Foreign Language Anxiety. Conceptual Foundations, Selected Effects and Causes, and How to Reduce it (eBook)

Seminar paper from the year 2021 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Pedagogy, Literature Studies, grade: 1,0, LMU Munich, course: Second Language Acquisition, language: English, abstract: This seminar paper will take a look at several definitions and dimensions of anxiety in general, and then continue to elucidate the concept of foreign language anxiety in depth with the foundations of Horwitz et al. (1986). It will be examined how anxiety can manifest itself and also how it can be diagnosed and measured by means of an instrument which was also developed by Horwitz et al. Moreover, it will be explained in what way anxiety can affect second language acquisition and also what some potential causes and sources are. The last section of this paper will focus on some of the guidelines and strategies that can be adopted by teachers, but also by students, in order to minimize feelings of anxiety. In this context, these will be brought into question and reflected upon. In order to understand foreign language anxiety in a broader context, the fundamental aspects of anxiety, in general, will be discussed in the following section.