If you're learning or teaching a foreign language, or simply love languages, then The Anxious Language Learner is a must-read. An expert in the anxiety that often accompanies learning a foreign language, Dr. Taghreed M. Al-Saraj, takes you on the personal journey that led to the shocking discovery of her own language anxiety. She also unravels misconceptions about Saudi Arabia and in particular, the women who call it home. Read this book and you will ... *understand the symptoms and causes of foreign language anxiety. *discover how to coach yourself out of it. *learn how teachers can guide their students through it.

Positive psychology is the scientific study of how human beings prosper and thrive. This is the first book in SLA dedicated to theories in positive psychology and their implications for language teaching, learning and communication. Chapters examine the characteristics of individuals, contexts and relationships that facilitate learning: positive emotional states such as love, enjoyment and flow, and character traits such as empathy, hardiness and perseverance. The contributors present several innovative teaching ideas to bring out these characteristics among learners. The collection thus blends new teaching techniques with cutting-edge theory and empirical research undertaken using qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods approaches. It will be of interest to SLA researchers, graduate students, trainee and experienced teachers who wish to learn more about language learning psychology, individual differences, learner characteristics and new classroom practices.

Already the focus of much interest for 50 years, the study of foreign language learning anxiety (FLLA) still remains a popular research topic among scholars in Western countries. FLLA is believed to be an important cause of students’ “dumb English”. Considering the paucity of monographs on FLLA in China, this book represents an important step towards filling this gap. The author uses his PhD dissertation as a foundation for reviewing and discussing previous literature, as well as the current status of and major issues concerning FLLA worldwide. The book explores FLLA in China by using innovative triangulated research methodology, combining both quantitative and qualitative methods, namely surveys, focused interviews, and classroom observations. It also highlights the significance and implications of the research results and predicts the future of global FLLA research with a particular focus on China. Readers will discover the latest developments and issues concerning FLLA, causes of FLLA, and verified, effective strategies for alleviating such anxiety.

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.

Affect in Foreign Language and Second Language Learning offers high school and college/university second language teachers, or teachers-in-training, practical suggestions for creating activities that take into account learner anxieties, frustrations or discomfort in the language learning process. The objective of the book is to offer concrete instructional approaches for language learning that are rooted in second language acquisition research and, at the same time, that promote a low-anxiety classroom environment. The authors of each chapter are specialists in specific areas of language learning and their essays, composed specifically for this volume, lay the groundwork for continued research on affect in language learning. This text is part of the McGraw-Hill Second Language Professional Series, edited by James F. Lee and Bill VanPatten.

"Finally a comprehensive discussion of language anxiety, this collection of papers considers the points of view of teachers and students as well as of theorists and researchers. What is language anxiety? How does it affect language learners? How is it related to other types of anxiety? What can teachers and program directors do to minimize language anxiety in their classrooms? These and other issues are addressed in this landmark text." -- Back cover.

This guide book is designed in response to the overwhelming need to find some practical techniques to control learners foreign language anxiety and to promote their motivation to learn English as a foreign language. Anxiety-controlling strategies provided in this guide are practical means developed to tackle anxiety sources that usually stem from learner's characteristics, learner's beliefs about learning a foreign language, teacher's characteristics, language testing, classroom atmosphere, learning procedures, etc. Motivation-promoting strategies involve those targeting situation-specific learner motivational dispositions, such as developing a positive relationship with learners; and promoting learner curiosity, self-confidence, and autonomy.

Language Education and Emotions presents innovative, empirical research into the influence of emotions and affective factors in language education, both in L1 and in foreign language education. It offers a comprehensive overview of studies authored and co-authored by researchers from all over the world. The volume opens and ends with "backbone" contributions by two of the discipline’s most reputed scholars: Jane Arnold (Spain) and Jean-Marc Dewaele (United Kingdom). This book broadens our understanding of emotions, including well-known concepts such as foreign language anxiety as well as addressing the emotions that have only recently received scientific attention, driven by the positive psychology movement. Chapters explore emotions from the perspective of the language learner and the language teacher, and in relation to educational processes. A number of contributions deal with traditional, school-based contexts, whereas others study new settings of foreign language education such as migration. The book paints a picture of the broad scale of approaches used to study this topic and offers new and relevant insights for the field of language education and emotions. This book will be of great interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the field of language education, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, and applied linguistics.

This book provides an overview of current theory, research and practice in the field of language anxiety and brings together a range of perspectives on this psychological construct in a single volume. Chapters show that language anxiety can be viewed as a complex and dynamic construct and can be researched using different methods and frameworks.