Skill-based L2 Anxieties Revisited: Their Intra-relations and the Inter-relations with General Foreign Language Anxiety

摘要

Recently, research in foreign language anxiety has extended to the examination of more language-skill-specific anxieties. Existing research findings on the language-skill-specific anxieties indicate a consistent negative relationship between individual skill-based anxieties (e.g. listening anxiety) and more general foreign language classroom anxiety. Regardless of the rich documentation surrounding this issue, some important questions remain unanswered. The present study was conducted to provide empirical answers to the following two unresolved issues: (i) the relationship between the four skill-based anxieties, and (ii) the relation of the skill-based anxieties to general foreign language classroom anxiety. A series of chi-square difference tests based on a sample of 229 Korean English as a foreign language students evidenced that all four skill-based L2 anxieties were statistically distinguishable from each other. Moreover, multiple regression analyses demonstrated that all four made an independent contribution to general classroom anxiety. Implications for researchers and practitioners are presented.