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The Stability of General Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety across English and FrenchAuthor(s): Máximo Rodríguez and Orángel AbreuSource: The Modern Language Journal, Vol. 87, No. 3 (Autumn, 2003), pp. 365-374Published by: Wiley on behalf of the National Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations

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The

Stability

f

General

Foreign

Language ClassroomAnxiety cross

English

and

French

MAXIMO RODRIGUEZ

Departamento

e

Lenguas

Modernas

Universidad

e Los

Andes-Trujillo

Villa Universitaria-Elrado

Trujillo-Estado

rujillo

Venezuela

Email: [email protected]

ORANGELBREU

Departamento

e

Lenguas

Modernas

Universidad

e Los

Andes-Trujillo

Villa Universitaria-Elrado

Trujillo-Estado

rujillo

Venezuela

Email:[email protected]

The

present

tudy

xamined the

stability

f the

general foreign

anguage

classroom

nxiety

construct cross

English

and French. Preservice eachersfrom

two westernuniversities

n

Venezuela,

who were

majoring

imultaneously

n

these two

foreign

anguages,

participated

n

the

study.

he

students

epresented variety

f

evelswithin ach

language. They

completed

two

Spanish

versions

one

for each

language)

of

the

Foreign Language

Classroom

Anxiety

Scale

(FLCAS;

Horwitz,

Horwitz,

Cope,

1986).

Separate analyses

were

performed

n the

full

sample

and

on

a

restricted

ample

that ncluded

only

hose

tudents ho were t the

same

evel

in

both

anguages.

The

results

upported

he ndirect

indings

eported y

Saito,Horwitz,

nd

Garza

(1999)

while

providing

irect vidence

suggesting

he

stability

f

the

construct cross

Englishand French.Evidence obtained foroverall,within-institution,nd within-levelom-

parisons.

Furthermore,

nalysis

f

psychometric

echnical

spects

f the FLCAS

indicated

hat

the scale

exhibited

high reliability

ut moderate

onstruct

alidity.

IN THE LAST

2

DECADES,

THERE

HAS BEEN

an

upsurge

of

interest n

foreign

anguage

(FL)

anxiety

by

both FL

researchers

nd educators.

Numerous research

studies have

consistently

yielded

moderate

negative

orrelations

etween

FL

anxiety

nd FL

performance

for

reviews,

ee

Gardner &

MacIntyre,

1993; Horwitz,

2001;

MacIntyre& Gardner, 991;Young,1991). How-

ever,

ausation s

yet

to

be

established

Horwitz,

2000,

2001;

MacIntyre,

995a,

1995b;

Sparks

&

Ganschow, 991,

1993a,

1993b,

1995,

2001).1

Foreign

anguage nxiety

as been

described

s

a

situation-specific

nxiety

arising

from

the

uniqueness

of the

formal

earning

f a

FL,

specifi-

cally

rom

tudents'

ow

elf-appraisal

f

heir om-

municative bilities

n

that

language

(Horwitz,

2001;

Horwitz,

Horwitz,

Cope,

1986).

In

light

f

this

onceptualization

fFL

anxiety,

orwitz t al.

(1986) proposeda model ofthegeneralFL anxi-

ety

onstruct

hat nderlies hree

nterrelated

er-

formance

anxieties:

communication

pprehen-

sion,

test

nxiety,

nd

fear

of

negative

valuation.

The model has been

found o be

structurally

imi-

lar to

othermodels

of

FL

anxiety e.g., MacIntyre

&

Gardner,

989).

Furthermore,

t has

withstood

psychometricnalyses

easonably

well

e.g.,

Aida,

1994;

Cheng,

Horwitz, Schallert,

999).

In

addition o

this

eneral

model

of

FL

anxiety,

Horwitz t al.

(1986)

developed

the

Foreign

Lan-

guage

Classroom

Anxiety

cale

(FLCAS)

to

mea-

sure

the

construct.The

FLCAS

consists of

33

items,

20

of which

focus

on

listening

to

and

speaking

n

a

FL,

a

focus that

reflects

orwitz t

al.'s

conceptualization

f

the

construct. he

scale

has

been

used

primarily

o

assess the

relationship

between

FL

anxiety

nd

some

measures

of FL

achievement,

articularly

inal

grades

e.g.,

Aida,

1994;Horwitz,1986;Rodriguez,1995) and oral

performance

e.g.,

Phillips,

992;

Young,

1986).

