Affective factors in Korean as a Foreign Language: anxiety and beliefs

Abstract

This study investigated changes in levels of anxiety about learning a foreign language (FL) and in the language beliefs of first-year Korean-as-a-foreign-language (KFL) students in a US university throughout a year. Twelve students who enrolled in both of the two semesters of the first-year Korean I and II classes participated in this study. The Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) and Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) were used. The results showed that there were significant differences between first-semester FLCAS scores and second-semester FLCAS scores, with the differences indicating that as students progressed in their study of Korean, their anxiety increased. Moreover, students who demonstrated high achievement during the first semester experienced increased anxiety about learning Korean during the next semester. Regarding beliefs, there were no significant differences between the BALLI scores of the first semester and those of the second semester, but they correlated positively. In fact, students who had positive attitudes towards the Korean language and towards learning Korean developed positive attitudes or continued to have positive attitudes throughout the year. In addition, pedagogical tips such as teaching culture through linguistic elements and out-of-class activities to motivate students are discussed.

Keywords:

• Korean as a Foreign Language (KFL)
• anxiety
• beliefs
• affective factors
• less commonly taught language
• learner differences

Acknowledgements

I appreciate the anonymous reviewers of the journal for their insightful feedback. I also express my appreciation to Dr. Schallert and Dr. Horwitz for their help during the revision process.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here [10.1080/07908318.2014.918626|0|0|2014].

Notes

1. The Defense Language Institute (DLI) categorised languages into four levels of difficulty for native speakers of English, and Category I languages, mostly European languages, are relatively easy languages to learn, but the Category IV languages are hard to learn. The Category IV languages such as Arabic, Mandarin, and Korean require 64 weeks of instruction.

2. There were three heritage Korean students, but they were classified as ‘novices’ after a test with the instructor because of their very limited knowledge of the Korean language and culture. They were all male students and their primary language at home was English. They had not taken official Korean classes before, and their Korean was very limited.

3. For the items of FLCAS and BALLI, please refer to the supplementary files published with the online version of this article.

4. Because of the small sample size, a nonparametric test, the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test, was also run. However, it showed the same results indicating significant differences.

5. Spearman's rho was used to check the correlation coefficient among the variables. It is a nonparametric version of the Pearson correlation and it is used when the number of participants is low.

6. TaLK stands for Teach and Learn in Korea. For more information, see http://www.talk.go.kr//talk/talk/talkhme/main.jsp

7. EPIK stands for English Program in Korea. For more information, see http://www.epik.go.kr/