Anxiety and L2 self-images : the anxious self
This thesis brings together three studies, beginning with a preliminary qualitative study to survey the scene, and expanding by means of corroboration by an actual survey with a questionnaire, in order to investigate the mechanisms of foreign language anxiety (FLA). Surveying the scene by collecting exploratory qualitative and quantitative data from anxious learners, for gaining new insights from these individuals' perspectives, provided first the insight and then the necessary evidence that reframing anxiety as the ~anxious self~ - anxious about what to do in L2 classes or L2 spoken environments, about how others will respond and about the likelihood of taking successful action in L2 when necessary - might offer a useful approach to link anxiety research to other areas of second language acquisition (SLA), where the importance of the self-concept has been recognised, as well as to clinical psychology, which has long employed relaxation, guided-imagery and systematic de-sensitization in shaping the self-concept of the individual. A five-week intervention programme, based on this new approach, was designed with the purpose of reducing learners' anxiety levels. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative
SÌ§imsÌ§ek, Erdi
BF Psychology ; P Philology. Linguistics
Anxiety and L2 self-images : the anxious self. This thesis brings together three studies, beginning with a preliminary qualitative study to survey the scene, and expanding by means of corroboration by an actual survey with a questionnaire, in order to investigate the mechanisms of foreign language anxiety (FLA). Surveying the scene by collecting exploratory qualitative and quantitative data from anxious learners, for gaining new insights from these individuals' perspectives, provided first the insight and then the necessary evidence that reframing anxiety as the ~anxious self~ - anxious about what to do in L2 classes or L2 spoken environments, about how others will respond and about the likelihood of taking successful action in L2 when necessary - might offer a useful approach to link anxiety research to other areas of second language acquisition (SLA), where the importance of the self-concept has been recognised, as well as to clinical psychology, which has long employed relaxation, guided-imagery and systematic de-sensitization in shaping the self-concept of the individual. A five-week intervention programme, based on this new approach, was designed with the purpose of reducing learners' anxiety levels. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative
anxiety self images anxious self brings_together study_begin preliminary qualitative_study survey scene expand mean actual survey questionnaire order_investigate mechanism foreign_language anxiety surveying scene collect exploratory qualitative_quantitative data anxious learner gain_new insight individual perspective provide_first insight necessary evidence reframing anxiety anxious self anxious class speak environment others respond likelihood take successful action necessary might offer useful link anxiety area second_language_acquisition_sla importance self concept recognise well clinical psychology long employed guided imagery systematic shape self concept individual week intervention programme base new design purpose reduce learner anxiety level using_combination quantitative_qualitative