An Overview on Skill-Based L2 Anxieties: Definitions, Research Trends and Future Perspectives

Volume 8 Issue 4 October - December 2018

Review Paper

An Overview on Skill-Based L2 Anxieties: Definitions, Research Trends and Future Perspectives

Gökhan Öztürk*

Faculty Member, Department of Foreign Language Education, Anadolu University, Turkey.

Öztürk, G. (2018). An Overview on Skill-Based L2 Anxieties: Definitions, Research Trends and Future Perspectives i-manager’s Journal on English Language Teaching, 8(4), 49-60. https://doi.org/10.26634/jelt.8.4.14903

Abstract

Due to its influential nature on foreign language learning process, foreign language anxiety has been the focus of numerous studies in the literature of second language acquisition. In addition to its validation as a separate construct in late 80s, the last two decades have also witnessed the confirmation of skill-based anxieties as independent and unique phenomena. Based on this, the paper reports a brief review of research studies conducted on skill-based anxieties; Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety, Foreign Language Reading Anxiety, Foreign Language Listening Anxiety, and Foreign Language Writing Anxiety, in various contexts in the last two decades. The methodological perspectives used in the studies, their contexts and the important findings derived from them are presented in an orderly manner arguing their contribution to the understanding of each skill-based anxiety. Finally, suggestions for research perspectives that will guide researchers for further studies in order to present a better understanding of these phenomena are discussed.