The emotional side of learning a new language

Foreign language anxiety hinders the learning of many English learners. When teachers understand the source of students’ anxiety, they can develop strategies to help.

At a Glance

English learners’ emotions affect their ability to learn their new language, but instruction tends to focus on the cognitive side of language learning.
Foreign language anxiety (FLA) is the feeling of nervousness or fear that arises when students are learning a new language.
English learners experiencing FLA may withdraw and appear unmotivated, especially when asked to speak.
FLA is distinct from more general anxiety, which exists in multiple settings, including those where students do not need to use their new language.

More than 20 years ago, I worked as a part-time English as a second language (ESL) teacher in an elementary school in San Francisco. I vividly remember Lucy, a fifth-grader, whose family had just moved to the U.S. from Korea. Lucy was not one of my students, but I am also Korean and had the opportunity to talk to her in our native language on a few occasions.

I could see that Lucy was a conscientious student who knew how to do school. Her parents also stated that she was a top student back in Korea. However, as weeks and months passed by, her classroom teacher expressed concern that Lucy barely spoke in class and had a hard time focusing on her work. Her reluctance to talk and her withdrawal from class activities affected both her academic work and her social relationship with her peers. The teachers who knew her, myself included, believed that she was quiet by nature and needed to put in more effort.

Lucy’s family left for another school district after the first semester, so I don’t know how Lucy developed as a language learner. But for many years I remembered her as a smart student who had a lot of anxiety and couldn’t adjust to a new language and a new culture.

It wasn’t until recently, when I developed an interest in the emotional aspects of language learning, that I came to think of Lucy’s experience as a vivid example of foreign language anxiety (FLA).

Understanding FLA

FLA is a “complex phenomena of self-perception, attitudes, feelings, and actions associated with classroom language acquisition emerging from the distinctiveness of the language learning process” (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986, p. 128). In other words, FLA is the anxiety or nervousness that students often experience when learning a new language. This anxiety is related to how students perceive their own language abilities, how they feel about making mistakes, and how they view the process of learning a language.

Classroom instruction methods, patterns of interaction, and assessment measures all can affect students’ level of FLA. In turn, FLA can have a significant impact on students’ ability to focus in class, participate in discussions, engage with peers, and successfully learn English (Horwitz, 2002).

Despite its significance, the concept of FLA remains underexplored and has not received much attention in our schools. Overlooking emotional factors, such as anxiety, that are integral to language learning may be a costly oversight. Educators need to recognize and become aware of FLA for the millions of English learners like Lucy who enter our schools every year.

The neglect of emotions in language learning

Anyone who has ever tried to learn a foreign language knows that it can be an exciting challenge, but also a stressful and ambiguous one. Negative experiences in foreign language learning can stick with a person for years. Learners will often focus on the negative experiences: “I felt so nervous when I had to give that presentation in English and I started to freeze” or “I couldn’t understand a word they were saying, and I felt very excluded from the group.”

Language is a tool for communication, and when we’re not able to use it to communicate with others in intelligible ways, it often elicits strong emotional reactions. The distress can easily multiply when we have moved to a new country and are learning a new language to survive in school or at work.

In school, language is not only a tool for academic participation, but also an essential component for fostering a sense of belonging.

Although we may be fully aware of these emotional reactions, we tend to focus on learners’ cognitive abilities and effort when we discuss their progress (Garrett & Young, 2009). For example, when observing Lucy 20 years ago, the teachers and I attributed her slow progress in English to her lack of engagement in class and her hesitation to take risks. We may be able to tell emotional stories about language learning, but the official discourse of language learning has been in a state of “emotional deficit” (Horwitz, 2002, p. 113) for many decades.

A context-specific anxiety

Why have we neglected the emotional side of language learning? One reason is that we easily accept that anxiety and other feelings of discomfort come with language learning: It’s natural, almost normal, and learners will overcome such emotions with time. Second, we attribute these feelings to individual characteristics, seeing certain learners as anxious by nature. These assumptions fail to distinguish FLA from the more general sense of anxiety students may experience when they have moved to a new environment with a new language.

