Anxiety in the College English Language Classroom in Taiwan

Abstract

This paper addresses issues concerning the foreign language anxiety of college English learners of Taiwan in oral practice. Two potential anxiety provoking sources: an individual's ”fear of negative evaluation” and his or her ”beliefs about language learning” were examined by a quantitative survey of 206 college students in Taiwan for any correlation with anxiety and for any interaction between these two factors. Using correlation and regression, the study found that: (a) an individual's anxiety was higher as his or her fear of negative evaluation was stronger and (b) his or her anxiety was also higher as his or her beliefs about language learning were stronger; (c) the fear of negative evaluation and beliefs about language learning did not interact to influence the anxiety level of a student.