INVESTIGATING ANXIETY ABOUT TEACHING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE AMONG EFL TEACHERS PURSUING THEIR POSTGRADUATE STUDIES
Abstract
In the discipline of teaching English, scholars and even language teachers have long been interested in foreign language teaching anxiety (FLTA). With the increasing proliferation of English as a foreign language (EFL), there is a lack of comprehensive research on FLTA among EFL teachers. Therefore, the current study examines FLTA among 48 EFL teachers during their postgraduate programme at a public university in Northern Cyprus. The current analysis included the administration of the Teacher Foreign Language Anxiety Scale (TFLAS) and interviews. According to the results, the participants experienced varying degrees of foreign language teaching anxiety, and anxiety levels do not correlate with participants’ gender and teaching. The findings also revealed that fear of making mistakes was the primary factor that could induce language teaching anxiety. This study contributes to the existing body of prior research on FLTA with valuable contextualised data that could help alleviate anxiety levels experienced by EFL teachers.
References
Alrashidi, O. (2022). Sources of foreign language teaching anxiety among Saudi pre-service English teachers: A Qualitative Inquiry. SAGE Open, 12(3), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440221119486
Aslrasouli, M., & Vahid, M. S. P. (2014). An investigation of teaching anxiety among novice and experienced Iranian EFL teachers across gender. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 98, 304–313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.421
Aydin, S., & Ustuk, O. (2020). The foreign language teaching anxiety scale: Preliminary tests of validity and reliability. Journal of Language and Education, 6(2), 44-55. https://doi.org/10.17323/JLE.2020.10083
Bielak, J. (2022). To what extent are foreign language anxiety and foreign language enjoyment related to L2 fluency? An investigation of task-specific emotions and breakdown and speed fluency in an oral task. Language Teaching Research, 1-31. https://doi.org/10.1177/13621688221079319
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77-101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Brodar, M. (2020). Pre-service EFL teachers’ anxiety about teaching [Master’s thesis, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek]. FFOS-Repository. https://zir.nsk.hr/islandora/object/ffos%3A5101/datastream/PDF/view
Creswell, J. W., Plano Clark, V. L., Gutmann, M. L., & Hanson, W. E. (2003). Advanced mixed methods research designs. In A. Tashakkori & C. Teddlie (Eds.), Handbook of mixed methods in social and behavioral research (pp. 209-240). Sage.
Crookall, D. (1987). Social psychology and second language learning: The role of attitudes and motivation. System, 15, 236-240.
Fraschini, N., & Park, H. (2021). Anxiety in language teachers: Exploring the variety of perceptions with Q methodology. Foreign Language Annals, 54(2), 341-364. https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12527
Ghanizadeh, A., Goldast, G., & Ghonsooly, B. (2020). Designing and validating the sources of EFL teacher apprehension scale (STAS). Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 29(6), 495-508. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-020-00501-5
Gregersen, T., & Horwitz, E. K. (2002). Language learning and perfectionism: Anxious and non-anxious language learners’ reactions to their own oral performance. The Modern Language Journal, 86(4), 562-570. https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-4781.00161
Han, T., & Takkaç-Tulgar, A. (2019). Analysis of the pre-service teachers’ teaching anxiety and coping strategies: A Turkish elementary school context. GIST – Education and Learning Research Journal, 19(2019), 49-83. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.802
Hismanoglu, M. (2013). Foreign language anxiety of English language teacher candidates: A sample from Turkey. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 93, 930-937. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.09.306
Hofstede, G. (1984). Culture’s consequences: International differences in work-related values. Sage.
Horwitz, E. K. (1996). Even teachers get the blues: Recognising and alleviating language teachers’ feelings of foreign language anxiety. Foreign Language Annals, 29(3), 365-372. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.1996.tb01248.x
Horwitz, E. K. (2010). Foreign and second language anxiety. Language Teaching, 43(2), 154-167. https://doi.org/10.1017/S026144480999036X
Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M. B., & 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
İpek, H. (2016). A qualitative study on foreign language teaching anxiety. Journal of Qualitative Research in Education Eğitimde Nitel Araştırmalar Dergisi, 4(3), 92-105. https://doi.org/10.14689/issn.2148-2624.1.4c3s5m
Jugo, R. R. (2020). Language anxiety in focus: The case of Filipino undergraduate teacher education learners. Education Research International, 2020(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/7049837
Kobul, M. K., & Saraçoğlu, İ. N. (2020). Foreign language teaching anxiety of non-native: Pre-service versus in-service EFL teachers. Journal of History Culture and Art Research, 9(3), 291-296. https://doi.org/10.7596/taksad.v9i3.2143
Krashen, S. (1982). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. Pergamon Press Inc.
Kunt, N., & Tüm, D. Ö. (2010). Non-native student teachers’ feelings of foreign language anxiety. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2(2), 4672-4676. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.03.748
Lee, E., & Lew, L. (2001). Diary studies: The voices of nonnative English speakers in a master of arts program in teaching English to speakers of other languages. The CATESOL Journal, 13(1), 135-149.
