Investigation of Motivation and Anxiety in Macedonia While Learning English as a Second/Foreign Language

Abstract

The use of modern communicative language teaching approaches in the language classrooms and the wide-spread use of English language have increased the demand to learn good communication skills but the existence of feelings as anxiety, apprehension and nervousness in learners may prevent them from learning to speak a second/foreign language. This study has attempted to investigate the factors that language anxiety can possibly stem from, both within the classroom environment and out of classroom in the wider social context, and the motivation needed for improving that anxiety by giving recommendations of a variety of strategies to cope with it. The past researchers, considering it a complex and multi-faceted psychological phenomenon, have suggested using a variety of perspectives and approaches to investigate the subject. A total of 50 participants, ESL/EFL learners participated in the investigation by answering the statements provided in three questionnaires. The findings suggest that language anxiety can originate from learners’ own sense of „self’, their self-related cognition, language learning difficulties, differences in learners’ and target language cultures, differences in social status of the speakers and interlocutors, and from the fear of losing self-identity. The pedagogical implications of these findings for understanding second/foreign language anxiety for enhancing learners’ communication abilities in the target language were discussed in accordance to the anxiety level with the motivation needed, as are suggestions for future research. Furthermore, considering the crucial role of teachers in second or foreign language pedagogy, a need was felt to investigate the beliefs and perceptions of language teachers about learning and teaching a second or a foreign language.