The relationship of language anxiety and English learners’ accentedness, comprehensibility, and speech rate across three communication tasks

Past research has demonstrated a mostly negative relationship between language anxiety (LA) and second language (L2) performance (see Horwitz, 2017). Few studies have examined anxiety's relationship with L2 pronunciation specifically. Most of these have examined foreign language, not L2, learners (e.g., Baran-Łucarz, 2014). More research is needed to determine whether anxiety differs across communication tasks and types of learners. Thus, the goal of this study was to examine how LA is associated with L2 learner pronunciation features during different communication tasks. Thirty-seven intermediate-high English learners at an intensive English institute participated in three tasks: a formal academic oral exam, a paired classroom activity, and a formal interview with an unfamiliar native speaker. They also completed the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) and measured their state anxiety before each task. Three measures were examined: speech rate, accentedness, and comprehensibility. Repeated measures ANOVA revealed that state anxiety levels differed significantly across tasks, F (2,72) = 7.18, p = .001, η²_p = .166, with greater anxiety for high-stakes testing compared to speaking with a native speaker or participating in the paired classroom activity. Similarly, speech rate differed across communication tasks as well, F (2, 72) = 3.46, p = .037, η²p = .088, with the highest rate for the native speaker interview. Moreover, state anxiety was significantly correlated with accentedness in high stakes testing, and speech rate was correlated with FLCAS scores during pair classwork. Results suggest that the effects of anxiety may depend on the communication task and types of L2 learner.