Anxiety reduction sessions in foreign language classrooms

ABSTRACT

This study examined the effect of anxiety reduction sessions conducted in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms. EFL anxiety reduction sessions were developed based on two assumptions derived from a rational emotive therapy approach. The sessions consisted of three methods: (a) cognitive–affective talk, (b) reflective self-talk, and (c) positive self-talk. Eight classes of roughly 25 first-year undergraduate students were divided into two groups. During 6 weeks, students in the treatment group engaged in the three methods sequentially for two rounds, whereas those in the control group received regular instruction. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed. Quantitative data were collected by means of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) given before and after the six sequential sessions. Results of t-tests revealed that the FLCAS scores of the treatment group significantly decreased compared with those of the control group. To explore how the treatment group’s beliefs concerning EFL were modified through the anxiety reduction sessions, written scripts from the sessions were analysed using thematic analysis. Results suggested that the sessions were effective in reducing EFL students’ anxiety by changing irrational beliefs.

KEYWORDS:

• Language anxiety reduction
• foreign language classroom anxiety scale (FLCAS)
• learner beliefs
• self-talk
• Japanese undergraduate EFL students

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI [Grant Number JP17K02938].