Foreign Language Anxiety in in-Class Speaking Activities
Two Learning Contexts in Comparison
Alessia Occhipinti Written by

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Hilde Hasselgård A Thesis Presented to The Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages The University of Oslo in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements Autumn Term 2009

Supervised by

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Acknowledgments
Writing this thesis has been a pleasurable process. I am grateful to my supervisor Hilde Hasselgård for her good advice and continuous support they offered. invaluable help throughout the process of writing this thesis, to the University of Oslo and to the University of Cardiff for useful information. I thank my family, mum, dad and Johannes for the

University of Oslo, October 30, 2009

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Table of contents
1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………6
1.1 Motivation……………………………………………………………………………………………………7

2. Theoretical background…………………………………………………………………9
2.1 Foreign Language Anxiety……………………………………………………………………………9 2.1.2 Debilitating and Facilitating Anxiety…………………………………………………………..12 2.1.5 Components and sources of Foreign Language Anxiety ……………………………...16 2.1.4 Different perspectives: Trait, State and Situation Specific Anxiety……………….14 2.1.1 Foreign Language Anxiety in early studies……………………………………………….....11 2.1.3 Foreign Language Anxiety in later studies…………………………………………………..13
2.1.5.2 Test Anxiety………………………………………………………………………………………………....19 2.1.5.3 Fear of Negative Evaluation…………………………………………………………………………..20

2.1.5.1 Communication Apprehension……………………………………………………………………...17

2.2 Speaking Anxiety in the L2 classroom……………………………………………………….23 2.2.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………23 2.2.2.1 Gender………………………………………………………………………………………………25

2.2.2 Sources of speaking anxiety in the L2 classroom………………………………………….24
2.2.2.3 Competitiveness……………………………………………………………………………………………28 2.2.2.6