Language Anxiety: How Xenoglossophobia May Be Holding You Back From Reaching Your Language Goals.

Learning a foreign language is often a fun and exciting experience. 

However, a rarely addressed problem area of learning and teaching foreign languages is xenoglossophobia. Xenoglossophobia also termed as foreign language anxiety is the feeling of uneasiness, worry, nervousness, and apprehension in learning, using, or speaking foreign languages.

Foreign language anxiety is attributed to a number of causes. Research indicates that the level of difficulty in some language classes or situations, the student's own perception of their language level, learners’ personality attributes (such as perfectionism, or fear of public speaking), and stressful past language experiences are all possible causes of language anxiety. Though we can look at several different factors that may cause someone to experience foreign language anxiety, we do not know for sure why it happens.

It is estimated that a third of all second language learners will experience language anxiety at least at one point. 

So, what is language anxiety? 

Fear is an emotional, physical response or reaction to a clear foreseen and present danger of harm and affects the ability to focus and think. Anxiety arises as a negative emotional response to anticipated events and has cognitive as well as controlling elements. 

The cognitive aspect is what interferes with academic performance (such as exam anxiety). The ability to concentrate, focus, and think are also affected. When you start to feel anxious it generates potential negative outcomes, often a result of an elaborate cognitive process.

So, what can you do to help deal with language anxiety? 

Start small and keep building confidence with little steps. 

You can do this by writing down all the tasks that you would love to be able to achieve. Order them from the easiest, most simple tasks to the most difficult or anxiety-provoking (where you would like to be). 

Think about where you want to be and how far you have come. 

When you complete the easiest tasks, write down or make a note of how you felt doing it, before, during, and after. Keep doing those simple tasks until you are able to move on to the next task. 

You will benefit by carrying out these small speaking exercises and making them a part of your routine. It could be something as simple as speaking in front of the mirror or recording yourself speaking and sharing it with your teacher. You can practice role-play situations with your teacher and friends or family. Then take the next step and order your favourite drink in a restaurant, pay for your shopping in the supermarket, or ask someone for directions. 

Speaking in front of a group or in front of other people and holding a conversation can be really daunting.

One of the hardest parts for me is being able to keep up with a conversation in a second language, especially when the conversation is between a large group of friends. There are so many aspects of the conversation I need to comprehend. I am thinking: ‘What does this slang word mean?’, ‘what tense are they using?’, ‘who/what are they talking about?, ‘was that a joke?, ‘am I supposed to be laughing too?’. Before I am even able to answer these questions in my head and comprehend, the conversation has moved on to something else. When you do find the confidence to say the sentences you have prepared in your mind, you stop midway through the story or sentences and get completely lost. Then, the anxiety kicks in. 

But they say, don’t run before you walk. Find a friend or teacher you can speak with as this can help reduce your nerves. By speaking to one person, you will be able to have the time to gather your thoughts, and have a conversation that is at a suitable pace and appropriate to your level. 

Don’t get caught up by your mistakes. When learning a language, mistakes are inevitable. As a teacher, I WANT my students to make mistakes. That is the only way for me to help them improve even further and for them to grow and learn. Embracing your mistakes is how we learn and improve. Even better if you can find humour in your mistakes. 

Once, I ordered a sandwich in a coffee shop and instead of asking for the chicken breast sandwich, I asked for a ‘chicken sandwich from Pachuca' (Pachuca is a city in Mexico). We were able to joke and laugh about going to the city to get my sandwich. What I have learned, is that every mistake I have made or I am going to make has improved or will improve my learning and language ability. I am now more mindful of saying and using certain phrases, minimal pairs, and false friends. 

And talking of being mindful, mindfulness has the potential to significantly help those suffering from language anxiety.

Mindfulness meditation can be beneficial in helping those experiencing anxiety to distract themselves from their fear. You can focus on your breath, what you can smell, something you can see. This helps you to become more present. 

And finally, focus on the positives. Just because you made one mistake, does not mean you are a failure or unable to speak the language. Just because you mispronounced one word, does not mean you have bad pronunciation. If you keep making mistakes with a certain grammar point, use that as a learning opportunity, and don’t be afraid to ask your teacher to help you. 

Have you experienced foreign language anxiety? Please share your experiences.