While general anxiety refers to pervasive, generalized feelings of stress or nervousness that are not confined to any specific context, FLA is a situation-specific form of anxiety that arises primarily in the context of language learning (Horwitz, 2002; MacIntyre & Gardner, 1991). General anxiety can occur in a wide range of situations, but FLA is triggered by specific situations within the language-learning environment (MacIntyre & Gardner, 1991). For instance, anxiety related to speaking in front of a group, engaging in group discussions, or taking timed exams in a foreign language (as opposed to their first language), are distinct triggers of FLA that do not typically arise in other areas of life.

Language learners do not begin the learning process with FLA. Instead, it develops over time, often triggered by negative experiences or perceptions that form because of specific language-learning situations (MacIntyre & Gardner, 1994).

Sources of FLA

While FLA is a common phenomenon in ESL classrooms, teachers are not always aware of its underlying causes and how it varies across contexts and individuals. These are the most common external sources of FLA:

Teachers’ and peers’ negative evaluation of language competence (Horwitz, 2002).
Social comparison (MacIntyre & Gardner, 1994).
Competition (Dörnyei, 2001).
Unpredictable classroom procedures (Wong, 2012).
Harsh error correction (Gregersen & MacIntyre, 2014).
Insufficient wait time (Rowe, 1986).

When these conditions are present, students experiencing FLA are more likely to develop fear of making mistakes and form negative beliefs about language learning.

Though FLA happens in all four modes of language learning — reading, writing, speaking, and listening — it is most clearly associated with speaking and listening (Kim, 2000). For most language learners, being called on to speak in a whole-group setting is particularly anxiety-provoking (Horwitz, 2002).

Overlooking emotional factors, such as anxiety, that are integral to language learning may be a costly oversight.

FLA may manifest in different ways according to the learner’s proficiency (Liu, 2006). For instance, beginners may show anxiety over remembering words, while advanced level learners freeze up when trying to convey complex messages accurately and precisely (MacIntyre & Gardner, 1994). Studies also show learners from different cultures show varying degrees of anxiety when learning English, with Korean and Chinese students generally exhibiting more intense signs of FLA than students from other cultural groups (Horowitz, 2002). Most importantly, the learning context itself can affect FLA. Higher levels of teacher support and student engagement have been associated with lower levels of FLA (Palacios, 1998).

Signs of FLA

Because FLA interferes with language learning and performance (Horwitz, 2000), it is important for teachers to identify expressions of stress and discomfort in students with FLA so they can make changes to set students up for success. Anxiety can be categorized into two types: facilitating and debilitating anxiety (Scovel, 1978). Facilitating anxiety motivates learners to engage with tasks, while debilitating anxiety leads to avoidance (Scovel, 1991). FLA falls in the category of debilitating anxiety.

Students with FLA often withdraw from learning by avoiding verbal interaction or eye contact with others, expressing frustration or fear in learning tasks, isolating themselves socially, or expressing extreme distress about certain language-learning situations. These students may appear detached or frustrated, leading teachers to mistakenly assume they lack motivation or have a poor attitude (Gregersen, 2003). However, the problem may be emotional distress, so it is essential for teachers to recognize and address the emotional barriers that are hindering students’ learning (Hashemi, 2011).

What can teachers do?

The first and most important role of the teacher is to determine whether the learner’s anxiety is specific to the language-learning context or whether it is general anxiety. The Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986) is the most widely used tool for the assessment of FLA. It provides information on the students’ attitudes, motivations, and their beliefs about themselves as English learners. The questions are geared toward students in secondary and higher education, but studies show that it can be adjusted for ESL students in elementary school (Aydın et al., 2017). Teachers can ask the questions in verbal interviews or as a short written survey.

Classroom observations and one-on-one conversations with the student are also excellent tools for assessing FLA. Paying close attention to the student’s behaviors during different classroom situations (e.g., language-intensive activities versus language non-intensive activities) and talking with them about how they feel about learning English in the classroom may help to determine the student’s source of anxiety (Horwitz, 2002, MacIntyre & Gardner, 1994).

Strategies for supporting students with FLA

Once the teacher determines that a student’s anxiety is FLA, they can employ strategies to help the learner overcome the anxiety. Which strategies to focus on will depend on which situations tend to create the most anxiety. All the strategies involve gaining a deep understanding of the learner and building student-teacher rapport based on trust and mutual respect.

