Definition of FLA Foreign Language Anxiety FLA

21 1 Personal and Interpersonal Issues Several other researchers argued that low competitiveness and self-esteem are the two significant sources of learner anxiety. Bailey 1983 studied the diary entries of 11 students and reported that competitiveness can lead to anxiety when language learners compare themselves to others or to an idealized self-image. Likewise, Price 1991 found that the majority of her subjects believed their language skills to be weaker than those of the others in class that they werent doing a good job and that everyone else looked down on them. As regards to self-esteem, Hembree 1988 in Linh 2011 implies that students who start out with a self-perceived low ability level in a foreign or second language are most likely to experience language anxiety. Krashen 1987 also suggests that anxiety can arise according to ones degree of self-esteem as those students tend to worry about what their peers or friends think, in fear of their negative responses or evaluation. Anxiety was, moreover, related to self-confidence gained as a result of perceived communicative competence Clement, 1980. Lack of anxiety is thus viewed as a predictor of self-confidence characterizing motivated language learners. Another personality trait that has a positive correlation with FLA is shyness Chu 2008 in Zhang 2010. Chu 2008 in Zhang 2010 affirms that anxiety, unwillingness to communicate and shyness function together to create a negative impact on Taiwanese students’ in studying English. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 22 2 Learner’s Beliefs about Language Learning Learner’s beliefs about language learning can also be associated with anxiety Horwitz et al., 1986; Horwitz, 1988, 1989; Price, 1991; Young, 1991. Horwitzs study 1988 in Young 1991, p. 428 revealed that the students: 1 expressed great concern over the correctness of their utterances, 2 placed a great deal of stress on speaking with an excellent accent, 3 supported the notion that language learning is primarily translating from English 4 believed that two years is enough time to become fluent in another language and 5 believed some people were more able to learn a foreign language than others. In addition, many students also believed that learning a second language primarily involved memorizing vocabulary words and grammatical rules. According to Tallon 2008, p. 4, “when students’ unrealistic expectations about language learning are not met, the situation can lead to negative feelings about on e’s intelligence and abilities.” Such unrealistic beliefs like what Horwitz 1988 found may make the students later become disappointed and frustrated. I conclude that unrealistic beliefs may make students have unrealistic expectations about language learning process, thus leading to anxiety. In addition, Palacios 1998 in Tallon 2008, p. 5 found that the following beliefs are associated with FLA. They are 1 the feeling that mastering a language is an overwhelming task, 2 the feeling that one needs to go through a translation process in order to communicate in the target language, 3 the difficulty of keeping everything in one ’s head and 4 the belief that learning a language is easier at an earlier age. 3 Teacher’s Beliefs about Language Teaching Teacher’s beliefs about language teaching determine the teacher-learner interactions. They are further possible sources of language anxiety because the teachers assumption about the role of language teachers may not always PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI