11
Harber 1960, cited in Zeidner, 1998 divided anxiety into two kinds,
facilitating anxiety
and
debilitating anxiety
. Facilitating anxiety refers to the anxiety that improved the performance, it means that this type of anxiety will not hinder
learners‟ achievement; it even might become a support of learners‟ success. Whereas debilitating anxiety refers to the anxiety that weakened the performance,
this type of anxiety will hinder and might be a barrier to the learners‟ achievement. Based on Alpert and Harber‟s theory we can conclude that not all types of
anxiety can damage learners‟ performance. However, we should not deny the
possibility observation of facilitating and debilitating that are actually the same anxiety continuity with different ends Hembree, 1988. By knowing the two kinds
of anxiety, it will help us to identify the reasons of factors causes to the studen ts‟
of high level anxiety debilitating anxiety as well as the strategies to deal with it.
2. Foreign Language Anxiety FLA
Foreign language learning might be a challenging activity for the learners especially those who live in EFL environment. Since English is used not as their
first or second language, there is a high possibility that the learners are not fluent in the target language experience and cannot express the use of the foreign
language maximally and that what is called by foreign language anxiety. Because foreign language anxiety related to the psychological and emotion aspect, the early
findings of these studies did not show consistent results. However, more researchers “have expanded the research perspectives from
psychology and personality theory to learning an d perception” Spielberger, 1966.
In early years of 60s, Catel and Scheier 1960, cited in Cheng, 2009 popularized
12
trait and state anxiety theory. State anxiety refers to the type of anxiety that might occur repeatedly and regularly in different situations while trait anxiety refers to
type of anxiety that last permanently in individual and could not easily change by time. But there is a limited of that theory,
“the source of the reported response is not specified very clearly by the
respondent” Cheng, 2009. This theory is based on the assumption of the respondent.
Since state and trait anxiety could not answer all questions related to the study of FLA, Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope 1986 formed a concept of FLA
which they called as a “type of situation specific anxiety”. Situation specific
anxiety refers to the possibility to be anxious in a specific situation such as having a test, giving a speech, or using a foreign language. The levels of anxious could be
different depends on the context. The assumption of the respondents is apparently decreased so this theory is more varied comparing from the previous theory and
the centralisation of the areas seem to show persistent result MarcIntyre Gardner, 1991. Since this theory was introduced, more researchers have begun to
use this theory and showing the consistent results. Occhipinti
2009 in his study said that learning a foreign language is “a complex process, which implies the study of a new grammar, pronunciation,
memorization of n ew words; but first and foremost it tests the learners‟ ability in
terms of his flexibility to take risks and making mistakes in front of other people”. The factors that showing those processes are: linguistic factor such as grammar or
syntax and extra-linguistic factor such as socio-contextual Schuman, 1978. Therefore, it is believed that learning a foreign language might be a stressful
