RESEARCH ON RISK-TAKING, ANXIETY AND SHYNESS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING
Keywords:
risk-taking, shyness, foreign language anxiety, foreign language learningAbstract
Research in the field of foreign language learning (FLL) has indicated that different individual factors interact and affect language learning. Investigating the role of risk-taking and foreign language anxiety as well as their relationship has attracted the attention of a number of FLL researchers. Slavkov and Séror (2019) define linguistic risk as an authentic, autonomous communicative act where learners are pushed out of their linguistic and cultural comfort zone. According to Ely (1986) risk-taking is an individual’s tendency to assume risks in using the foreign language in the foreign language class. Students learning a foreign language are constantly exposed to situations in which they have to deal with phonological, lexical-semantical, grammatical, and cultural alterity, so they are challenged to make fundamental changes in the way they think, write, or speak, and they have to take risks (Dittman, 2018). Thus, students should develop a positive view regarding errors and recognize them as a FLL experience, not as a failure. In such learning environment, students become risk-takers which makes them more active and productive. Foreign language anxiety is a complex learning experience which causes cognitive, emotional, linguistic, and physical difficulties, and negatively affects FLL (MacIntyre, 2017). Studies have revealed that foreign language anxiety and risk-taking show a negative correlation. Furthermore, it has been found that students’ shyness correlates with foreign language anxiety and risk-taking, which makes shyness another important individual variable in FLL. The main objective of the present study was to investigate the relationship between risk-taking and foreign language anxiety, and the relationship between risk-taking and shyness among Croatian students learning English, German, Spanish and Italian (N=242). Two research instruments were applied in the study: Anxiety Scales (MacIntyre and Gardner, 1984) and Language Class Risk-taking Scale (Ely, 1986). The Croatian translations of the questionnaires (Mihaljević Djigunović, 2002) were administered to the participants. Self-perception of shyness was applied as the measure of shyness for the purpose of this study. Statistically significant negative correlations between language risk-taking and anxiety, as well as between risk-taking and shyness were established in all language groups. Since risk-taking can be learned and developed (Al-Obaydi, 2020), students who develop risk-taking ability overcome or reduce shyness more easily than students who are not risk-takers (Santos i Barcelos, 2018). As a result, risk-takers are more active and speak more often in the foreign language class which helps them develop their oral skills. The results obtained in this research can help foreign language teachers to gain a better insight into the importance of risk-taking, foreign language anxiety and shyness in foreign language learning and teaching.
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