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CULTURE-LANGUAGES-MEDIA

Independent Project with Specialization in English

Studies and Education

15 Credits, First Cycle

The relationships between foreign

language anxiety, motivation, and

achievement in an EFL context

Förhållandena mellan språkängslan, motivation och prestation i ett

EFL-samanhang

Tuva Petersén

Master of Arts in Upper Secondary Education, 300 credits

English Studies and Education 2020-10-21

Examiner: Henry King Supervisor: Philip Clover

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Contents

Abstract ... 3 1. Introduction ... 4 1.1 Anxiety ... 4 1.2 Motivation ... 6

2. Aim and research questions ... 9

3. Method and description of sources ... 10

3.1 Search delimitations ... 10

3.2 Inclusion criteria ... 10

3.3 Exclusion criteria ... 11

4. Results ... 12

4.1 The studies ... 12

4.2 Comparing the studies ... 16

5. Discussion ... 19

6. Conclusion ... 22

5.1 Limitations and further research ... 22

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Abstract

This study investigates the relationships between foreign language anxiety (FLA), motivation and achievement in EFL-learners in secondary and tertiary education. Research previous to 2009 generally reaches the conclusion that learners with more motivation have less FLA and higher achievement, and learners with more FLA have lower motivation and achievement. The present study synthesises eight studies from late 2009 to 2020, and it was found that although six studies are generally in accordance with the earlier research, they disagreed with one another concerning what motivational and FLA subscales were most related. Some differences in the conclusions of the studies are theorised to be due to the different motivational constructs the studies focused on. All studies also failed to show a cause-and-effect relationship between any of the variables or agree on the extent to which they were related. This suggested the advantage of looking at the variables as part of a dynamic system, in which all the variables affect one another, and the relationships are constantly changing. Further research was suggested in the area of FLA to identify its factors and which learners suffer from it.

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1. Introduction

The curriculum for English in Swedish upper secondary school states that: “Teaching of English should aim at helping students to develop knowledge of language and the surrounding world so that they have the ability, desire and confidence to use English in different situations and for different purposes.” (Skolverket, 2001). This suggests that a lack of confidence stops the student from expressing themselves fully in English, or the lack of a desire to try. Lack of confidence, often referred to as anxiety or classroom anxiety, and the lack of desire to do something, often referred to as a lack of motivation, are struggles for both pupils and teachers in the foreign language classroom.

1.1 Anxiety

A connection between anxiety and measures of proficiency in foreign language learning has been theorized since the 1960s, but early research was often conflicting. In a 1978 research review, Scovel found that while some researchers found that students with higher anxiety levels generally had lower foreign language proficiency (so-called debilitating anxiety), others found that students with higher anxiety levels also had higher foreign language proficiency (so-called facilitating

anxiety), and some found no connection at all between the two variables. Scovel theorized that it

was because researchers were using different definitions and measurements of anxiety that they were getting conflicting results (Scovel, 1978). In a later study by Horwitz et al. (1986), the researchers propose a definition of foreign language anxiety (FLA) that is a distinct form of anxiety which includes the traits of three related types of anxiety: communication apprehension (an anxiety about speaking and/or interpreting spoken messages), fear of negative evaluation (the belief that others would judge oneself negatively, which creates fear and avoidance of external evaluation) and test anxiety (becoming anxious and inhibited in testing situations due to fear of failure, often due to unrealistic expectations on themselves). The researchers argue that although FLA can encompass all of these types of anxiety, what distinguishes FLA is how speaking in a foreign language “is likely to challenge an individual’s self-concept as a competent communicator” (128) and that “learners’ self-perceptions of genuineness in presenting themselves to others may be

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threatened by the limited range of meaning and affect that can be deliberately communicated” (128, Horwitz et al. 1986). This means that, for example, a Swedish pupil may feel like they lack the proficiency in English to express themselves as accurately and genuinely as they would be able to in their first language, causing a dissonance between what they would like to express, and what their proficiency level allows them to express. Horwitz et al. (1986) were also the first to propose the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) as an instrument of measuring students’ FLA. Since the introduction of the FLCAS and the definition of foreign language anxiety as the specific type of anxiety experienced by foreign language learners, the findings about FLA and measures of proficiency in the foreign language have been less conflicting those produced by the earlier research, typically showing that students with lower anxiety show higher proficiency and vice versa, a relationship referred to as a moderate negative correlation (Horwitz, 2001). Such results can be seen in Aida (1994), Saito and Samimy (1996), and Hewitt and Stephenson (2012).