Although

L

anxiety

esearch

sing

the

FLCAS

has

yielded

consistent

indings,

ome

important

theoretical

oncerns

have been

raised. One

of

TheModern

anguageJournal,

7, ii,

2003)

0026-7902/02/365-374

1.50/0

@2003

TheModern

anguage

ournal

This content downloaded from 147.91.209.23 on Fri, 7 Feb 2014 08:30:16 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions






366

The

Modern

anguage

ournal

7 (2003)

these

concerns

has to

do with the

adequacy

of

using

the FLCAS

to

identify

spects

of

language

learning

other than

speaking

that are

anxiety-

provoking

for some

individuals.

Recently,

t-

tempts

ave

been made to examine

this

ssue.

For

example, Chengetal. (1999) used theFLCAS in

combination

with he

Second

Language

Writing

Anxiety

Test

(SLWAT)

to

investigate

he

con-

structs f

general

FL

anxiety

nd FL

writing

nxi-

ety,

ncluding

their

conceptual

links.

Likewise,

Saito,Horwitz,

nd Garza

(1999)

used the

FLCAS

and the

Foreign

Language

Reading

Anxiety

cale

(FLRAS)

to

assess

whether L

reading

nxiety

as

a

construct istinct

rom

eneral

FL

anxiety.

Another

nteresting, et

unexplored,

theoreti-

cal

concern

deals

with he

stability

f

the

FL

anxi-

etyconstruct cross languages.Does FL anxiety

vary

ccording

to a

specific

arget

anguage

or

is

it

independent

of

the

native

anguage-FL

pair-

ing?

Horwitz

2001)

contended that

general

FL

anxiety

mightvary

n

different

ultural

groups.

She

noted

that

whereas

American FL

learners

have

exhibited imilar

evels of FL

anxiety,

ome

EFL

learners

have

been

found

to

possess

either

relatively

igher

or

lower

nxiety

evels.

At

present,

he

only

ublished

tudy

hat

has

ad-

dressed the

stability

ssue has

been

by

Saito

et al.

(1999). Inaddition oexploring heconceptofFL

reading nxiety

s

distinct

rom

eneral

FL

anxiety

and

examining

method or

measuring

t,

aitoet

al.

investigated

hether

he

general

FL

anxiety

s

measured

by

the

FLCAS

varied

according

to

the

specific

arget

anguage.

n

their

tudy,

merican

students

from

30

intact

first-semester

lasses of

French,

apanese,

nd Russian

were

sked to

com-

plete

both

the

FLCAS

and the

FLRAS.

The

re-

searchers

hen

compared

the

general

FL

anxiety

among

the

three

groups

of

earners

y

ubmitting

their

cores

on the

FLCAS to

a

one-way

NOVA.

The

analysis

yielded

a

statistically

onsignificant

difference

mong

the

groups.

The

researchersn-

terpreted

he

finding

s

indicating

hat

he

evels

of

general

FL

anxiety

id not

depend

on

the

spe-

cific

arget

anguage

and

claimed that

his

inding

was

consistent

ith

hoseof

previous

tudies

sing

the

FLCAS

(e.g.,

Aida,

1994;

Horwitz,

986).

It is

interesting,

owever,

hat

none of

the

pre-

vious

tudies

ited

by

Saito et al.

(1999)

examined

the

stability

ssue.

Furthermore,

heir

research

design

was

not

appropriate

for

nvestigating

he

stabilityssuebecause,in their tudy,ach group

of

learners

was

studying

different

L,

and

the

studentswere

not

randomly

laced

in

the

three

FL

classes.

Thus,

the

evidence

provided

by

Saito

et

al. is

at

best

ndirect.

irect

evidence

would

be

provided,

or

xample,by

omparing

he

evels

f

general

FL

anxiety

mong

students

who

were

learning

imultaneously

wo

or more

FLs,

which

was the

purpose

of the

present tudy. pecifically,

the

present tudy

nvestigated

he extent

o

which

the levels

of

general

FL

anxiety

iffered

mong

college

studentswhowere

simultaneously

earn-

ing

English

nd French

s

FLs.

METHOD

Participants

The

participants

n

the

present

tudy

were

110

preservice

anguage

teachers

who

were

simulta-

neously

majoring

n

English

and

French

n

two

western

niversitiesn

Venezuela.2

Of these

stu-

dents,72 were fromLa Universidaddel Zulia

(LUZ)

and 38 from

a

Universidad

e Los

Andes

(ULA).

There

were

91 females

and

19

males.

Their

ages

ranged

from

16 to 40

years

ld

(M

=

21.83, SD

=

4.13).

Based

upon

their

nstructors'

reports,

none exhibited

language

disabilities.

The

sample

included

students

rom

variety

f

levelswithin

ach

language.

Only

76 out of

the

110 students

69.09%)

were at

the same level

n

both

anguages.

Materials

Two

Spanish

versions

f the FLCAS

(one

for

each

language)

were

used

in the

present

tudy.

n

addition,

the term

foreign

anguage

sed in

the

original

FLCAS

was

replaced

with either

Ingls

(English)

or

Frances

French).

