Shyness and Foreign Language Anxiety

Shyness and Foreign Language Anxiety

Ordulj , Antonia
Grabar, Ivana

Communication in a foreign language, as an inevitable component of modern human life, often makes speakers experience anxiety, which may sometimes lead to avoidance of communication. This paper explores whether the students of Italian language courses in two foreign language schools experience foreign language (Italian) anxiety. The sample used in the study consists of students whose mother tongue is Croatian, and they have been learning Italian as a foreign language for a different period of time and at different levels. The authors wanted to examine whether there are differences in foreign language anxiety with regard to the level and the length of learning the Italian language, and whether the students’ levels of shyness correlate with the level of foreign language anxiety. The results showed that among the participants there is a correlation in foreign language anxiety depending on the students’ level of shyness: participants with pronounced shyness showed a higher level of foreign language anxiety when compared with the participants with medium and low levels of shyness. Individual characteristics of each student and various experiences gained in the process of learning a foreign language could be the reason for the absence of other differences.

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2012-05

773