Foreign Language Reading Anxiety

TLDR

Most foreign‑language anxiety research focuses on oral performance, but this article considers anxiety arising from foreign‑language reading. The study introduces FL reading anxiety, presents a measurement scale, and examines it in 30 first‑semester classes of Spanish, Russian, and Japanese. Results show that reading in a foreign language can provoke anxiety, that anxiety levels differ by target language and writing system, that anxiety rises with perceived difficulty, and that higher anxiety correlates with lower grades.

Abstract

Whereas most discussions of foreign language (FL) anxiety have centered on the difficulties caused by anxiety with respect to oral performance, this article discusses the possibility of anxiety in response to foreign or second language reading. It introduces the construct of FL reading anxiety, offers a scale for its measurement, and reports on a preliminary study of reading anxiety in 30 intact first‐semester classes of Spanish, Russian, and Japanese. The study found that contrary to previous teacher intuitions, reading in a FL can be anxiety provoking to some students. Whereas general FL anxiety has been found to be independent of target language, levels of reading anxiety were found to vary by target language and seem to be related to the specific writing systems. In addition, students’ reading anxiety levels increased with their perceptions of the difficulty of reading in their FL, and their grades decreased in conjunction with their levels of reading anxiety and general FL anxiety.