Do prospective primary school teachers suffer from Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA) in Spain?

Abstract

The main aim of this study is to investigate Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA) in relation to the teaching and learning of English as a foreign language. A total of 75 prospective primary school teachers at the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) took part in this study. A small questionnaire that included the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) (Horwitz et al., 1986) was used to collect data. The results of this study show that most participants experience average and high anxiety levels in the language classroom. Communication apprehension was reported to be the main source of FLA, followed by fear of negative evaluation and test anxiety. The findings also revealed the strong association between FLA, motivation, language proficiency and degree of self-confidence. Furthermore, the data indicate that the primary source of speaking anxiety is related to participants’ lack of English proficiency. This may have potential adverse effects on the confidence levels of L2 teachers, their target language use, and their instructional competence (Horwitz, 1996).