SESSION 4C
Jessica Tilley
Anxiety in the Foreign Language Classroom

Abstract
Yoshie, M. et al, 2016 present scientific evidence for why people “stumble and stall just when [they] least want to”. Individual differences in L2 acquisition evidently and undeniably affect learning processes and outcomes (Dornyei and Skehan, 2008; Chai et al, 2016). My assertion is that student FLCA, teacher anxiety and anxieties in general (as well as other L2 learning differences) are inherently intertwined. Consequently this analysis addresses these two kinds of anxiety with a degree of interchangeability. My investigation of Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety and anxiety in general is divided into two distinct perspectives: from the point of the student and from the point of the teacher. I assess how this anxiety shapes the individual student’s learning experience, the overall classroom experience and consequently the teacher’s experience too. With strong parallels to past and current literature I reveal how ongoing analysis of FLCA is essential in theorizing effective pedagogical approaches. Furthermore I demonstrate how anxiety, FLCA, interdisciplinary general classroom anxiety and other individual differences are intrinsically intertwined and academically of multifarious relevance.

Bio
Jessica is a Sydney based language facilitator at UNSWIL. She holds a Master degree in Applied Linguistics, a Bachelor degree in English Literature and has worked in the field of English Second Language education for 15 years. Jessica has spent extensive periods of time working on a full-time basis while conducting multifarious research locally and internationally. She has worked in Adult Migrant English services, on the Skills for Education and Employment programs and in Language Literacy and Numeracy Programs for youth. In addition she is the director of OGNIB a non-profit organisation that promotes positive social change in remote communities.