Acknowledging foreign language anxiety among student teachers of English

Abstract

Foreign language anxiety (FLA) has been found among language learners in all educational contexts investigated. There is strong consensus as to the negative effects of FLA on various aspects of language learning, but also on teaching, affecting language use and teaching approaches. In primary language teacher education, FLA must be counteracted both for the sake of student teachers but also their future learners, as striving to alleviate FLA will be a crucial aspect of their profession. The current study investigated FLA among 193 Swedish pre-service non-native generalist teachers or English, by use of a questionnaire about oral classroom interaction. Results revealed that a third of student teachers experienced recurrent FLA. Furthermore, the instrument had previously been used with primary learners of English in the same educational region, which allowed for a comparison of levels and triggers of FLA (Nilsson, 2019). Student teachers reported more negative affect than young learners, and also confirmed the same contextual triggers of FLA. In light of the results, challenges and opportunities in relation to generalist language teacher education are discussed. In sum, explicitly addressing FLA during their education is a way of better preparing all student teachers for their future professional practice in primary school.