Title: Managing foreign language classroom anxiety among French undergraduate students: pedagogical implications and perspectives

Authors: Arber Shtembari; Marigel Garcia Lozano; Peter Forte

Addresses: Groupe de Recherches Sociologiques sur les sociétés Contemporaines (GRESCO EA 3815), Université de Limoges, FLSH de Limoges, 39E, rue Camille-Guérin, 87036 Limoges, France ' Faculté des Lettres et Langues, Université de Poitiers, Pédagolab, 1 rue Raymond Cantel, TSA 11102, 86073 Poitiers, Cedex 9, France ' Faculté des Lettres et Langues, Université de Poitiers, Pédagolab, 1 rue Raymond Cantel, TSA 11102, 86073 Poitiers, Cedex 9, France

Abstract: This study focuses on the effects of explicit teaching on the language anxiety of students in the School of Modern Languages at the University of Poitiers during an English 'oral expression' course. It presents the results of action research hypothesising a link between applied pedagogical methods and the reduction of this type of anxiety. Based on the work of Horwitz et al. (1986) around clarifying language learning anxiety reviewed by Zhao (2007), the research was carried out with first-year students, using mixed methods (a questionnaire, classroom observations, semi-structured interviews). This enabled us to measure the levels of language anxiety the students experienced in class at two different points (n = 20 for T1; n = 23 for T2). The questionnaire asks students about four factors (F1 apprehension of communication in English; F2 test anxiety; F3 fear of negative evaluation; F4 + F5 English classroom anxiety).

Keywords: foreign language classroom anxiety scale; action research; pedagogy; higher education.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMDM.2023.129840

International Journal of Management and Decision Making, 2023 Vol.22 No.2, pp.219 - 235

Received: 21 Feb 2022
Accepted: 01 May 2022
Published online: 31 Mar 2023 *

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