Abstract:

Several studies in the field of language acquisition have shown that anxiety is one of the main affective factors influencing foreign language learning, another key factor being motivation (cf. Arnold & Brown, 1999; Bosmans & Hurd, 2016; Dörnyei, 2009; Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1986). Different methodological instruments have been developed since the late 1990s to measure the impact of these aspects on foreign language learning. Although most studies have identified debilitating effects of anxiety on language performance (cf. Horwitz, 2001), some researchers have identified facilitating effects of anxiety (see e.g. Dörnyei, 2005, p.198).

While language anxiety has been widely documented over the past 30 years for adult learners, the same cannot be said for young adolescent learners, who represent one of the most important target audiences for language learning.

In our research, we sought to fill this gap by adapting and applying one of the most widely used tools in developmental linguistics research: the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) first presented by Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986).

Developed in a very specific historical and pedagogical context, this scale needed to be adapted in at least two ways:
1) in relation to current didactic approaches to foreign language teaching and
2) in relation to adolescent learners, whose characteristics differ greatly from those of a very young audience (e.g. primary school) or an adult audience.

Our presentation aims to show the adaptations we have made in order to create the Adolescent Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (AFLCAS) and the results of a test-phase of this new tool, used by a hundred or so teenage learners in a French-speaking region of Switzerland. We will also present our longer-term goals, which involve the application of this scale to a wider audience in view of quantitative research aimed at showing the possible correlations between language anxiety and academic performance in English of secondary I students in Switzerland. These aspects will also help develop the content of pre-service teacher training courses.

Keywords:

Foreign language anxiety (FLA), EFL, Adolescent learners, English learning.