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ABSTRACT
This study on anxiety was undertaken among 203 students who were largely from a rural Tamil speaking setting in South India. Most of them were first generation college goers. The purpose was to investigate the anxiety experienced among the students learning all subjects in English for the first time in their lives. Horwitz's FLCA (Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety) Scale was adapted to assess the levels of four types of anxiety, namely, communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation, anxiety of the classroom and test anxiety. The findings revealed that the participants had a high level of all the four types of anxiety, with a combined mean of 3.31. The research has significant implications for the teaching and learning of ESL in this part of the world.
Keywords: language anxiety, ESL, rural India, college students
Introduction
Anxiety is a complex and multi-faceted construct often associated with language learning. Studies have been done on the effects of anxiety on second language learning as early as the 1970s. Language anxiety has been conceptualized as "a distinct complex of self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings and behaviours related to classroom language learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learning process" Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986, p. 128). While anxiety has often been researched in the west (e.g., Bailey et al, 2000; Horwitz et al, 1986; Mclntyre & Gardner, 1994; Phillips, 1992), not much has been conducted among the students in rural South India. It is often assumed that since English is one of the national languages in India along with Hindi, learning it as a subject in schools and colleges would not be problematic. However, Indian learners do have anxiety when learning and using the English Language. Many learners express their lack of ability and sometimes even acknowledge their failure in learning to speak another language. These learners may be excellent at learning other skills but they claim to have a "mental block" against learning a foreign language (Horwitz et al, 1986, p. 125).
This research was conducted among college students in rural South India who were observed to experience anxiety learning all subjects in English. The prevailing states of anxiety during the first year of study of the respondents were examined by asking the question: What are the...