First of all, instructors, especially those who with diverse classes, need to be aware of their students' situation of being put in a foreign context. The raise of awareness is essential for teachers to take actions. So how do language instructors get through to students who are anxious in their classes? Horwitz, Young and others have offered some suggestions.
Some of them, like not insulting your students, are so obvious, yet perhaps still necessary. "Some language anxiety is a result of what teachers do. I’ve had people in my office who’ve had language teachers make fun of them in class. They weren’t anxious to begin with, but they developed this anxiety." On the other hand, there are some other practical guidelines, which mostly involve instilling more confidence in students. Kubler said that non-native-speaking role models can be an important part of building students' self-esteem. "Sometimes, for these super-hard languages that involve truly foreign cultures, most of the time you want most of the instructors to be native speakers. However, it can occasionally be useful to have a non-native … to come into your class, your students, and serve as a role model of what a non-Chinese person, in this case, can achieve, can prove to students what can be done," he said. "Years ago, as a student … I found that kind of role model occasionally to be inspiring." At the end of the day, anxiety can be marshaled into a positive force. And if that's done, students' uncertainty can become a catalyst to learn even more. "My experience in the classroom has been that discomfort, in the most general sense, is a necessary aspect of language learning, both in the classroom and out," said Downing A. Thomas, the chairman of the Department of French and Italian at the University of Iowa. "It is even to be encouraged, both in terms of coming into contact with that which is perceived as foreign or strange and in terms of getting up the nerve to speak when one has an accent or cannot follow strict textbook grammar when speaking. This is when real learning can take place. "The trick is to convince the students that discomfort is a good thing." |
Elaine K Horwitz
Professor, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education Elaine Horwitz is Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and director of the Graduate Program in Foreign Language Education at UT Austin. She specializes in Second Language Acquisition and Teacher Education, and is widely published in the areas of foreign language anxiety, learner beliefs about language learning, and language learning strategies.
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In this short video, Dan talked about how to overcome fear and anxiety in speaking English in a humorous way, which also could apply to the problem of Chinese students' classroom anxiety.
What happens if we add culture, educational methods, and a deeply held belief in the importance of saving face to the mix? In this talk Dr. Al-Saraj, the first female Saudi post-doc at University of California Berkeley, will share stories of language-learning success and disappointment from her 2015 book "The Anxious Language Learner: A Saudi Woman’s Story".
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There are few academic works providing supportive implications of what Chinese students should do in order to reduce their foreign classroom language anxiety. However, I personally figured out some advice that might be helpful to address this problem, though they have not systemically tested yet.
For Chinese students, it is essential to build up self-confidence at the first place, since negative self-evaluation is one of the key factors that affect language anxiety. Trying to keep an open-mind to adapt to the new class environment would be another effective way. Always keep in mind that mistakes are part of any language learning no matter the learner (Young, 1990). Indeed, losing face added to the anxiety in classroom, yet it is inevitable to bump into several stones on the way to break through. It is also a good idea to try to build personal connections with classmates (other than Chinese) after class, as they could provide useful suggestions on cultural as well as academic adjustments. Therefore, the eventual good outcomes of overcoming language anxiety might add to some more motivations of Chinese students. |