Thus

item

1,

for

example,

read as follows:

unca

me

iento

eguro(a)

de mi

mismo(a)

uando

hablo n

ngMs

nd

Nunca

me

siento

eguro(a)

de

mi

mismo(a)

cuando

hablo

en

Frances

I

never

feel

quite

sure of

myself

hen

I

am

speaking

n

English/French),

n

the

versions

to measure

English

nd French

general

FL

anxi-

ety,

espectively.

he FLCAS

includes

33

items,

scored

on a

5-point

Likert

scale,

ranging

from

stronglygree

o

strongly

isagree.

ence,

the

theo-

retical

range

of the FLCAS

is from

33 to

165.

Furthermore,

background

questionnaire,

n-

cluding

some

demographic

nformation

uch

as

gender,

age,

language

level,

and

college

affili-

ation,

was

also used

in this

tudy.

Procedure

Both

versions

of

the

FLCAS

and the

demo-

graphic

questionnaire

were

administered

uring

the

students'

regular

class

time.

To

control

for

order

effect,

he two

adapted

versions of

the

FLCAS were

counterbalanced.








Mdximo

odriguez

nd

Ordngel

breu

367

RESULTS

The scores that

generated

from the

two

adapted

versions f the

FLCAS

were

consistent.

Cronbach's

alpha

coefficient,

measureof

nter-

nal consistency, as computedforeach version,

yielding

oefficients f .90 for both

versions

of

the

FLCAS.

In

addition,

point

multiserial

orrela-

tion

alpha

coefficients

PMSCACs)

were

com-

puted

for

ach version f the

FLCAS,

bydeleting

one item t a time

nd

then

omputing

he result-

ing

alpha

coefficient.

he

computed

PMSCACs

for

ach version f

the FLCAS

ranged

from

89 to

.90,

indicating

that each item

was

contributing

equally

to

the scales.

Analysis

ith he

ull

Sample

In

order to

investigate

whether he

levels of

general

FL

anxiety

varied

across

English

and

French,

overall and

within-institution

ompari-

sons

were

omputedusing

eparate

paired

ample

t

tests.

For

the

three

resulting omparisons,

he

alpha

levelwas

set

t

p

<

.017 for ach

of the three

significant

ests,

o

provide

he same

level of

pro-

tection

as

.05

for a

single significant

est--note

that

1-.017)3

=

(1-.05).

Means,

standard

devia-

tions, nd samplens re shown nTable 1.

No

statisticallyignificant

ifference

as found

between

overall

levels of

general

English

and

French

anxieties,

(109)

=

-1.73,

p

>

.08. The

statistically

onsignificant

difference

between

these

two overall

general

FL

anxieties

is

illus-

trated n

Figure

1.

Similarly,

o

statisticallyignificant

ifference

was

found between

the

two

general

FL

anxieties

in

either

nstitution,

(37)

=

.76,

p

>

.44 for

ULA,

and

t(71)

=

-1.54,

p

>

.12

for

LUZ,

respectively.

These results re illustratednFigure2.

Because

about

one-third

f

the

participants

n

the

full data set

were

taking

more

advanced

classes

in

one

language

than

in

the

other,

not

allowing

direct

xamination

f the

stability

ssue

within

evels,

a

restricted

ata set was

analyzed

after

deleting

those cases.

Hence,

the

restricted

data

set

ncluded

only

hose tudents

who were

t

the same level

n both

anguages.

t was

assumed

that f the results

f both the full and

restricted

sample

analyses

were

imilar,

onfidence

ould

be

taken n thefindings.

Analysis

ith he estricted

ample

Overall,

within-institutions

nd

within-level

comparisons

were

performed,

using

separate

paired

sample

ttests. ue

to the number f

sepa-

rate

t

tests

15),

the

significance

evel for

these

testswas

adjusted

to

p

< .003

(i.e.,

p

< .05 for

ll

15

tests).

The

pattern

f resultswas identical

to

thatof the full

ample.

As illustratedn Figure3, overall

general

En-

glish nxiety

id not differ

tatistically

rom

ver-

all

general

French

anxiety,

(75)

=

-1.08,

p

>

.28.

Overall within-level

omparisons

yielded

similar

indings.

Means,

standard

deviations,

nd

level

ns are

presented

n Table

2.

No

statistically

ignificant

differences

were

foundbetween

general

English

nd

French

nxi-

etieswithin

evels,

(21)

=

.12,

p

>

.90,

t(7)

=

.36,

p

>

.72,

t(19)

=

.11,

p

>

.91,

and

t(25)

=

-2.22,

p

> .03 for

evels

,

2,

3,

and

5,

respectively.

nspec-

tionofFigure furtherllustrateshefindings.