Error correction

Normalize errors as part of communication: Making clear to students that errors are an inherent part of language use may help alleviate their fear of making mistakes (Celce-Murcia, 2001; Hendrickson, 1987). Balancing the need to correct errors with normalizing them as a part of communication may be challenging for teachers.
Adopt a choice-based approach: Providing choices for when and how you will correct errors encourages autonomy and lowers pressure (Holec, 1981; Little, 2004). For instance, you could give students the option to self-correct when speaking, for you to correct their errors verbally, or for you to share a list of their errors later.
Delay error correction: Correcting errors later, rather than during speech, preserves the flow of the conversation and helps reduce performance anxiety (Harmer, 2007).

Wait time

Provide extended wait time: Allowing students extra time to process questions eases the pressure to produce an immediate response (Rowe, 1986). Signaling the wait time explicitly, by using phrases such as “Let’s take three minutes to think about your answers,” offers a clear framework for response preparation.
Incorporate paired or small group practice into wait time: Allowing students to discuss their responses in pairs or small groups during wait time provides an opportunity for practice and lowers anxiety (MacIntyre & Gardner, 1991). This intermediate step enables students to rehearse language use in a less pressured setting, building confidence for full-class participation.

Classroom procedures

Display and review the day’s agenda: A daily agenda posted on a wall can ease anxiety, but students with FLA may benefit from additional support, such as daily morning check-ins or a brief one-on-one overview of the day’s activities. This familiarity with the flow of the day reduces stress and enhances students’ readiness (Tharp & Gallimore, 2011).
Establish routine language activities: Routine daily language activities, such as a warm-up discussion before a read-aloud or a group reflection at the end of a lesson, provide students with a sense of predictability in language use (Wong, 2012). Such activities may also serve as accessible low-pressure entry points for verbal participation.
Use consistent procedural language: Using consistent phrases for routine instructions, such as “Let’s discuss this in pairs” or “Write down your ideas before sharing” creates a predictable language framework (Gass & Selinker, 2008) that aids comprehension, allows students to respond to instructions confidently, and reduces anxiety about what is expected.

Classroom participation

Offer flexible participation options: Because verbal participation in a whole-group setting is often the most daunting task for students with FLA, offering various avenues for participation can be beneficial (Derakhshan & Eslami, 2015). For example, providing sentence starters or allowing students to write down their responses before presenting them minimizes the pressure of spontaneous speech.
Incorporate journaling: Students who are full of anxiety in the classroom lose out on opportunities for self-expression and reflection as learners. Ongoing use of dialogue journals in which students share their thinking and teachers respond help create a connection with the teacher and the classroom community (Mercer, 2006). They provide a way for students to participate and practice their second language without the pressure of verbal speech.

From pressure to motivation

I began learning English at 9 when my family moved to Australia in the early 1980s. Each day presented multiple challenges—not only academic and social, but also seemingly simple tasks, such as asking for a bathroom pass, which felt exhausting. I had always loved school, but for the first time, I felt defeated and frustrated most days. As a child experiencing FLA, withdrawal and avoidance became my default coping mechanisms.

At some point, however, I started to change. My teacher reassured me daily that the classroom was safe and that no one would criticize me for my language. I started mimicking what my peers were saying in class and found joy in talking like them. As the fear in speaking English lessened, my motivation to communicate grew stronger, and I became part of the community through the language. In school, language is not only a tool for academic participation, but also an essential component for fostering a sense of belonging.

Students who are otherwise good learners may be overwhelmed by the pressure of the new language and the weight to build an identity as competent communicators in a new environment. A certain amount of anxiety is inevitable and maybe even necessary when we are learning a new language, but when that anxiety gets out of control it drives people to hold back, withdraw from learning, and even give up. As educators, our job is to acknowledge, identify, and understand the anxiety English learners may feel and create an environment that helps transform that pressure into motivation to connect to the people and the new culture around them.

It’s essential that we address not just the cognitive elements of second-language learning but also the emotional complexity of being an ESL student. I believe it is not only timely, but an act of justice to shed light on the personal emotions of English learners in our schools.

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This article appears in the Fall 2025 issue of Kappan, Vol. 107, No. 1-2, pp. 56–59.