While anxiety in the Swedish English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom is not very commonly researched, a few studies do exist that can shed some light on the situation. Nilsson (2019) studied how younger EFL learners (between 8 and 12 years old) perceived their anxiety. She found that around 18% of the participants reported that they often, almost always, or always experienced anxiety in the foreign language classroom, and around 75% of these high anxiety learners found the subject of English more anxiety inducing than any other school subject (Nilsson, 2019). Nilsson (2020) also found that anxious learners in the ages of nine to ten were most nervous about speaking in front of others, and perhaps saying something wrong and getting embarrassed or falling behind their classmates. Klapp-Lekholm (2008) collected data from the grades, national test scores and student questionnaires of 99070 Swedish ninth grade students born in 1987 and compared their achievement scores to their student’s characteristics. She found that coping (defined by the researcher as a factor which reflects student anxiety about schoolwork and how well the student is coping with school) was significantly related to English achievement, suggesting that low anxiety is of importance for achievement in English in school (Klapp-Lekholm, 2008).

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1.2 Motivation

Gardner et al. (1997) raise the question about other affective variables, such as motivation and self-confidence being linked both to measures of proficiency in the target language and to FLA. In an early study by Gardner and Lambert (1959), the researchers concluded that second language proficiency was not only dependent on linguistic aptitude, as previously thought, but also on motivation. They argued that linguistic aptitude is one of the two main factors of

achievement in foreign language learning, and that the second factor is motivation. They call this the socio-educational model (Gardner and Lambert, 1959). In 1985, Gardner developed the

Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) to measure the variables he believed to be associated with

foreign language learning, those being: integrativeness; attitudes toward the learning situation; motivation; language anxiety, and whatever attributes the researcher using the AMTB is interested in. Motivation refers to the learner’s attitude towards and willingness to learn the language, and integrativeness refers to the learner’s willingness to engage socially with those who speak the foreign language (Gardner et al., 1997). According to Gardner and Lalonde (1985), the variable of motivation is itself influenced by integrativeness and attitudes towards the learning situation, meaning that a student eager to engage socially with the target language group, and who has a positive attitude towards their learning situation, is more likely to be more motivated. Using this model, Gardner et al. (2004) showed that high achieving students tended to be more motivated.

In the 1990s, this socio-educational model was beginning to be challenged by new theories on motivation which were more rooted in modern educational psychological research. One of these theories focuses on the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation is seen as being regulated by external rewards, such as good grades, or the avoidance of external punishment, such as detention. Intrinsic motivation is its opposite, being instead regulated by internal rewards, such as the feeling of pride or happiness. Generally, intrinsic motivation has been seen as preferable, and extrinsic motivation has been shown to undermine students’ intrinsic motivation. However, within a proposed theory called self-determination theory, extrinsic motivation exists on a scale from being enforced by others to being internal and integrated fully with one’s needs and wants. The key to effective motivation, according to self-determination theory, is self-determination, also known as autonomy. This means that goals that were once introduced and enforced by others can be accepted and self-enforced by the student. Related to self-determination is self-efficacy, referring to a student’s confidence that they can perform a certain

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activity correctly, for example writing a text or producing a grammatically correct sentence. This is similar, but not identical, to self-confidence, which is the more general confidence in one’s abilities overall (Dörnyei, 1994). Sometime later, Dörnyei (2009) also describes dynamic systems as systems, for example an individual learning another language, in which numerous cognitive, affective, and environmental variables constantly interact in a way which means that no one variable can be prioritised over the others, and no cause-effect relationships can be established. This means that motivation is just one variable among many in a complex system where the environmental, affective and cognitive factors cannot simply be isolated and studied on their own, but rather should be studied within their contexts (Dörnyei, 2009). According to Verspoor et al. (2008), researching a dynamic system requires collecting a lot of data, as all variability in the chosen area should be tracked and measured frequently. This type of very dense data is best modelled into a graph by a computer, to show possible patterns in the variability (Verspoor et al., 2008).