Similarly,

mean

differencewithin

ollege

also

yielded

a

statistically

onsignificant

ifference,

t(32)

=

-.28,

p

>

.78 and

t(42)

=

-1.08,

p

>

.28,

respectively

orULA

and LUZ

(see

Figure

5).

Further

omparisons

within

evel in

each

col-

lege

confirmed he

stability

f

the

general

FL

anxiety

onstruct.

Means

and

standard

eviations

by

evels

t each

college

are

presented

n

Table

3.

None of the mean

differences

eached

statistical

significance.

Other

indings

The

construct

alidity

f

the

FLCAS

was

also

investigated

n

the

present

tudy.

n

order to

ex-

amine

it,

the

relationship

between the

English

TABLE 1

English

nd

French

Anxiety

core

by

College,

ull

Sample

English

nxiety

French

Anxiety

College

M

SD

n

M

SD

n

ULA

86.87

18.38

38

89.16

19.06

38

LUZ

85.51

22.41

72

89.97

20.76

72

Overall

85.98

21.03

110

89.69

20.11

110

Note.

Maximum

core

=

165.

ULA

=

Universidad

e

Los

Andes;

LUZ

=

Universidad

el

Zulia.








368

TheModern

anguage

ournal

7

(2003)

FIGURE

1

Plotof OverallMeans

of

English

nd French

Anxiety

cores,

ull

Sample

120

115

110

105

100

95

90

S85

80

75

5

70

2

65

60

55

50

45

40

35

English

French

and

French

anxiety

cores

for

both the full

and

therestricted

amples

wasassessed

by

computing

Pearson

product-moment

correlation

coeffi-

cients.

Because the

reliability

f the

scores

gener-

ated

by

the

scales

was

not

perfect

.90),

the raw

correlation

oefficientsn

Table

4

were

corrected

for

attenuation

Huck

&

Cormier,

1996;

Ped-

hazur &

Pedhazur, 991).

As

Table

4

indicates,

ll

correlation

oefficients

ere

positive

nd

statisti-

cally

ignificant,

ut moderate

n

magnitude.

Finally,

ecause

the

two

niversity

amples

were

likely

not

equivalent

on the

proficiency

evel,

a

partial

correlation

nalysis

o

controlfor

such a

difference as

performed

n the

restricted am-

FIGURE

2

Plot

of

Meansof

English

nd

French

Anxiety

cores

by

College,

ull

Sample

120

115

110

105

100

95

5

0

0

75

,

Fe

65

55. .

45

]

nglish

45

40

35rench

Universidad de Los Andes Universidad del

Zulia








Mdximo

odriguez

nd

Ordngel

breu

369

FIGURE 3

Plotof OverallMeansof

English

nd French

Anxiety

cores,

Restricted

ample

120

115

110

105

100

95

90

S85

80

m

75

70

a

65

60

55

50

m

45

40

35

English

French

ple.

The

observed

partial

correlation

oefficient

was also

positive

nd

statisticallyignificant,

ut

moderate r = .469,

df=

73,

p

<

.001).

DISCUSSION

The

present

tudy

xamined

directly

heextent

to

which he

evelsof

general

FL

anxiety

iffered

across

English

nd

French.

The

results

with oth

the

full nd

restricted

amplesyielded

tatistically

nonsignificant

ifferences,

ndicating

hat

these

results

were

likely

o

occur

under

the null

hy-

pothesis

and

in

samples

of

different

izes.

The

findings btained foroverall,within-institution,

and

within-level

omparisons.

The

results f

the

present

tudy

upported

nd

extended

the

findings

f a

previous

tudy y

Saito

et

al.

(1999).

In their

tudy,

aito

et al. found

that

statistically

he

levels of

general

FL

anxiety

of

their

participants

3

groups

of

Americans,

ach

learning

a different

L)

did

not differ

ignifi-

cantly.

It is

interesting,

owever,

hat

n the

present

study,

he overallmeans

and standard

deviations

for

general

French

anxiety

n both

the full

nd

restricted

amples

were

relatively

maller

han

he

mean

and standard

eviation

eported

n Saito

et

al.

(1999).4

Because

the

participants

n Saito

et

al.'s

study

were enrolled

n

first-semester

niver-

sity

ourses,

nspection

of

the

average

general

Frenchanxiety f Level 1 studentsn the

present

study

ould

further

larify

his ssue.

