Investigation of Japanese Students' Language Anxiety in English Speaking Classes

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 22K20274
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: :Education and related fields
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Bordilovskaya Anna 東京大学, グローバル教育センター(ALESS/A), 特任講師 (70758573)
• Project Period (FY): 2022-08-31 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: language anxiety / affective factors / motivation / Japanese students

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Foreign language anxiety (FLA) is a complex phenomenon that has been become one of the central topics in the applied linguistics. Present research adopted quantitative and qualitative data collection procedures to explore the two interrelated affective factors: anxiety fuan (anxiety) and iwakan (incongruity) by conducting an anonymous survey and interviews among first-year Japanese university students enrolled in compulsory active learning English courses. The findings of this study show that depending on the situation Japanese EFL learners can and do experience both: fuan or iwakan in different proportions. For example, the feeling of iwakan seems to be more prevalent in the classroom setting due to the lack of authenticity of English use. The results also show that fuan and iwakan refer to different dimensions of FLA. Fuan is by students to describe their communicative anxiety while iwakan in the internal concern related to their linguistic abilities and language identity.

Free Research Field

Applied Linguistics

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

Findings of these research are crucial for developing the methods to reduce Japanese students' foreign language anxiety (FLA) in classroom environment and real-life situations. Understanding the fuan/iwakan differences can be used to provide focused support to students with different forms of FLA.