Uncovering Chinese ESL students’ reading anxiety in a study-abroad context

Abstract

Recent studies have begun to focus on the anxiety that second/foreign language learners experience in the classroom. However, in general, there is a lack of concentration in the literature with regard to addressing the emotional block that language learners suffer when they are in a study-abroad context, and how language teachers and educators can help them alleviate their anxieties. Anxieties associated with reading, especially, have long been ignored until very recently (Saito, Horwitz & Garza, 1999). This article reports on a study of the reading anxiety of 145 intermediate students from the People's Republic of China (PRC), who were studying ESL in Singapore. A Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS) and informal interviews were employed to collect data on the extent of reader anxiety. Results of t-tests show that female and male students experienced different degrees of anxiety in this study-abroad context with respect to three items in the FLRAS. Interview results show that apprehension in both males and females results from their low language proficiency, lack of cultural knowledge, unfamiliarity with the learning context and with their teacher diversity. Pedagogic implications are also explored.