This

inspec-

tion indicated

thatthe mean

French

anxiety

f

Level

1

students

n the

present

study

was

even

TABLE

2

English

nd

French

Anxiety

core

by

Level,

Restricted

ample

English

nxiety

French

Anxiety

Level

M

SD

n

M

SD

n

1 86.45 25.28 22 86.05 20.46 22

2

88.75

24.29

8

84.25

25.42

8

3

88.85

19.17

20

88.45

15.81

20

5

82.81 18.64

26

92.62

20.01

26

Overall

86.08

21.20

76

88.74

19.59

76

Note.

Maximum

core

=

165.








370

The

Modern

anguage

ournal

7

(2003)

FIGURE 4

Plot

of

Means

of

English

and French

Anxiety

cores

by

Level,

Restricted

ample

120

115

110

105

100

95

o

90

a

85

-

80

?

75

S70

65

60

55

50

45

I English

40

35

AmFrench

1 2

3 5

Level

FIGURE 5

Plot

of

Means

of

English

and French

Anxiety

cores

by College,

Restricted

ample

120

115m

1101

105

100

95

8

90

C

85

S 801.....

S75

S70

65

60

55

50

Li

English

45

40

40.

French

351a

Universidade Los Andes Universidadel Zulia








Mdximo

Rodnrguez

nd

Ordngel

breu

371

TABLE 3

English

nd

French

Anxiety

core

byCollege

nd

Level,

Restricted

ample

English nxiety

French

Anxiety

College

Level

M

SD n

M

SD

n

1 74.42 14.87 12 76.75 17.32 12

ULAa

3

90.42

14.98

12

89.08 13.99

13

5

94.38

14.00 8 93.50

120.52

8

Overall

84.39 17.45

33

85.15

15.80

33

1

100.90

28.20

10

97.20

18.88

10

LUZ

2

94.00

20.76

7

86.00

26.93

7

3

86.50

25.19

8

87.50

19.21 8

5

77.67

18.41

18

92.22 23.30

18

Overall 87.37

23.80

43 91.49

21.85

43

Note.

Maximum core

=

165.

ULA

=

Universidad e Los

Andes;

LUZ

=

Universidad el

Zulia.

a

Because there

was

only

ne

case for

nglish

at

ULA,

no

datawere

eported

or

hat evel.

smaller

han

the overall

French

nxiety

means of

either he

fullor the

restricted

ample.

The

lower evelsof

English

nd

French

nxiety

in

the

present

tudy

elative o

those

reported

n

previous

tudies

utilizing

he FLCAS

(Aida,

1994;

Horwitz,

1986;

Saito

et

al.,

1999)

suggest

that

general

FL

anxiety

may

be

related in

complex

ways

to a

number

of

affective,

ognitive,

nd

demographic

variables,

ncluding

earners'

moti-

vation,

aptitude,

attitudes,

previous

language

learning experiences,

culture,

classroom

activi-

ties,

nd

instructors'

ersonal

characteristicsnd

behaviors,

o

name

but

a

few.The

complexity

f

some of

these

relationships

s

succinctly

de-

scribed

by MacIntyre

1995a)

as

recursive,

r

cy-

clical,

where

each

influences he

other.

Given

such a

complexity,

t

follows

that the

present

findings

ould be

accounted for

by

a

number

of variables

or

by

their

nteractions,

r

both.

Motivation,

or

example,

seems to

be a

good candidate. Motivationand anxietyhave

been

found to

have

opposite

effects n FL

learn-

ing.

Whereas

motivation

romotes

FL

learning,

anxiety

mpairs

t. In

their

1992

study,

ardner,

Day,

nd

MacIntyre

xamined

the

effects f

nte-

grative

motivation-an

aggregate

of seven

mea-

sures-and

induced

anxiety

n the

learning

of

French

vocabulary.They

found

statistically

ig-

nificant

negative

correlations

between

all

the

anxiety

measures

nd

integrated

motivation;

hat

is,

those students

who were

integratively

oti-

vated

reported

ess

anxiety

han those

who

were

not

ntegratively

otivated.

This

findingmight xplain,

t east

n

part, he

relatively

ow levels

of

general

FL

anxiety

n

the

present

tudy

nd

thefact hat

he

evelof

English

anxiety

s

similar

o that

reported

by

Rodriguez

(1995).

In

previous

tudies,

he

majority

f

stu-

dents were

taking

FL classes

as a

language

re-

quirement.

ndeed,

62%

of the French

students

in Saito

et

al.'s

(1999)

study eported

that

they

were

taking

French

as a

language requirement.

By

contrast,

he

earners

n

the

present

tudy

nd

in

Rodriguez's

(1995)

study

were

committed

o

becoming

FL teachers

nd

were

therefore

ikely

to be more integratively otivated han those

learnersfrom

revious

tudies.

Although

ntegrative

otivation

s

appealing

as

a

source

of

explanation,

other

variables

readily

come

to mind. One

such

variable s

culture.

