FUTURE DIRECTIONS FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING ANXIETY RESEARCH

For the last twenty years, the role and importance of foreign language teaching anxiety (FLTA) experienced by both in- and pre-service FL teachers have been examined by language teaching and teacher education specialists. Although research is now not sufficient to shed light onto the phenomenon in the clearest form, definitions, possible reasons, and some methods to deal with FLTA have been proposed.

The aim of this presentation is twofold:
(1) to present the recent research findings on the concept of FLTA; and
(2) to present some future directions in FLTA research.

The presentation intends to support and encourage present and future researchers as well as teacher researchers to focus on the unstudied parts of the FLTA in the FL classrooms. Consequently, future research on FLTA will be able to define the concept more thoroughly, provide a better understanding of its underlying reasons, present its probable damages on teachers and students, and more significantly, to offer some ways to alleviate the risky FLTA in the foreign language classrooms. Foreign language teachers, teacher candidates, and teacher trainers are supposed to benefit from the presentation.