Additionally, a theory often referred to as achievement goal theory was described by Dowson and McInerney (2003) as a theory wherein students’ goals are seen as a cognitive representation of the students’ purposes for learning. Goal classifications vary but can for example consist of instrumental goals (learning for the sake of academic achievement or career purposes), mastery goals (wanting to learn new things and develop skills for the individual’s own satisfaction) and performance goals (wanting to be perceived as competent by others; Koul et al., 2009).

In the Swedish context, few studies have been conducted on the overall variable of motivation in EFL learning. A study by Henry and Cliffordson (2015) which researched the ideal and current second language (L2) self, intended effort in school, proficiency attributed to instructed learning, natural ability and out-of-school interaction, as well as self-authenticity in 116 Swedish upper secondary students found that students who attribute proficiency to instructed learning generally have more intended effort in school, whereas students who attribute proficiency to out-of-school interactions generally have less intended effort in school. Students who feel that speaking

English in school supresses their self-authenticity also generally have less intended effort in school. This suggests that Swedish learners find self-authenticity important but are not always convinced by their instructed learning causing some students’ in-class motivation to suffer.

While the relationship between motivation and foreign language classroom anxiety is not a heavily researched topic, some studies have begun to explore whether the two are connected and in what way. Dowson and McInerney (2003) demonstrated that different affects were associated with students’ motivational goals. Affects were defined by Scovel (1978) as the “emotional

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reactions and motivations of the learner”. General anxiety in particular was associated with the performance goal, but as their research spanned many more subjects than foreign language teaching, this still begs the question of whether foreign language anxiety and motivation are connected (Dowson & McInerney, 2003). Gardner et al. (2004) found that high achieving foreign language students tended to be more motivated and suffer from less foreign language anxiety, suggesting but not proving that the two might be related. More recently a study by Luo (2018), in which the researcher looked at seven variables to determine whether they were predictors of Chinese language learning anxiety, found a weak, negative connection between motivation and anxiety, meaning that students with lower motivation generally tended to be more anxious and vice versa.

In the studies analysed within this essay, amotivation and demotivation (meaning respectively a lack of motivation and a reduction in motivation) are used interchangeably. For clarity, I will use only the word amotivation.

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2. Aim and research questions

The relationship in EFL teaching between foreign language classroom anxiety, motivation and achievement is unclear, and inevitably a lot of variables are in play whenever this relationship is studied. My aim is to compare and contrast seven recent studies about these variables to find out what results the researchers are getting and how they relate both to each other and to the

previous research within these fields. To explore this relationship and any potential agreement or disagreement in the research, the research questions of this study are these:

● To what extent are the variables of motivation and foreign language anxiety related to one another?

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3. Method and description of sources

As the method for this study, I have used electronic searches in online databases to find empirical research studies about foreign language anxiety and motivation, which can be used to answer my research questions. From my search results, I have selected the articles deemed most relevant according to my inclusion and exclusion criteria.

3.1 Search delimitations

To find the empirical sources for this study, I have used the databases Education Research Complete (ERC) and Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) via the search engine EBSCOHost. The search terms used were motivation, foreign language anxiety and ESL or EFL. The search term motivation was used to ensure the studies researched motivation as one of its main aspects. The term foreign language anxiety was used to specify the specific type of anxiety I was looking for, and the terms ESL or EFL were used to find studies specifically about teaching and learning English as a second or foreign language. I did not find that including more synonyms, for example communication apprehension, to my search terms helped expand my search results in any useful way. When also including the delimitations of studies published in December of 2009 or after, and only including peer reviewed articles, my search terms yielded seven results in ERC, one out of which were selected, and fifteen results in ERIC, six out of which were selected. All in all, seven sources out of 22 sources were selected for this study.

3.2 Inclusion criteria

I included studies from various countries. While they are all affected by their country’s

educational and cultural context, when contrasting and comparing them the results can still be applicable for learners of all nationalities. I also included studies from both upper secondary and tertiary education. However, they are still close enough in age and proficiency level (generally between B1 and B2) that the results should be transferable. The age range for all participants is generally 10 to 25 years old, however not all studies included reported the age ranges for their participants. In those studies, however, all participants were in tertiary education. The younger

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participants (from 10 to 15) were included in a study which also collected data from high school students, and these two groups could be separated in the results.

