ERIC Number: ED474368
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2003-Jan
Pages: 129
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
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Available Date: N/A
Decreasing Anxiety and Frustration in the Spanish Language Classroom.
Haskin, Joanna; Smith, Maria de Lourdes Hernandez; Racine, Margaret
This report describes instructional strategies to decrease anxiety and frustration in the Spanish classroom. Participants were five 7th grade Spanish classes in two suburban middle schools. Student interventions included a study skills guide; partner and group presentations, skits, and activities; and group oral reading. Teacher interventions included the use of total physical response, authentic correction, and creation of a nonthreatening classroom environment. Anxiety and frustration were documented through direct observations by teachers, the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale, and student questionnaires and interviews. Analysis of probable cause data was documented through a review of literature and methods of assessment by the researchers. Results indicated that several activities caused foreign language anxiety (oral communication, writing, and reading in the target language). Posttest data indicated a decrease in anxiety and frustration at both schools. Students were able to identify their own feelings of anxiety and frustration and gain self-confidence as they took risks in revealing themselves by speaking Spanish in the presence of other students and the teacher. Post-test, students showed less test anxiety, communication apprehension, and fear of negative evaluation in the classroom, and less anxiety and frustration in the area of oral communication, which had previously hindered their full acquisition of the language. (Contains 55 references.) (SM)
Descriptors: Action Research, Class Activities, Classroom Environment, Communication Apprehension, Error Correction, Middle School Students, Middle Schools, Reading Aloud to Others, Second Language Instruction, Second Language Learning, Spanish, Speech Communication, Study Skills, Teaching Methods, Test Anxiety
Publication Type: Dissertations/Theses; Reports - Research; Tests/Questionnaires
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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Authoring Institution: N/A
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