Online speaking interaction in foreign languages. How and why do students experience anxiety?

Abstract

This study focuses on the study of foreign language anxiety (FLA) in synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) speaking practices. FLA is a debilitating emotion (Horwitz, 2010) mostly related to the oral practice in a foreign language (FL) (Saito, Horwitz & Garza, 1999). The aim of the study is to analyze how and why FL learners experience FLA in online speaking environments. The research context is an online speaking course, of which 15 learners participate in the study. During the course, participants complete several speaking tasks. After each task, they self-rate their FLA using an adapted version of the Anxometer (MacIntyre & Gardner, 1991). Once the course is over, semi-structured interviews are conducted to identify the causes of their FLA. Finally, two participants are selected to do an additional online speaking activity, and their FLA is studied using the idiodynamic method (MacIntyre, 2012), a research approach that allows to analyze moment-to-moment FLA fluctuations.