Liu, M., & Wu, B. (2021). Teaching anxiety and foreign language anxiety among Chinese college English teachers. SAGE Open, 11(2), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440211016556
Liu, H., Yan, C., & Fu, J. (2022). Exploring livestream English teaching anxiety in the Chinese context: An ecological perspective. Teaching and Teacher Education, 111, 103620. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2021.103620
Machida, T. (2016). Japanese elementary school teachers and English language anxiety. TESOL Journal, 7(1), 40-66. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesj.189
Merç, A. (2011). Sources of foreign language student teacher anxiety: A qualitative inquiry. Turkish Online Journal of Qualitative Inquiry, 2(4), 80-94. https://doi.org/10.17569/tojqi.08990
Mercer, S. (2018). Psychology for language learning: Spare a thought for the teacher. Language Teaching, 51(4), 504-525. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444817000258
Robson, C. (2017). Small-scale evaluation: Principles and practice. Sage.
Scovel, T. (1978). The effect of affect on foreign language learning: A review of the anxiety research. Language Learning, 28(1), 129-142. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1978.tb00309.x
Selvi, A. F. (2011). The non-native speaker teacher. ELT Journal, 65(2), 187-189.
Soleimani, H., & Allahveisi, P. (2022). Teacher education and multiple intelligences: Foreign language teaching anxiety of Iranian EFL teachers. Two Quarterly Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning University of Tabriz, 14(29), 214-227.
Song, J., & Park, J. S. Y. (2019). The politics of emotions in ELT: Structure of feeling and anxiety of Korean English teachers. Changing English: Studies in Culture and Education, 26(3), 252-262. https://doi.org/10.1080/1358684X.2019.1590145
Tum, D. O. (2012). Feelings of language anxiety amongst non-native student teachers. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 47, 2055-2059. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.06.948
Tum, D. O. (2015). Foreign language anxiety’s forgotten study: The case of the anxious pre-service teacher. TESOL Quarterly, 49(4), 627-658. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.190
Tum, D. Ö., & Kunt, N. (2013). Speaking anxiety among EFL student teachers. Hacettepe Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 28(28–3), 385-399.
Wern, T. C., & Rahmat, N. H. (2021). An investigative study on the types and causes of ESL writing anxiety: A case study of learners from a Chinese independent middle school. European Journal of English Language Teaching, 6(3), 19-36. https://doi.org/10.46827/ejel.v6i3.3553
Copyright (c) 2023 UNIMAS Publisher
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright Transfer Statement for Journal
1) In signing this statement, the author(s) grant UNIMAS Publisher an exclusive license to publish their original research papers. The author(s) also grant UNIMAS Publisher permission to reproduce, recreate, translate, extract or summarize, and to distribute and display in any forms, formats, and media. The author(s) can reuse their papers in their future printed work without first requiring permission from UNIMAS Publisher, provided that the author(s) acknowledge and reference publication in the Journal.
2) For open access articles, the author(s) agree that their articles published under UNIMAS Publisher are distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-SA (Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, for non-commercial purposes, provided the original work of the author(s) is properly cited.
3) For subscription articles, the author(s) agree that UNIMAS Publisher holds copyright, or an exclusive license to publish. Readers or users may view, download, print, and copy the content, for academic purposes, subject to the following conditions of use: (a) any reuse of materials is subject to permission from UNIMAS Publisher; (b) archived materials may only be used for academic research; (c) archived materials may not be used for commercial purposes, which include but not limited to monetary compensation by means of sale, resale, license, transfer of copyright, loan, etc.; and (d) archived materials may not be re-published in any part, either in print or online.
4) The author(s) is/are responsible to ensure his or her or their submitted work is original and does not infringe any existing copyright, trademark, patent, statutory right, or propriety right of others. Corresponding author(s) has (have) obtained permission from all co-authors prior to submission to the journal. Upon submission of the manuscript, the author(s) agree that no similar work has been or will be submitted or published elsewhere in any language. If submitted manuscript includes materials from others, the authors have obtained the permission from the copyright owners.
5) In signing this statement, the author(s) declare(s) that the researches in which they have conducted are in compliance with the current laws of the respective country and UNIMAS Journal Publication Ethics Policy. Any experimentation or research involving human or the use of animal samples must obtain approval from Human or Animal Ethics Committee in their respective institutions. The author(s) agree and understand that UNIMAS Publisher is not responsible for any compensational claims or failure caused by the author(s) in fulfilling the above-mentioned requirements. The author(s) must accept the responsibility for releasing their materials upon request by Chief Editor or UNIMAS Publisher.
6) The author(s) should have participated sufficiently in the work and ensured the appropriateness of the content of the article. The author(s) should also agree that he or she has no commercial attachments (e.g. patent or license arrangement, equity interest, consultancies, etc.) that might pose any conflict of interest with the submitted manuscript. The author(s) also agree to make any relevant materials and data available upon request by the editor or UNIMAS Publisher.