As

TABLE 4

Raw

nd

Corrected

orrelation

oefficients

etween

nglish

nd

French

Anxiety

cores

Full

Sample

Restricted

ample

College

n Rawr

p

Corrected

n

Rawr

p

Corrected

ULA

38

.514

.001

.571

33

.565

.001

.627

LUZ

72

.357

.002 .397

43

.398

.008

.442

Overall

110

.400

.001

.444

76

.450

.001

.500

Note.

LA

=

Universidad

e

Los

Andes;

LUZ

=

Universidad

el

Zulia.








372

TheModern

anguage

ournal

7 (2003)

stated

earlier,

Horwitz

2001)

has

reported

rela-

tively

ifferentmeans on

the

FLCAS

for

various

cultural

groups.

WhereasAmericans

have

exhib-

ited similar

evels

of FL

anxiety,

Korean

EFL

learners

have exhibited

higher

evels,

nd Turk-

ish learners of

English

somewhat ower levels.

Because

Rodriguez's

1995)

study

nd our

study

both

focus

on

Venezuelan

learners,

we

might

speculate

about

whether

Venezuelans tend to

be

more

outgoing

nd less

anxious than

Americans

or

Koreans

and

may

resemble

Turkish

anguage

learners

with

espect

o

language

anxiety.

The

possibility

hat

pre-

and

inservice

FL

teachers

would have

lower

levels of

anxiety

might

also be

considered a

plausible

explana-

tion.

Whereas the

participants

n

the

present

study nd in Rodriguez's 1995) studywerepre-

service

FL

teachers,

significant

majority

f

the

participants

n

previous

tudies

had

enrolled

in

a

FL

class as a

language

requirement.

n a

pre-

liminary

tudy,

we

recently

ound

that a

group

of FL

teachers

reported

very

ow

levels of anxi-

ety.

urther

nalyses

ndicated

thatthe

reported

levels of

anxiety

were

ndependent

of

the

teach-

ers'

educational

evel,

teaching

context,

ender,

and

years

of

experience.

However,

we

might

r-

gue

that

higher

evelsof

aptitude

nd

motivation

among pre-and inserviceFL teachers re likely

to be the

major

causes

of

such

relatively

ow

lev-

els of

anxiety.

Although

n

the

present

study

there

was no

statistically

ignificant

ifference

between

gen-

eral

English

and

French

anxieties,

he

fact

that

the

participants

xhibited

omewhat

higher

ev-

els

of

French

anxiety

s

noteworthy.

his

finding

might

be at

least

partially

ccounted

for

by

the

students'

differing

evelsof

ability

n the

two

FLs.

Prior to

entering

ollege,

these

earners

had re-

ceived

considerably

more

training n English

than

in

French.

Whereas all

the

participants

n

the

present

study

had

studied

English

4

hours

a

week

for a

period

of

at

least 3

years

n

secon-

dary

school,

only

some

of

them

had

studied

French 4

hours a

week

for

2

years.5

ence,

it is

very

ikely

that

the

participants

n

the

present

study

were

more

proficient

n

English

than

in

French.

The

college

anxiety

means

across

evels

yielded

mixed

findings.

n

one

of the

colleges

ULA),

the

students'

nxiety

ncreased

s

they

ook

more

ad-

vancedFL courses,whereas n theother

college

(LUZ)

a

reversed

rendwas

observed.

Although

we

are

not

able

to

explain

this

outcome

at

pres-

ent,

we

speculate

that an

investigation

f

class-

room

activities

nd of

nstructors'

ersonal

char-

acteristics

nd

behaviors s in

Rodriguez's 1997)

study

might

help clarify

hese otherwise

onflict-

ing

results.

The fact

that the

present study

was

the

first

attempt

o

investigate

irectly

he

stability

f

FL

anxiety

nd the fact

that all

the

languages

in-

volved

(Spanish,

English,

nd

French)

are

cog-

nates and

use the Roman

alphabet

both

warrant

further esearch.

The inclusion

of both

semicog-

nate

and

noncognate

languages

in future

re-

search

will

yield

relevant

nsights

nto

the

stability

issue.

The results

f

this

tudy

ave

important

heo-

retical

implications

regarding

the

stability

f

other

specific

nxieties

forvarious

spects

of

FL

learning.

n recent

years,

pecific

nxiety

ypes

distinguishable

rom hemore

general

FL

anxiety

have been foundforwritingChengetal., 1999)

and

reading

(Saito

et

al.,

1999).

However,

whether

hese

specific

ypes

f

anxiety

re

inde-

pendent

of the

specific

target

anguage

scripts

and

writing

ystem

s an

empirical uestion.

