Measuring L1 Chinese speakers’ anxiety when completing an English as L2 video narration task

Abstract

The present study investigated the nature of Chinese as First Language (L1) speakers’ anxiety when completing an oral task in English as Foreign Language (L2). Chinese second-year university students (n = 96) performed a video narration task and completed questionnaires measuring their trait anxiety, foreign language anxiety, and task anxiety. Exploratory factor analysis identified the underlying sub-facets of the task anxiety construct, including language-related difficulties, environment-related anxiety, setting-related anxiety and physiological symptoms. Language-related difficulties explained the largest amount of variance and emerged as the most influential factor. Structural equation modelling demonstrated that task anxiety was an independent construct subject to direct influence from foreign language anxiety and indirect influence from trait anxiety. Findings suggest that task anxiety is a context-specific construct that warrants distinct attention from teachers and researchers. Implications for helping students to cope with anxiety in task-based pedagogy and practice are discussed.