The Relationship between Language Learners’ Anxiety and Learning Strategy in the CLT Classrooms

Abstract

This paper intends to explore how Taiwanese students perceive the relationship between their language learning strategy and anxiety in the foreign language classroom. Due to their previous learning experience, most of the participants hold an unfavorable attitude toward a grammar-translation teaching approach. Consequently, learner-centered instruction has been widely accepted and acknowledged as a welcome concept and feasible teaching approach in the English Foreign Language (EFL) context. To improve the proficiency of language learners in EFL classrooms, it is very important to take into account the need of the learners. The present study utilizes Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) and Communicative Language Teaching Attitude Scale (COLTAS) to examine the participants’ perceptions about learning English. The results indicate that most of the participants express a favorable attitude toward the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach; however, they also reveal their high level of anxiety in the language classroom. Language anxiety is usually reported to have adverse effects on the learning of a second language. It is the language instructors’ mission to accelerate the language learning of their students. One way is to teach students how to learn more effectively and efficiently. Language learning strategies (LLS) are procedures that learners can use to facilitate learning. Both teachers and students should develop an awareness of the learning process and strategies that lead to success. The ultimate goal of this paper is to analyze the factors that affect the participants’ learning strategies and their language anxiety, and offer some pedagogical suggestions.