FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANXIETY AMONG CHINESE EFL LEARNERS: VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT VS TRADITIONAL CLASSROOM SETTING
Keywords:
Foreign language anxiety, EFL learners, virtual environment, traditional classroomAbstract
This study explores and compares the foreign language anxiety (FLA) levels among Chinese tertiary EFL learners in traditional classroom setting and virtual environment. The Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) was utilized as the instrument in a questionnaire survey conducted among 78 nonEnglish-major sophomores from a university in southern China. All participants had sufficient experience of English classes both in the virtual environment and in the traditional classroom setting. The results displayed a considerable amount of FLA in both settings of the virtual and traditional classrooms with a significant lower level of certain types of FLA disclosed in the former. Specifically, students reported a decrease in the communication anxiety and the fear of negative evaluation in the virtual environment since they felt less worried while speaking in English in such an environment. This might be attributed to such characteristics of online language learning as being more relaxing and flexible, which provides inspiration to the instructional design of both classroom and virtual learning activities. Further study was proposed to focus on the specific types of FLA among Chinese college students with various language skills such as listening, speaking, reading, and writing in EFL learning.
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