Language Stress And Anxiety Among The English Language Learners

Language learners usually express anxiety, apprehension and nervousness when learning a new language. Language anxiety can originate from learners. own sense of, self., their self-related cognitions, language learning difficulties, differences in learners. and target language cultures, differences in social status of the speakers and interlocutors, and from the fear of losing self-identity. Consideration of language learners. anxiety reactions by a language teacher is deemed highly important in order to assist them to achieve the intended performance goals in the target language(Tanveer, 2007). Language anxiety may also be a result as well as a cause of insufficient command of the target language (Sparks and Ganschow; cited in Horwitz, 2001: 118). It may be experienced due to linguistic difficulties L2/FL learners face in learning and using the target language. Within social contexts, language anxiety may be experienced due to extrinsic motivators (Schwartz, 1972; cited in Scovel, 1991: 16), such as different social and cultural environments, particularly the environments where L1 and L2/FL learning takes place. Using a qualitative semi-structured interview and focus-group discussion technique, this study tried to investigate the factors behind language anxiety among the Iranian language learners both within the classroom and in the social context, and has suggested a variety of strategies to cope with it. The findings suggested that language anxiety can originate from learners. own sense of, self., their self-related cognitions, language learning difficulties, differences in learners. and target language cultures, differences in social status of the speakers and interlocutors, and from the fear of losing self-identity. Furthermore, considering the crucial role of teachers in second or foreign language pedagogy, a need was felt to investigate the beliefs and perceptions of language teachers about learning and teaching a second or a foreign language. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the 2nd World Conference on Psychology, Counselling and Guidance.