3.3 Exclusion criteria

I have excluded all studies which explore what impact a particular type of instructional method has on foreign language anxiety, since this was beyond the scope of my research questions. I opted not to include studies of younger learners (see above comments about the age ranges across my studies), since they are generally below the B1-B2 proficiency level, and therefore it would be difficult to compare their results. My date ranges were between December 2009 and 2020 to minimize the risk of including information that has since been deemed outdated. I also only included full text articles since that gave me the option to assess their validity and relevance for my study.

Number of search results Number of studies included

ERC 7 1

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4. Results

The aim of this study is to contrast seven studies that research the relationships between FLA, motivation, and achievement. Firstly, I will present summaries of the studies. Secondly, the summaries will be synthesised to reveal similarities, differences, and patterns. Thirdly, the conclusions from the synthesis will be further discussed in relation to previous research, the Swedish curriculum, and the Swedish EFL classroom at large. All the studies used some form of self-reported measurement of anxiety, something which has been criticized by Scovel (1978). When compared to physiological measures of anxiety, there is little correlation between the two modes of measurement (Scovel, 1978). However, self-reported measurements are much more practical in nature as they can easily be distributed to many participants at a time and do not require much equipment. Most of the studies used the FLCAS or questions derived from the FLCAS.

4.1 The studies

Many studies found that students with lower levels of motivation also tended to have higher levels of anxiety. Khajavy et. al. (2018) examined patterns of FLA and self-efficacy of students, and looked at systematic connections between self-efficacy, FLA, and motivation. A group of 367 Iranian undergraduates between 18 and 25 years of age took a survey that measured two types of motivation: ideal L2-self motivation and self-efficacy, as well as motivation. Ideal L2-self motivation was described by the researchers as the vision of what skills and attributes the learner would like to possess, motivating their self-organization and learning process, and was measured through questions about how the learners envisioned their language use and proficiency in the future. Self-efficacy was measured by having the participants estimate how well they could perform and/or understand certain language tasks or items. Data was collected four times during the semester, and four students were selected to also measure their self-efficacy and anxiety levels every ten minutes during lessons. In the beginning of the semester, students with higher levels of self-efficacy tended to have lower levels of anxiety, and this relationship was even stronger when the researchers measured the changes in self-efficacy and anxiety that had taken place over the course of the semester. While the participant’s levels of ideal-self motivation at the start of the semester did not show a relationship to either self-efficacy or anxiety levels,

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students with higher initial levels of ideal L2-self motivation generally experienced a decrease in their anxiety and an increase in their self-efficacy levels during the semester. The researchers concluded by asking teachers to have the changes of motivation and self-efficacy in mind when they plan their lessons and assessment, to lower FLA and strengthen motivation.

A similar result can be found in Chen & Liu (2015). The researchers looked at academic- and vocational track high school students to find out if levels of anxiety and motivation vary between the tracks, and whether there exists a relationship between that anxiety and their motivation. It used a slightly smaller participant group of 155 Taiwanese high school students, out of which 60 were from the academic track and 95 from the vocational track. The participants answered a questionnaire which measured five types of motivation: intrinsic goal orientation, extrinsic goal orientation, task value, control of learning and self-efficacy. They also answered a slightly modified version of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale. The study found that students with higher overall motivation scores generally had lower anxiety levels. This

connection was especially strong in the motivation categories of intrinsic goal orientation and self-efficacy. The researchers suggested to foster motivation and interest in learning English through for example authentic materials and group activities, and to lower FLA by creating a comfortable and supportive atmosphere in the classroom.

Kaewkuekool et al. (2009) found connections between different motivational goals and foreign language anxiety. The study looked at language learning goals of Thai college students and how these relate to foreign language anxiety. 2247 students from two Thai universities and one vocational college took a survey which sorted the students under six different motivational goals, or so-called motivational orientation: Instrumentalist orientation (wanting good grades or career opportunities), mastery orientation (wanting to learn and master new things), xenophilic

orientation (wanting to make friends with target language speakers), cultural orientation (wanting to learn about the target language culture/s), performance orientation (wanting other people to see oneself as accomplished) and identification orientation (wanting to become more similar to target language speakers). The survey also asked questions to measure perceived proficiency level, social support and foreign language anxiety. Both students with what the researchers classified as academic goals (mastery and instrumentalist orientations), as well as superiority goals (performance and identification orientations), showed higher levels of foreign language anxiety, whereas students with what the researchers classified as sociocultural goals (xenophilic and socio-cultural orientations) showed lower levels of foreign language anxiety, suggesting a

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connection between motivational orientation and foreign language anxiety. The study also showed that the students’ self-reported proficiency levels had a negative correlation to FLA. The researchers suggested more attention be given to learners’ affective reactions as they were impacting their learning.

