Publications

Publication details [#63553]

Wang, Yanlin, Steven M. Crooks and Stefanie Borst. 2017. Chinese language learners’ anxiety toward chat partners in computer-mediated communication. Chinese as a Second Language (漢語教學研究—美國中文教師學會學報) 52 (2) : 127–147.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Place, Publisher
John Benjamins
Journal DOI
10.1075/csl

Annotation

Studies have shown foreign language anxiety (FLA) can negatively impact learners’ performance in the classroom, but learners experience less FLA during computer-mediated communication (CMC) activities. Although it has been documented that communicating with native speakers (NSs) can make foreign language learners more anxious, very few empirical studies have compared learners’ anxiety levels toward different online chat partners. The current study investigated intermediate Chinese language learners’ FLA in online text CMC activities chatting with NSs and non-native speakers (NNSs). The quantitative data analyses showed that there was a significant difference in the anxiety level between chatting with NSs and NNSs in text-based CMC: chatting with NSs made Chinese learners more anxious than chatting with NNSs. Language confidence and partner familiarity were the two main factors mediating the anxiety. Practical pedagogical implications and future research directions were discussed.