PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSISTANCE IN REDUCING ENGLISH LANGUAGE ANXIETY IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to outline some possible ways of psychological assistance in defining and reducing foreign language anxiety in university students. In this context the analysis focuses on a theoretical study of language anxiety in the psychological literature and states its role in learning foreign languages and studying in university in general, highlights and explains some reasons of language anxiety, analyses its peculiarities and effect on the efficacy of learning foreign languages. Moreover, we aim at defining some possible ways of detection, prevention, and reducing foreign language anxiety trying to analyse some existent in psychological literature methods and practical questionnaires. To do this, we divide some practical methods available in the scientific psychological literature into the questionnaires aimed at detecting and preventing language anxiety (“Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale” (FLCAS), “Language Learners’ Anxiety and Motivation”, “The Anxiety Scale”, “Test Anxiety Scale”, “Fear of Negative Evaluation”, etc.) and questionnaires that help reduce language anxiety (“Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety Scale”, “The Self-Regulated Foreign Language Learning Questionnaire”, “SWOT Analysis”, “Self-Regulation Questionnaire”, “Metacognitive Awareness Inventory”, “Promoting Student Metacogniton about Learning”, etc.). We also mention impact of self-regulated learning and importance of playing activities (games) during efficient learning, specify the role of fossilization. Practical implication of the paper is to provide the results of the students of the International Relations Department (N = 153) who voluntarily answered the questions of the adapted and translated into Ukrainian version of the “Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale” (FLCAS). Our findings suggest that significant English language anxiety is experienced by many students. Finally, some implications for the next studies are proposed.