Two studies also found that some subcategories of motivation were related to foreign language anxiety, while others were not. A study by Ahmetovic et al. (2020) looks at the relationships between gender, grade level, motivation to speak, classroom anxiety and achievement. The participants were 160 Bosnian students between ten and 17 years old, of whom 118 were in middle school and 42 in high school. The researchers used a three-part survey, which consisted of demographic questions including the learners’ GPA, the FLCAS. It also included a motivation scale based on self-determination theory, which measured three basic scales of motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and amotivation) and seven subscales of motivation:

amotivation; external regulation; introjected regulation; identified regulation; intrinsic motivation for knowledge; intrinsic motivation for accomplishment; and intrinsic motivation for stimulation. The study found that general intrinsic motivation and foreign language anxiety did not seem to be related, but students with higher foreign language anxiety levels tended to have higher scores in the subscales of extrinsic motivation and amotivation. However, the relationship between overall extrinsic motivation and foreign language anxiety was insignificant. The study also found, by comparing the learner’ GPA with levels of motivation and FLA, that achievement was

negatively associated with intrinsic motivation and FLA, but positively associated with the FLA component of test anxiety. The researchers suggested that educators develop their learners’ intrinsic motivation through, for example, authentic learning materials and cooperative learning. They also suggested teaching learners relaxation techniques and creating a supportive classroom environment to lower learners’ FLA.

Another study that found connections between foreign language anxiety and amotivation is Mohamed Ismail et al. (2017), which explores different amotivating factors. 158 undergraduate Lao students took a questionnaire with questions about their demographic, challenges in EFL learning and perceived proficiency level. Based on the results, the researchers identified five dimensions of amotivation: difficulty to achieve linguistic accuracy, negative attitudes toward English, curriculum issues, lack of support and foreign language anxiety, with the latter being the most prominent factor in amotivation. The researchers ask teachers to consider moving away from a traditional teaching style in favour of more group work.

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One study found that instead of anxiety being detrimental to motivation in students, perhaps it could be beneficial. Abdolmanafi-Rokni and Sanadgol (2016) aim to find out the relationship between anxiety, motivation, and autonomy in 207 Iranian students between the ages of 18 and 22 years old. To measure their anxiety, a modified version of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale was used, and to measure motivation the researchers used the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery. They also employed a questionnaire on autonomy by Spratt, Humphreys, and Chan (2002). The study found a small, positive correlation between anxiety and motivation, meaning that students with higher anxiety levels tended to be more highly motivated, and vice versa. The researchers suggested that teachers not give up on anxious students as they too can be or become motivated, and to adapt an anxiety reducing manner of teaching to lower FLA.

Contrary to the other studies, Djafri and Wimbarti (2018) found no connection between motivation and foreign language anxiety at all. The study looked at how language anxiety

manifests in Indonesian learners of English, Japanese, Korean, French, and Arabic, and how the students’ foreign language anxiety levels relate to motivation and students’ perceptions of teachers’ behaviours. The participants of the study were 30 learners of English, 47 learners of Japanese, 32 students of Arabic, 43 students of French and 30 students of Korean. Students were given a questionnaire containing a modified version of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale, a modified version of the Language Learning Orientation Scale which measures intrinsic and intrinsic motivation as well as amotivation, including the seven subcategories of motivation: amotivation; external regulation; introjected regulation; identified regulation; intrinsic motivation for knowledge; intrinsic motivation for accomplishment; and intrinsic motivation for stimulation. The questionnaire also included questions based on Noels et al. (1999) and Pelletier and

Vallerand (1996) measuring the students’ perceptions of teachers’ behaviours. Additionally, the researchers used open questions about anxiety based on Williams and Andrade (2008). The study found that students’ motivation does not significantly affect foreign language anxiety, and that foreign language anxiety is more influenced by other variables such as the difficulty of the language. The researchers suggested that teachers be less harsh and discouraging, and instead promote mistakes as part of learning a language to lower FLA. Learners should be given the opportunity to practice speaking in smaller groups to gradually build confidence.

