Examined the stability of the general foreign language classroom anxiety construct across English and French. Subjects were preservice teachers from two western universities in Venezuela majoring in these languages. (Author/VWL)

Offers cultural explanations of communication reluctance in the English-as-a-Foreign-Language classroom in Vietnam. Investigates what actually happens in the mind of the students when they first join a course, and explores how the lack of verbal performance in the language classroom reflects what they deem appropriate in their own culture.…

Examined relations among second language learning (L2) and L2 communication variables in the Japanese English as a foreign language context using the Willingness to Communicate (WTC) model and the socioeducational model as a framework. (Author/VWL)

This study evaluated a semester-long English learning strategy training course in terms of its impact on students' learning achievement, attitudes, anxiety, and proficiency. Participants were 47 Taiwanese college students who were randomly assigned to experimental or control groups. Prior to the course, all participants took the Test of English as…

A study investigated the bipolar tension/relaxation factors that affect a second language learner's oral proficiency. While the traditional assumption in the field of second language acquisition is that negative attitudes toward communicative interaction naturally predicate low proficiency, the data gathered from 50 subjects studying English as a…

Looks at Chinese learners in New Zealand to investigate the negative effects of anxiety on linguistic performance. Particular focus is on a kind of anxiety that has come to be known as communication apprehension. Discusses an action research project conducted in a high school that shows sources of communication anxiety. (Author/VWL)

Examines the effect of individual and contextual variables on the acquisition of Basque by adult learners in the Basque Country. Participants were learners who were attending Basque classes in nine different specialized schools for teaching Basque to adults. Participants completed questionnaires about metalinguistic awareness, anxiety, learning…

Examined the influence of language anxiety as measured by a questionnaire on achievements in English writing and reading comprehension tasks. Subjects were native speakers of Hebrew, aged 12-13 years, learning English as a second language.(Author/VWL)

A discussion of second language learning and second language underproduction proposes a differentiation between conscious avoidance and subconscious underproduction Reference is made to J. Schacter's avoidance theory, which was based on a study in which Chinese and Japanese students of English as a Second Language (ESL) produced fewer Relative…

A study of the relationship between language learners' attitudes and their development of language proficiency was based on a survey of 50 Yugoslavian university students of English as a Second Language (ESL). The subjects were taking English to fulfill a second language requirement. They were first administered two written attitudinal surveys in…

Research shows that a very large percentage of Japanese university students are apprehensive about communicating orally, to the degree that their fear may be debilitating, weakening their effectiveness as oral interactants in social and classroom situations. This uneasiness with speech has been culturally ingrained for centuries. Children are…

Presents listening comprehension strategies used by students learning French. Through interviews, students described their conscious use of strategies in different contexts. All evidenced a familiarity with metacognitive, cognitive, and socioaffective techniques. (50 references) (Author/CK)

A discussion of the role of the Japanese language in the English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) classroom in Japan presents several arguments in favor of using Japanese, followed by some notes of caution and a call to teachers to reflect on their classroom language use. Arguments for using students' native language (L1) include these: in mixed level…

This project investigated the possible causes of and solutions to the reticence of many Japanese students attending General English courses at the University of Edinburgh Institute for Applied Language Studies (Scotland). It was suspected that students' reticence affected their rate of learning and personal improvement as well as the general…

Papers on language research include: "L'expression de l'opposition en Latin" ("The Expression of Opposition in Latin" (Claude Begin); "Le francais de l'Abitibi: characteristiques phonetiques et origine socio-geographique des locuteurs" ("The French of Abitibi: Phonetic Characteristics and Socio-Geographic Origin…