Abstract
This study examines the relation between linguistic skills, personality types, and language anxiety amongst eighty Israeli Grade 11 students whose mother tongue is Hebrew and who are learning English as a second language. The participants were administered various tests measuring their basic linguistic skills in Hebrew as their first language (L1), including phonological and morphological awareness, working memory, rapid naming—and a series of language tests: vocabulary, word and text reading, pseudo-word reading, and spelling. They were also administered tests in English as a foreign language (EFL): vocabulary, word recognition, letter identification, text reading, and pseudo-word reading. All the participants completed an anxiety questionnaire with respect to both language sets, together with a personality questionnaire based on the Big Five model. The findings demonstrated a significant positive correlation between all the L1 and EFL linguistic skills. A significant negative correlation was obtained between the linguistic skills in both languages and anxiety towards English and Hebrew. The participants also exhibited similar levels of anxiety towards both languages. The results further identified the contribution made by personality types—neuroticism in particular—to the prediction of language anxiety and EFL success. All the findings are discussed in light of the literature, suggestions being made for future research possibilities.
Highlights
Under the influence of the recently-growing trend towards “multi-lingualism” evident in many countries, the acquisition of a foreign language (FL = L2) has become a central goal both in elementary education and aca-How to cite this paper: Abu-Rabia, S., Peleg, Y., & Shakkour, W. (2014)
This is discussed as part of an examination of the relation between this anxiety and L1 linguistic skills and anxiety with respect to L1 and English as a foreign language (EFL) amongst Hebrew-speaking high-school students
Abu-Rabia concluded that the acquisition of language skills in L1 has a direct effect upon linguistic development in relation to other languages and that a relation obtains between L2 anxiety and L1 language aptitude
Summary
The Relation between Linguistic Skills, Personality Traits, and Language Anxiety. The present study which integrates linguistic and personality aspects hopes to deepen our understanding of the variables connected with L2 anxiety. It addresses a further issue yet to be studied, namely, the anxiety induced by L1 language assignments. This is discussed as part of an examination of the relation between this anxiety and L1 linguistic skills and anxiety with respect to L1 and EFL amongst Hebrew-speaking high-school students
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