Foreign Language Anxiety and the Pandemic
Document Type
Paper Presentation
Presenter Language
English
Research Area
Second Language Acquisition
Location
MBSC Omaha Room 304
Start Date
18-10-2024 9:30 AM
End Date
18-10-2024 10:00 AM
Abstract
Foreign Language Anxiety and the Pandemic
Foreign language anxiety (FLA) is a tool used to measure student’s anxiety in a foreign language classroom setting and it negatively predicts L2 outcomes, including and Spanish lexicon and morphosyntax. Since overall anxiety is reported to have increased during the pandemic, will we find that FLA has also gotten worse? If it has, will instructed L2 outcomes have also gotten correspondingly worse?
The study included a sample of 2,411 adult L2 Spanish students. All the students responded to the questions of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) as designed by Horwitz & Horwitz (1986). Then, we used two adapted measures of lexicon and morphosyntax. The adapted lexical measure consists of only the lexicon-measuring items of the DELE (Diplomado del español como lengua extranjera), which shows high reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = .763). Similarly, the morphosyntactic measure consists of only the morphosyntax-measuring items of the Wisconsin, which also shows high reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = .864), indicating that these tests measure single underlying constructs.
Participants included 358 students from 2018, 311 from 2022 and 547 from 2023 who took our lexical measure; while 315 students from 2018, 327 from 2022 and 553 from 2023 took our morphosyntax measure.
Results indicated a significant increase (t(1309) = -2.2691, p = .023), in FLCAS scores between 2018 and 2022, which is consistent with increased FLA resulting from students returning to in-person instruction after the pandemic. There was no significant difference (p > .05) in FLA, however, between 2018 and 2023, consistent with FLA returning to pre-pandemic levels by one year after its end. There were no significant changes in lexicon or morphosyntax proficiency over the periods studied (p > .05), and FLA was found to have a significant negative association with both morphosyntax (r = -.379, p < .001) and lexicon (r = -.168, p < .001), as in previous work. We discuss our results in light of theories of individual differences, affect and adult L2 acquisition. 322 words
References
Beiter, R., Nash, R., McCrady, M., Rhoades, D., Linscomb, M., Clarahan, M., & Sammut, S. (2015). The prevalence and correlates of depression, anxiety, and stress in a sample of college students. Journal of Affective Disorders, 173, 90–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2014.10.054
Delpino, F. M., da Silva, C. N., Jerônimo, J. S., Mulling, E. S., da Cunha, L. L., Weymar, M. K., Alt, R., Caputo, E. L., & Feter, N. (2022). Prevalence of anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review and meta-analysis of over 2 million people. Journal of Affective Disorders, 318, 272–282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2022.09.003
Horwitz, E., Horwitz, M., & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign language classroom anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 70(2), 125–132. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.1986.tb05256.x
Kirk, S., Grinstead, J., & Nibert, H. J. (2021). Anxiety, lexicon, and morphosyntax in instructed L2 Spanish.
Foreign Language Annals, 55(1), 309–323. https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12576
Yang, C., Chen, A., & Chen, Y. (2021). College students’ stress and health in the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of academic workload, separation from school, and fears of contagion. PLOS ONE, 16(2). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246676
Foreign Language Anxiety and the Pandemic
MBSC Omaha Room 304
Foreign Language Anxiety and the Pandemic
Foreign language anxiety (FLA) is a tool used to measure student’s anxiety in a foreign language classroom setting and it negatively predicts L2 outcomes, including and Spanish lexicon and morphosyntax. Since overall anxiety is reported to have increased during the pandemic, will we find that FLA has also gotten worse? If it has, will instructed L2 outcomes have also gotten correspondingly worse?
The study included a sample of 2,411 adult L2 Spanish students. All the students responded to the questions of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) as designed by Horwitz & Horwitz (1986). Then, we used two adapted measures of lexicon and morphosyntax. The adapted lexical measure consists of only the lexicon-measuring items of the DELE (Diplomado del español como lengua extranjera), which shows high reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = .763). Similarly, the morphosyntactic measure consists of only the morphosyntax-measuring items of the Wisconsin, which also shows high reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = .864), indicating that these tests measure single underlying constructs.
Participants included 358 students from 2018, 311 from 2022 and 547 from 2023 who took our lexical measure; while 315 students from 2018, 327 from 2022 and 553 from 2023 took our morphosyntax measure.
Results indicated a significant increase (t(1309) = -2.2691, p = .023), in FLCAS scores between 2018 and 2022, which is consistent with increased FLA resulting from students returning to in-person instruction after the pandemic. There was no significant difference (p > .05) in FLA, however, between 2018 and 2023, consistent with FLA returning to pre-pandemic levels by one year after its end. There were no significant changes in lexicon or morphosyntax proficiency over the periods studied (p > .05), and FLA was found to have a significant negative association with both morphosyntax (r = -.379, p < .001) and lexicon (r = -.168, p < .001), as in previous work. We discuss our results in light of theories of individual differences, affect and adult L2 acquisition. 322 words
References
Beiter, R., Nash, R., McCrady, M., Rhoades, D., Linscomb, M., Clarahan, M., & Sammut, S. (2015). The prevalence and correlates of depression, anxiety, and stress in a sample of college students. Journal of Affective Disorders, 173, 90–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2014.10.054
Delpino, F. M., da Silva, C. N., Jerônimo, J. S., Mulling, E. S., da Cunha, L. L., Weymar, M. K., Alt, R., Caputo, E. L., & Feter, N. (2022). Prevalence of anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review and meta-analysis of over 2 million people. Journal of Affective Disorders, 318, 272–282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2022.09.003
Horwitz, E., Horwitz, M., & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign language classroom anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 70(2), 125–132. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.1986.tb05256.x
Kirk, S., Grinstead, J., & Nibert, H. J. (2021). Anxiety, lexicon, and morphosyntax in instructed L2 Spanish.
Foreign Language Annals, 55(1), 309–323. https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12576
Yang, C., Chen, A., & Chen, Y. (2021). College students’ stress and health in the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of academic workload, separation from school, and fears of contagion. PLOS ONE, 16(2). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246676