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4.2 Comparing the studies

As shown above, only one of the studies, Abdolmanafi-Rokni & Sanadgol (2016), concluded that students with higher motivation also tended to have higher foreign language anxiety. However, since the researchers did not include the full results of their study it is not possible to tell whether this relationship between the two variables was present throughout all the motivational constructs investigated. The researchers considered this result a confirmation that anxious students can be motivated and urged teachers not to give up on anxious students as they too could be motivated to learn. Likewise, only one of the studies found no significant connection between motivation and foreign language anxiety at all. Djafri and Wimbarti (2018), concluded that motivation had no effect on FLA, and instead suggest other variables that according to their research have a bigger effect on FLA, such as student’s perception of teacher’s behaviours (the more negative the perceptions, the more anxious the learner), or classroom related factors such as falling behind their classmates or speaking in front of the class without preparation.

Among the studies that did find that students with higher motivation had lower FLA, two studies found connections between self-efficacy and FLA. Kahajavy et al. (2018) found that students with higher self-efficacy levels tended to have lower levels of FLA. The researchers underscored that changes in both self-efficacy and FLA can happen haphazardly in the individual during the semester and is unrelated to the learner’s levels of self-efficacy and FLA at the very start of the semester. A similar result was shown in Chen and Liu (2015), who also showed that higher overall motivation and especially higher intrinsic motivation tended to lower students’ levels of FLA. Based on this, the researchers suggested methods for raising student’s intrinsic motivation and lowering their FLA. Two also showed that amotivation was associated with higher FLA. Mohamed Ismail et al. (2017), whose focus was amotivation, found FLA to be the most significant factor. The researchers also found that FLA levels rose as the learners advanced, and they suggested that due to a lack of resources in the country of study, learners would feel less and less supported in their learning and thus more and more anxious. Ahmetovic et al. (2020) only looked at amotivation as a subscale of motivation, yet they also found that students

experiencing amotivation were more likely to also suffer from higher levels of FLA and feel less comfortable in the classroom.

Four out of seven sources did not measure the foreign language achievement of their participants; however, some discrepancies were discernible among the ones that did. Both

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Kaewkuekool et al. (2009) and Mohamed Ismail et al. (2017) measured the participants' self-rated English proficiency levels, however only Kaewkuekool et al. (2009) cross-referenced this with the participant’s FLA. The results showed that students with higher self-rated proficiency levels had lower FLA levels, and vice versa. None of the studies cross-referenced the self-rated

proficiency levels with the participants' motivation. Ahmetovic et al. (2020) instead measured the students’ GPA in English through demographic survey questions. These were then compared to students’ motivation to speak (the components of which being external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, intrinsic motivation for knowledge, intrinsic motivation

accomplishment, and intrinsic motivation to experience stimulation). It was found that students with higher overall motivation to speak generally had higher English achievement and vice versa, but that out of all the motivational constructs, only intrinsic motivation to experience stimulation was significantly related to achievement. The study also compared the students’ GPA scores with foreign language anxiety and its components (communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation and test anxiety). The study found that whereas overall FLA was negatively associated with English achievement, the component of test anxiety was positively associated with English achievement. The researchers theorize that test anxiety might therefore have a facilitating effect on the students’ English achievement.

While all studies looked at the relationship between the variables motivation and foreign

language anxiety, the studies took different approaches to the variable of motivation which could have influenced their results. Two of the studies, Chen and Liu (2015) as well as Ahmetovic et al. (2020), looked at self-determination theory specifically. Chen and Liu additionally also

considered Gardner’s theory about integrative and instrumental orientations. Both studies found connections between motivation and foreign language anxiety, although the connections found by Chen and Liu (2015) pertained to overall motivation, whereas Ahmetovic et al. (2020) only found connections between certain subscales of motivation and foreign language anxiety. This is partially supported by the results of Mohamed Ismail et al. (2017), which indicates that

amotivation specifically is a factor of foreign language anxiety, choosing to measure participants' amotivation with the amotivation part of the AMTB. Kaewkuekool et al. (2009) and Khajavy et al. (2018) also found connections between motivation and foreign language anxiety, looking at achievement goal theory and Gardner's socio-educational theory of motivation, as well as self-efficacy, ideal L2-self motivation, and dynamic system theory, respectively. Interestingly, the study by Abdolmanafi-Rokni and Sanadgol (2016) uses the AMTB just like Mohamed Ismail et

