University of Education Lahore

Department of English

Course Title: Psycholinguistics

Programme: BS English

Course Code: 3127

Instructor Name: Marium Iqbal

Definition of Anxiety

• “ Anxiety can be defined as a mental or a physical

state characterized by specific emotional, physical,
cognitive and behavioral symptoms.”

• “It is an adaptive reaction which mobilizer the

organism and helps it defender avoid an anxiety
stimulus.”
Cont….
• “When anxiety is limited just to a specific situation, we use the term
specific anxiety, on the other hand, the term general anxiety is used
with these who are generally anxious in various situations (Horwitz &
Cope 1986).”

• Two approaches to identify FLA(Horwitz & Cope 1991)

Transfer approach: where FLA is viewed as a manifestation of the

forms of anxiety
Unique approach: where FLA achievement is correlated with FLA but
not with other types of anxiety
Symptoms of Anxiety
• Feeling of panic, fear and uneasiness
• Problem sleeping
• Cold or sweaty hands or feet
• Shortness of breath
• Heart palpipation
• Not being able to be still and calm
• Dry month
• Numbness or tingling on the hands or feet
 Causes of Anxiety
Internal causes
Teacher’s attitude:
• If teacher have negative attitude towards the student it
will affect their performance and create anxiety in
students.

Competition
• Is also a factor that creates anxiety. A person wants to be
ahead of others in competition and this creates stress and
anxiety.
Lack of Motivation
If there is no person to motivate while learning it will affect the
performance.

Communication gap
Students need to share or discuss their problem with someone who can
help to resolve their stress while learning process. So if there is
communication gap b/w student and surrounding then it can create anxiety.

Environment
Surely performs an important role. If student will not feel comfortable in
the class environment then he can not learn properly.
Cont…
Facilities
Lack of facilities or resources also create stress for individual. A student can
learn better by using different resources.

Audiences
Some student feel fear to perform in front of audiences because sometime
audience’s reaction is not good and in that situation student looses his
confidence
 Internal cases
Lack of confidence

If student feel fear and looses his confidence then he can not perform well.

Carelessness

If student does not concentrate on his study and become careless then it
will affect his performance and create anxiety.
Cont….
Intelligence level
Some students have low intelligence level and they could
not perform like other student and it creates stress for
them.

Mental Disturbance
Mentally disturbed student can not preform better. This
disturbance can be because of illness, family problem, or
other circumstances.
Factors
Attempting to understand to overall process foreign language
learning, researchers have investigated the relationship of language
learning and different lingual(related to the language system) and
extra lingual(related to the language learning process) variables.
(Kralova, 2016)

Lingual factors can be subdivided into the categories intra-lingual and

inter-lingual
Intra-lingual
Intra-lingual factors result from the system of a foreign
language itself.
Inter-lingual
Inter-lingual factors result form the contact of the two
language system(mostly native language or a foreign
language.
Extra-lingual
The extra-lingual factors are believed to affect FLA more
intensively than the lingual factors
Numerous studies are trying to identify the learning-related variables
of FLA most frequently recognized the categories of personal.
Intra-personal
The intra-personal determinants of FLA result form the
learner personal characteristics, their beliefs and attitudes
within foreign language.
Inter-personal
Inter-personal determinants are bound to the inter-personal
interactions(learner-teacher or learner-learner) during the learning
process.
The impersonal factors are related to non-personal aspects of FLA.
Dynamic Factors
Language proficiency
Motivation
Stay in a foreign language country

Over studying
It is an FLA related phenomenon
Students devote a lot of time to studying, but they still do
poorly in tests or oral exam. They become even more
frustrated when they realize they do the same mistake
repeatedly.
Ways to cope with anxiety in language learning
Participate in class
Speak English in fount of the class
Remember some facts
Ask for help
Deal with troubles
Interact with speakers who have fluent English
Passing the code
Interact with not-so-close classmates
Learn to deal with fear
Prepare assignment carefully
Rate your anxiety
Have a positive attitude
Conclusion

• Anxiety is the most powerful and negative predictor for the student’s
performance in learning
• Setting realistic and achievable goals, building a relaxing classroom
environment, sharing language learning experience and feeling, and
providing more chances to use the language all help in reducing
anxiety in language learning.
References:
https://files.eric.edu.gov
https://sciencedirect.com
https://languagetestingasia.springeropen.com
https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0708
https://dspace.snuyconnect.suny.edu
https://www.academia.edu
https://en.m.Wikipedia.org
That’s all………

I hope you had the lesson understood…….

Thank You…….