So

far,

lthough

he

stability

f

FL

writing

nxi-

ety

has

not been

investigated,

hat

of

reading

anxiety

has been examined

only

by

Saito

et

al.

(1999).

These researchers

ound

that

FL

reading

anxiety

varied

by

target

anguage.

As

they

had

predicted,

apanese

provoked

tatistically

ignifi-

canthigher evelsofreadinganxiety haneither

Russian

or

French.

Nonetheless,

ontrary

o

their

expectations,

he

group

ofAmerican

earners

n-

rolled

n French classes

exhibited

statisticallyig-

nificant

higher

levels

of

reading

anxiety

than

their

ounterparts

n Russian

lasses.

t s

nterest-

ing

to note

that the

item

by

item

analysis

per-

formed

n

the FLRAS indicated

that he two

hy-

pothesized

causes

of

FL

reading

anxiety,

amely

unfamiliar

cripts

nd

culture,

did not

seem

to

account

for he

findings.

However, hefindings eportedbySaito et al.

(1999),

albeit

interesting,

ave

to be

taken

cau-

tiously, iven

the

methodological

imitations

f

their esearch

design.

As stated

arlier,

heir

par-

ticipants

ere

not

randomly

ssigned

o the

three

FL

classes.

Hence,

comparison

mong

the

groups

was

statistically

nappropriate.

In

sum,

research

on the

stability

f

general

FL

anxiety

s in its

infancy.

Although

the

present

findings

uggest

the

stability

f

the

construct

across

English

nd

French,

his s

the

first

mpiri-

cal

study

hat

peaksdirectly

o the

ssue.

There-

fore,

any

conclusion

regarding

the

stability

f

either

he

general

FL

anxiety

r

the

specific

nxi-

eties

s

premature.

As

for the

FLCAS,

the results

of

the

present

study

provide

a

significant

ontribution

o

the

field

by

extending

he

reliability

nd

validity

s-








Mdximo

Rodnrguez

nd

Ortdngel

breu

373

pects

of the scale

to

new

populations,

native

Spanish-speaking

tudents

imultaneously

earn-

ing

two

FLs,

English

nd French.

The scores

gen-

erated from he two

dapted

versions

f the scale

exhibited

high

internal

consistency, findingsimilar to those observed in

previous

studies

(e.g.,

Aida,

1994;

Cheng

et

al.,

1999).

However,

the

correlation

oefficients

hatreflected he ex-

tent

to

which

the

relative

position

of the

scores

differed ere

moderate n

magnitude,

ndicating

only

moderate

degree

of construct

alidity.

LIMITATIONS

Although

he

findings eported

n the

present

study re theoreticallyelevant, here exist cer-

tain imitations hatmustbe

kept

n

mind

n

their

interpretation.

irst

nd foremosts the

question

of

generalizability.

he

languages

nvolved

n

the

present tudy

i.e.,

Spanish,English,

nd

French)

are

cognates

and use a Roman

alphabet.

There-

fore,

future esearch

should include both

semi-

cognate

and

noncognate

languages

as

well

as

nonalphabetic languages.

Likewise,

the

partici-

pants

were

studentsfrom

only

two universities

and

were not

randomly

elected.

A related imitation s thehomogeneityf the

samples

in the

present tudy.

Both the

full and

restricted

amples

exhibited smaller

variability

relativeto those

reported

n

previous

research

(e.g.,

Aida, 1994;

Saito et

al.,

1999),

which

might

have

oweredboth the reliabilitiesnd

the

validity

of

the scores

generatedby

the FLCAS.

The list of

potential xplanations

for the out-

comes offeredhere is

by

no means

exhaustive.

Furthermore,

ecause no

data were

gathered

n

motivation,

ptitude, revious

anguage earning

experiences, nd cultural spects, hese ccounts,

although

plausible,

re

only

peculative.

Finally,

he

general

anxiety

to

performance

situation f

our

subjects

was not

measured.

Thus,

it s

possible

that ome of

them

may

have anxious

personalities.

owever,

here s no

reason to con-

clude

that

hey

ave

any

more or ess

anxiety

han

the

general

tudent

opulation.

This s an

empiri-

cal

question

for

further

esearch.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors

would like

to

express

their

gratitude

o

Mark

Sadoski,

Victor

Willson,

Elaine

Horwitz,

nd

the

anonymous

eviewers or heir

nsightful

omments

n

earlier

drafts f

this

manuscript.

NOTES

1For

many

years,

heoretical

xplanations

for

ndi-

vidual differencesn FL

learning

focused on

affective

variables,ncluding ttitudes,motivation,nd anxiety.