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al. (2017), but contrary to all other studies finds a positive correlation between motivation and foreign language anxiety. While Djafri and Wimbarti (2018) never specifically discuss self-determination theory, they do measure the same subscales of motivation as both Chen and Liu (2015) and Ahmetovic et al. (2020): intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation and amotivation. Contrary to these two studies, however, Djafri and Wimbarti (2018) find no connection at all between motivation and foreign language anxiety.

Most of the studies also use the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale developed by Horwitz et al. (1986). No pattern can really be discerned in the results between the studies that used the FLCAS and the studies that did not, since both Djafri and Wimbarti (2018; who found no connection between FLA and motivation), Mohamed Ismail et al. (2017; who found that higher FLA levels generally meant students were more motivated) as well as both Chen and Liu (2015) and Ahmetovic et al. (2020), who both found that higher FLA levels generally meant students were less motivated, used the FLCAS.

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5. Discussion

The majority (six out of seven) of the sources did find some type of connection between FLA and motivation, which is in line with the previous research (Dowson and McInerney, 2003; Gardner et al., 2004; Luo, 2018). Five out of seven sources also found the negative correlation suggested by Gardner et al. (2004) and Dowson and McInerney (2003). The two studies that measured the learners’ achievement and cross-referenced it with their FLA levels, Kaewkuekool et al. (2009) and Ahmetovic et al. (2020), were also in line with previous research (Aida, 1994; Saito and Samimy 1996, and Hewitt and Stephenson 2012), showing a negative correlation between the two variables. However, in the case of Ahmetovic et al. (2020), the component of test anxiety was positively associated with FLA. This is still in line with Scovel (1978) who postulates that facilitating anxiety would motivate the student to do better in school. Ahmetovic et al. (2020) also cross-referenced the learners’ achievement with their motivation, and found that motivation was positively associated with achievement, specifically intrinsic motivation. This is also in line with previous research, in this case Gardner and Lambert (1959) and Gardner et al. (2004). This means that while still slightly conflicting, most of the body of research presented in this paper is still in line with the previous research, despite the various approaches that the researchers took to the variable of motivation. Anxiety, motivation, and achievement do interact, meaning that as teachers, to impact one, we may also need to impact the others.

However, this does not really answer the question of to what extent the variables of motivation and FLA are connected to each other, or how they are associated with achievement. Just like in previous research, there seems to be a relationship between the three variables, but the nature of that relationship is still unclear. This is for several reasons. Firstly, the measurements used by these studies cannot establish a clear cause-and-effect relationship. They can find out whether two variables are associated with each other, but not which caused the other and how. This might suggest that motivation, FLA, and achievement are part of a dynamic system, as they are described by Dörnyei (2009) as having no clear cause-and-effect relationships. As this is the case, analysing variables in isolation might not yield any useful results. Instead of focusing on static relationships between variables, it might be more productive to look at how the relationships in a system change over time in longitudinal studies, and to mix quantitative and qualitative research (Dörnyei, 2009). We can see that one study, Khajavy et al. (2018), did attempt this, by studying changes in the learners’ self-efficacy and FLA over the course of a semester. What was

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advantageous with that model was its ability to pinpoint causes for variables changing without having to rely solely on the participant’s self-reported answers. This gives the researchers insight into just how dynamic the relationship between the variables in question are, but also how they can best be summarised. The other studies, lacking this longitudinal and mixed methods approach, were only able to account for the relationship between motivation, FLA, and

achievement at the exact moment the study was conducted. Although two studies (Kaewkuekool et al., 2009 and Djafri & Wimbarti, 2018) did look for causes for students’ FLA, their results were less precise (citing goal orientations, and the four categories assignment, teacher, native speakers, and language class respectively). To study the cause-and-effect relationships of variables within learning in general, and to relate to them as a teacher in the classroom, it therefore seems advantageous to view them as a part of a dynamic system.

