Anxiety as a Dynamic Individual Difference: Implications for Research and Pedagogy

Abstract Summary

Abstract :

In this presentation, I foreground the dynamic nature of language anxiety (LA); that is, the negative emotional reaction learners experience when using a second language (MacIntyre & Gardner, 1999), by reviewing previous investigations that looked at it as a somewhat static variable in isolation from other systems in the process of language learning. However, recent forays into LA have demonstrated that it is a dynamic individual difference that forms part of an interconnected, fluctuating system that changes unpredictably over time and over multiple time scales. This finding has created challenges for both researchers and practitioners. For researchers, such challenges include re-focusing on individuals rather than groups, re-formulating research questions, re-designing interventions and re-thinking data gathering procedures that consider the dynamic nature of LA. For language teachers, new challenges come in the form of decoding nonverbal behavior to identify moment-by-moment shifts in learner emotion, being cognizant of interacting variables, understanding that LA co-exists with positive emotions to varying degrees and incorporating positive psychology activities that proactively encourage buoyancy and resilience for moment-by-moment daily perturbations as well as debilitating disruptions that result in long-lasting influences.[quotrightB?]‹

Pre-recorded video :