However,

Sparks,

Ganschow,

and their

collaborators

(e.g., Sparks

&

Ganschow,1991, 1993a, 1993b, 1995,

2001;

Sparks,

Ganschow,

&

Javorsky,

000)

have

strongly uestioned

the

explanatory

ower

of

affective

variables,

articularly

f

anxiety. hey

proposed

the

FL

Linguistic oding

Deficit

Hypothesis

LCDH)

as an

al-

ternative o affective

xplanations.Briefly,

he

LCDH

posits

that:

(a)

native

anguage learning ability

i.e.,

language aptitude)

s the

foundation

or

earning

FL;

(b)

difficulties

n

coding

the

phonological/ortho-

graphic component

of

language

are

likely

o have

a

negative

ffect n

both native

anguage

and FL learn-

ing;

and

(c)

affective

ariables,

nd FL

anxiety

n

par-

ticular,

re

consequences

of

having

FL

learning

diffi-

culties.

Recently,

MacIntyre

1995a,

1995b)

and Horwitz

(2000, 2001)

have

responded

o the criticisms

dvanced

by

Sparks,

Ganschow,

nd their

olleagues by

arguing

for the existenceof

language anxiety

ndependent

of

processing

deficits nd that

uch reactionshinder the

FL

learning process. Although they

cknowledge

he

merits f the

LCDH,

they

egard

t as an

oversimplified

view of

language learning

because it

neglects

he lan-

guage learning

ontext nd the

potential

ffect

f social

context n

cognitive rocesses.

2 n

Venezuela,

only

La

Universidad entralde

Vene-

zuela

(the

largest)

offers he

possibility

f

majoring

n

any

two

FLs

out of

ix,

ncluding nglish,

rench,

ortu-

guese,

talian,German,

nd

Russian.The

otheruniver-

sities offer ither

simultaneous

tudy

of

English

and

French

e.g.,

LUZ,

ULA)

or

Englishonly.

3

The

sample

consisted f

students rom

our ourse

levels:Level

1, 2, 3,

and

5. The first

hree

represented

progressively

ore advanced

levels of the FL

(i.e.,

se-

mesters

1, 2,

and

3,

respectively).

evel 5

comprised

students rom he fifth

emester

nd above

who were

takingmore advanced courses of undergraduateFL

study,

ncluding omposition,

iterature,

nd

linguistic

courses.Level

4

was not

ncluded n the

sample

because

it is

offered t LUZ

but not at

ULA. Because FL

profi-

ciency

was not

assessed,

anguage

evel was

interpreted

as an

indicator f

anguage

proficiency.

4

The

overall evelsof

general

French

nxiety

ound

in

the

present

tudy

orthe

full nd

restrictive

amples

were

respectively

M

=

89.69,

SD

=

20.11

and

M

=

88.74,

SD

=

19.59),

whereas

that n

Saito et al.

(1999)

was

(M

=

97.44,

SD

=

23.06).

5

Secondary

education in

Venezuela is a

5-year

ro-

gram Grades7 to11). In thefirst years, nglish sthe

only

FL

taught.Up

until

recently,

t wasalso

taught

n

Grades 10 and

11

if

tudents

elf-selectedscience-ori-

ented

program.By

contrast,

rench

was

only

taught

n

a

humanities-oriented

rogram

n

Grades 10 and 11.

Based on

our

experience

as

English

as a

foreign

an-

guage

teachers,

we

found that t is

quite

common for








374 TheModern

anguage

ournal

7

(2003)

students

with science

orientation o enroll n

college

FL

programs.

REFERENCES

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Y.

(1994).

Examination f

Horwitz,Horwitz,

nd

Cope's

construct f

foreign anguage

anxiety:

he

case of

tudents

fJapanese.

Modern

LanguageJour-

nal, 78,

155-168.

Cheng,

Y

S.,

Horwitz, . K.,

&

Schallert,

. L.

(1999).

Language

writing nxiety:

ifferentiating

riting

and

speaking

omponents.

anguage earning,

9,

417-446.

Gardner,

R.

C.,

Day,J.

B.,

&

MacIntyre,

. D.

(1992).

Integrative

motivation,

nduced

anxiety,

nd lan-

guage

learning

n a

controlled

nvironment.

tud-

ies nSecond anguageAcquisition,4,197-214.

Gardner,

R.

C.,

&

MacIntyre,

.

D.

(1993).

On the

mea-

surement

f

ffectiveariables n

second

anguage

learning.

Language

earning,

3,

157-194.

Horwitz,

.

K.

(1986).

Preliminary

videncefor

he reli-

ability

nd

validity

f a

foreign

anguage

anxiety

scale. TESOL

Quarterly,

0,

559-562.

Horwitz,

E.

K. (2000).

It

ain't

over 'til it's

over:

On

foreign

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irst

anguage

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