Secondly, while the definition of different variables such as foreign language anxiety, motivation, and achievement may appear to be straightforward and generally agreed upon, this is not always the case in practice. Firstly, motivation is a very large variable with many different factors, as evidenced by the different aspects of motivation that the studies presented chose to focus on. Secondly, almost all the studies used the FLCAS, or questions based on the FLCAS, to measure FLA, yet the definition of FLA by Horwitz et al. (1986) differs slightly from what is measured in the FLCAS. While Horwitz et al. stress the dissonance between the accuracy and genuineness with which someone can express themselves in their native language versus their target language, as well as learners suffering from communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation and test anxiety, the FLCAS contains items which measure only communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation and test anxiety. Using this tool of measurement, researchers risk missing one of the most vital parts of FLA that separate it from other types of anxiety in school. This is especially relevant if we are trying to interpret the results from a Swedish standpoint. As seen in Henry and Cliffordson (2015), Swedish learners can feel that their self-authenticity is being stifled when interacting in English in class, and this negatively effects their motivation to put in effort in school. Thirdly, achievement can also be measured in different ways. Measuring it through asking participants to self-report their perceived proficiency level, as Kaewkuekool et al. (2009) and Mohamed Ismail et al. (2017), is interesting if we want to find out how the learners feel about their proficiency level, but it does little to answer how well they actually function in their target language.

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While the curriculum does allude to some students lacking the desire and/or confidence to communicate in English, it does not specifically address motivation or FLA. These are not niche concepts in the Swedish classroom: according to Nilsson (2019) around 18% of the students in her study experienced significant amounts of FLA, and in the study by Henry and Cliffordson (2015) it was shown that many different factors affected the motivation and in turn the effort put in by EFL students. The research by Alastair Henry has not gone completely unnoticed by Skolverket, however. In an interview by Susan Sayehli for Skolverket, Henry explains the specific situation Swedish learners are in when it comes to EFL motivation, as learners encounter

English in both informal settings outside of school, and in the more formal setting inside of school (Skolverket, 2020). As both the studies and the previous research shows that FLA can negatively impact motivation and/or vice versa, it could be important to draw attention to it in the curriculum.

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6. Conclusion

The aim of this study was to find out to what extent motivation and FLA are related to each other in an EFL context, and how, if at all, these two variables are related to achievement. Six out of eight studies found that motivation and FLA had a significant, negative correlation, but no conclusion as to which of the variables causes the other. The studies all had different outlooks on motivation, which may have influenced the differences in the results. The two studies that cross-referenced FLA levels with achievement showed that FLA levels were generally negatively correlated with achievement, however one of the studies found that test anxiety has a positive correlation to achievement. The same study showed that intrinsic motivation was positively correlated to achievement. These results were all in line with previous research. The lack of clear cause-and-effect relationships between the variables suggests the advantage of looking at them as part of a dynamic system, something which is further strengthened by the study which took a dynamic system view producing more precise results than the other studies. From a Swedish standpoint, it is unfortunate that the studies neglected the self-authenticity aspect of FLA, as previous research has proven this to be important to Swedish learners’ motivation in school. Earlier research showing 18% of Swedish participants in a study experiencing FLA, as well as the results of the present study showing the negative correlation between FLA and motivation, it is regrettable that the curriculum fails to mention both variables at all.

5.1 Limitations and further research

The present study was conducted on two quite abstract variables: motivation and FLA. They are hard to measure, and thus the studies relied heavily on surveys and questionnaires. These can be quite unreliable, considering that the participants may deliberately or inadvertently fill in an answer which is incorrect. The number of variables in all the studies combined may also have been a drawback, considering there were many things across studies that I was unable to

compare, seeing as for example, self-efficacy and extrinsic/intrinsic motivation are not the same motivational concepts and therefore not directly comparable. Some of the studies also neglected to include all their results, some of which may have been useful to the present study.

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Continuing this research, I would like to centre my focus on the aspect of FLA in the EFL classroom, looking deeper into possible tools of measurement as well as factors. Of specific interest to me is trying to identify the anxious learner: do they share any common traits? What is it specifically that makes them anxious? I want to focus specifically on Swedish learners aged around 15 to 19, as this group is under-researched and relatively unique in the world of EFL. These learners are quite advanced, usually between the B1 and B2 level, but younger than the most researched group within this area (being around 18 to 25 years old).

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