An investigatıon of foreign language anxiety and its relation to self-efficacy in oral performance

Abstract

Much research stresses the significance of individual differences in foreign language learning (Brown, 2000; Dörnyei, 2005; Ehrman, Leaver & Oxford, 2003; Skehan, 1991). These studies not only try to reveal the effects of individual differences in the attainment of foreign language achievement but more importantly inform about the cognitive and affective factors which form the basis of individual differences in a language-learning environment (Tallon, 2009). While cognitive factors involve language learners’ “beliefs or perceptions about the objects or situations” (Gan, 2011, p. 68), affective factors include the emotional sides of language learners such as values, appreciation, attitudes, enthusiasms, feelings, motivations, personality, anxiety and self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997; Brown, 2000; Huitt, 2011; Skehan, 1989). Although many researchers generally focus on the cognitive sides of language learners, it is important to tap the importance of affective sides of language learners with regard to the outcomes of the learning process. Tallon (2009, p. 113) points out that “what the learner brings to the learning situation and how the learner feels can have an impact on what is learned.” In other words, a language learner’s positive or negative feelings have a great influence on their language learning.