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Foreign Language Anxiety and the Advanced Language Learner: A Study of Hungarian Students of English as a Foreign Language
Author: Zsuzsa Tóth
Date Of Publication: Oct 2010
Isbn13: 978-1-4438-2377-7
Isbn: 1-4438-2377-5
Does anxiety about learning and using a foreign language decline as learners become more competent in the target language, or is anxiety also relevant at higher levels of proficiency? This is the question Foreign Language Anxiety and the Advanced Language Learner sets out to explore. The aim of the book is to give readers an insight into what role anxiety plays in the language learning and communication processes of advanced language learners. Specifically, the study examines how advanced EFL learners’ foreign language anxiety (FLA) can be characterized; how anxiety relates to other individual differences (cognitive, affective, personality); and explores the relationship between FLA and various aspects of learners’ performance and communication experience in the target language. The research context is Hungary. The findings, however, are not confined to the Hungarian EFL setting. In addition to making a contribution to the clarification of some unresolved issues in language anxiety research—including the role of proficiency in the development of anxiety, the relationship between anxiety and other learner variables, and the much-debated question of whether or not anxiety accounts for differential success in L2 learning—this study has important implications for language teachers as well.
Zsuzsa Tóth (PhD in Language Pedagogy; MSc in Applied Linguistics) is Senior Lecturer at the Institute of English Studies, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Hungary. She is an EFL instructor and teacher trainer. Her research interests include individual differences in second language learning, teacher education issues and EFL teaching methodology.
“Zsuzsa Tóth’s book on foreign language anxiety among advanced learners is a welcome addition to the body of literature on individual differences that influence the success of second language acquisition. The volume presents an interesting research project which investigated the factors that affect and induce anxiety among an under-researched group of learners: university students at high levels of proficiency. Zsuzsa Tóth’s excellent mixed-method study challenges the belief that language learning anxiety is mainly apparent at lower levels of language competence and presents new insights into the nature of anxiety.”
—Dr Judit Kormos, PhD Habil, Senior Lecturer, Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University “The book is a must for everyone interested in the state of the art of foreign language anxiety research and how it can be researched in meaningful ways. I highly recommend the volume to teachers of modern foreign languages, students in MA and doctoral programmes and researchers of individual differences.” —Professor Marianne Nikolov, Chair, Department of English Applied Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, University of Pécs
Price Uk Gbp: 39.99
Price Us Usd: 59.99
Sample pdf (including Table of Contents)
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