 2013. The Strategy Factor in Successful Language Learning. Bristol: Multi-lingual Matters.

Horwitz, E.K. 2010. “Foreign and second language anxiety”. Language Teaching, 43: 154-167.

Horwitz, E.K., Horwitz, M.B., and Cope, J.A. 1986. “Foreign language classroom anxiety”. The Modern Language Journal, 70; 125-132.

Horwitz, E.K., and Young, D.J. (eds.). 1991. Language Anxiety: From Theory and Re-search to Classroom Implications. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Liu, M. 2006. “Anxiety in Chinese EFL students at different proficiency levels”. System, 34: 301-316.

Macaro, E. 2006. “Strategies for language learning and for language use: revising the theoretical framework”. The Modern Language Journal, 90: 320-337.

MacIntyre, P.D. 1999. “Language anxiety: A review of the research for language teach-ers”. (in) Affect in Foreign and Second Language Learning (ed. Young, D.J.). Bos-ton: Mc-Graw Hill: 24-45.

MacIntyre, P.D. 2002. “Motivation, anxiety and emotion in second language acquisi-tion”. (in) Individual Differences in Second Language Acquisition. (ed. Robin-son, P.). Amsterdam: John Benjamins: 45-68.

MacIntyre, P.D. and Gardner, R.C. 1994. “The subtle effects of language anxiety on cog-nitive processing in the second language”. Language Learning, 44: 283–305.

MacIntyre, P.D., Baker, S.C., Clément, R., and Donovan, L.A. 2003.” Talking in order to learn: Willingness to communicate and intensive language programs”. The Ca-nadian Modern Language Review, 59: 587-605.

MacIntyre, P.D., Noels, K.A., and Clement, R. 1997. “Biases in self-ratings of second language proficiency: The role of language anxiety”. Language Learning, 47: 265-287.

O’Malley, J.M. and Chamot, A.U. 1990. Learning Strategies in Second Language Acqui-sition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Onwuegbuzie, A., Bailey, P., and Daley, C.E. 2000. “The validation in three scales meas-uring anxiety at different stages of the foreign language learning process. The input anxiety scale, the processing anxiety scale, and the output anxiety scale”. Language Learning, 50: 87-117.

Oxford, R.L. 1990. Language Learning Strategies: What Every Teacher Should Know. Boston, MA: Heinle and Heinle.

Oxford, R.L. 1999. “Anxiety and the language learner”. (in) Affect in Language Learn-ing. (ed. Arnold, J.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 58-67.

Oxford, R.L. 2011. Teaching and Researching Language Learning Strategies. Harlow: Longman.

Piechurska-Kuciel, E. 2008. Language Anxiety in Secondary Grammar School Students. Opole: Opole University Press.

Tobias, S. 1979. “Anxiety research in educational psychology”. Journal of Educational Psychology, 71: 573-582.

Tobias, S. 1986. “Anxiety and cognitive processing of instruction”. (in) Self Related Cognition in Anxiety and Motivation (ed. Schwafzer, R.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum: 35-54.

Ushioda, E. 2011. “Motivating learners to speak as themselves”. (in) Identity, Motiva-tion and Autonomy in Language Learning. (eds. Murray, G., Gao, X. and Lamb, T.). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Woodrow, L.J. 2006. “A model of adaptive language learning”. The Modern Language Journal, 90: 297-319.