What Causes Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety?

Abstract

As a result of the development of humanistic psychology in the 1960s, there has been a growing recognition that affective factors can significantly impact the outcomes of education (Lu, 2001). Affective factors in language learning, particularly in second language acquisition, have been reckoned as non-cognitive factors and along with cognitive factors, have sparked substantial attention among academics. Affective variables that may influence foreign language acquisition include a variety of emotions and feelings arising in foreign language classroom such as anxiety, fear, embarrassment, or sense of inferiority. Among them, second language anxiety has long been a popular topic in foreign language instruction research.