The Role of Fear and Anxiety in Learning German: A Field Study of German Language Teaching in Iran

Document Type : research article

Author

Department of German Language and Literature, Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Fear and anxiety, along with motivation and attitude, are part of affective factors that are effective in the process of learning a foreign / second language. Language anxiety is a type of situation specific anxiety the effect of which on the foreign language learning process has been investigated by many researchers (Hammer 2019 / Zachariasz - Janik, 2020). The present study sought to introduce the types of anxieties related to foreign and second language learning and investigate whether the level of fear and anxiety among German language learners is different at different CEFR levels. It was hypothesized that as language learners move to a higher language level, their anxiety decreases. To test the hypothesis, the model presented by Horwitz et al. (1986), which is used to measure Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), was administered to a total of 45 participants in three groups of A1 (beginner), B1 (intermediate), and B2 (upper intermediate) CEFR levels, each comprising 15 learners studying German at a language institute in Iran. The results did not support the proposed hypothesis, which means that improvement in the language level does not necessarily lead to a decrease in the level of fear and anxiety experienced by language learners.

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References

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Journal of Foreign Language Research
Volume 13, Issue 2
July 2023
Pages 287-298

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