Chapter 19
The role of language anxiety and enjoyment in advanced
proficiency
Considerations for task-based language teaching
research
The current chapter examines the subjective
experiences of 14 Spanish advanced learners and 10 low-proficiency
learners in relation to their L2 anxiety and enjoyment while
performing two oral narrative tasks varying in cognitive demands.
Results showed advanced participants experienced more enjoyment than
their low-proficiency counterparts during complex tasks, although
anxiety was still present as part of learners’ experiences.
Importantly, task factors affecting learners’ anxiety in the
advanced group differed from those perceived as more
anxiety-inducing in the novice group. The study raises awareness of
the importance of positive and negative emotions when manipulating
cognitive task demands. It further emphasizes the complexity of
emotional processes involved in learners’ performance and how their
dynamic interactions with tasks differ as proficiency increases.
Article outline
- Introduction
- Background
- Language anxiety and language proficiency in SLA
literature
- Factors affecting language anxiety in task-based
research
- Positive Emotions in SLA
- Purpose of the current study
- Methodology
- Participants
- Materials
- Procedure
- Qualitative scoring and analytical procedures
- Results
- Results on cognitive task complexity, language anxiety and
enjoyment by proficiency levels
- Results on task factors attributed to language anxiety on the
novice and advanced proficiency levels
- Discussion and future directions
- The interaction of task complexity and learner FL anxiety and
enjoyment
- Task-based predictors of learner anxiety
-
Note
-
References
-
Appendix
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