Foreign Language Anxiety in the Classroom Tien-hui Yu 余天蕙 Seton Hall University Definition  Foreign language anxiety: a distinct complex of self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings, and behaviors related to classroom learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learning process. Sources of Anxiety      Speaking the target language in front of peers Teacher-centered classroom Fear of losing oneself Making errors ………… Three Types of Foreign Language Anxiety (Horwitz,1986)  (1) Communication apprehension  (2) Test anxiety  (3) Fear of negative evaluation The Influence of Anxiety  Severe language learning anxiety causes interlocking problems.  Language anxiety is one of the best predictors of foreign language achievement. A Case Study Instrument: Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale ( Horwitz, 1986) Results  Anxiety does exist in the Chinese language learning classroom.  Learners from different levels are influenced by anxieties.  Learners who suffered from one of the anxieties are affected by the other two anxieties simultaneously.  Learners who experienced higher anxiety levels had lower selfesteem and got lower grades, while less anxious learners had higher self-esteem and got higher grades. Pedagogical Implications 1. Coping with the anxiety 2. Making the learning context less stressful Coping with Anxiety  Workshop  Learning training A Less Stressful Classroom  Reducing communication apprehension anxiety  Reducing fear of negative evaluation  Reducing test anxiety Conclusion  No teacher can guarantee that a class will be anxiety-free; however, teachers should be aware of trying to minimize the anxiety in the classroom to strengthen language learning efficiency.  For further research, there is a need for empirical evidence concerning how effective anxiety reducing techniques are in second language learning classrooms.