Teacher Cognition about Sources of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Listening Anxiety: A Qualitative Study
Lori Xingzhen Gao, Lawrence Jun Zhang, Marek TesarABSTRACT. The anxiety that accompanies English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) listening comprehension is difficult to detect and access. Such anxiety will prevent the students from actively and strategically participating in the listening process. This qualitative study aims to explore teachers’ cognitions about the sources of students’ anxiety during their EFL listening in the classroom in a Chinese tertiary context. The participants’ cognitions were elicited through in-depth pre-observation interviews, consecutive classroom observations for one semester, and stimulated recall interviews after each classroom observation. The study found that 16 sources organized into four categories contributed to EFL listening anxiety, among which students’ unfamiliarity with cultural backgrounds and topics in the category of input played a prominent role. Pedagogical implications for reducing EFL listening anxiety are also discussed.
Keywords: English as a Foreign Language; teacher cognition; foreign language listening anxiety (FLLA)
How to cite: Gao, Lori Xingzhen, Lawrence Jun Zhang, and Marek Tesar (2020). “Teacher Cognition about Sources of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Listening Anxiety: A Qualitative Study,” Linguistic and Philosophical Investigations 19: 64–85. doi: 10.22381/LPI1920203
Received 3 August 2019 • Received in revised form 5 December 2019
Accepted 9 December 2019 • Available online 25 December 2019