A Foreign Language Anxiety Scale for Hungarian Learners of English

Berikut ini adalalah rangkuman tentang skala pengukuran kecemasan pada siswa Hungaria yang merupakan bagian dari penelitian mengurangi kecemasan siswa.

Melakukan adaptasi pada penerapan FLCAS terhadap hugarina student sehingga di buatlah HFCAS (Hungaria foreign language anxiety scale).

Penelitian terhadap anxiety sudah dilakukan sejak awal tahun 1970s, yaitu mengenai anxiety pada foreign language or L2 languge. Pada mid 1980s mulai banyak penelitian tentang anxiety dalam domain second language seperti (MacIntyre &Gardner, 1991a; Young, 1991, 1994; MacIntyre, 1999; Horwitz, 2001)

1. Approaching to the study of anxiety in second language learning

Terdapat dua pendekatan dalam anxiety dalam study second language yaitu the anxiety transfer dan unique anxiety (Horwitz & Young, 1991; MacIntyre, 1999, cited in Tóth, 2008)

• The first approach is that the anxiety experienced in an L2 context is simply the transferof other forms of anxiety into the L2 domain
• A unique type of anxiety. This theoretical perspective is based on Gardner’s hypothesis that “a construct of anxiety which is not general but instead is specific to the language acquisition context is related to second language achievement” (1985, p.34)

2. A theoretical model of foreign language anxiety

Horwitz et al. (1986) draw parallels between L2-related anxiety and three related performance anxieties: (1) communication apprehension, (2) test anxiety, and (3) fear of negative evaluation.

Communication apprehension is a type of shyness or fear associated with communicating with people (McCroskey, 1970). In theL2 domain it manifests itself in anxiety about speaking the target language (oral communication anxiety), especially speaking it in public (“stage fright”), and in apprehension about not understanding or misinterpreting L2 messages (receiver anxiety) (Wheeless, 1975). Test anxiety is defined as “the tendency to view with alarm the consequences of inadequate performance in an evaluative situation” (Sarason, 1978, p.214). In the language classroom it refers to worry over frequent testing, which may become a source of frustration for learners, as their proficiency is assessed while it is being acquired. Finally, the third aspect of FLA, fear of negative evaluation is “apprehension about others’ evaluations, the avoidance of evaluative situations, and the expectation that others would evaluate oneself negatively” (Watson & Friend, 1969, p.449). In the FL learning setting it may refer to academic evaluation, as well as to personal evaluations of the learners on the basis of their performance and competence in the L2.

3. Testing and refining the theoretical FLA construct

The development of a theoretical model of FLA was an important step forward in the study of anxiety in language learning. Although Gardner, Clément and associates’ research was also guided by the tacit assumption that language learning produces a unique type of anxiety, as evidenced by the use of measures of anxiety specific to L2 situations in their studies, the concern of that line of research, as MacIntyre & Gardner (1989) pointed out “has been with larger issues of attitudes and motivation, rather than the more specific role of any single construct such as anxiety” (p.42). Therefore, Horwitz et al.’s (1986) has been the first attempt to single out anxiety from the broader context of affective variables and provide a theoretical basis from which research focused directly on anxiety could proceed. This section looks at the findings of studies aimed to test and refine the theoretical FLA construct.

Source: Tóth, Zsuzsa. (2008). A Foreign Language Anxiety Scale for Hungarian Learners of English. WoPaLP 2, 2008.