Why do some young learners drop foreign languages? A focus on learner-internal variables

Jean‐Marc Dewaele · Helen Thirtle

71 citations0/0 files storedInternational Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism

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EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning Second Language Acquisition and Learning Second Language Learning and Teaching

Abstract

The present study focuses on 79 young teenagers enrolled in foreign language (FL) classes in a London school. Having to decide whether to pursue the study of FLs, three groups emerged: those wishing to pursue FL classes, those having decided to abandon FL classes, and those still undecided about further FL study. A comparison of the three groups on a range of learner-internal variables (i.e. sociobiographical and psychological variables) revealed that those who had decided to abandon further FL instruction were more likely to have English as a first language and suffered from significantly higher levels of Foreign Language Anxiety. The findings and some implications for FL teaching are discussed.

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References

1986Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety 1967Language in Relation to a Unified Theory of the Structure of Human Behavior 1998Conceptualizing Willingness to Communicate in a L2: A Situational Model of L2 Confidence and Affiliation 2001Language anxiety and achievement 2002Willingness to Communicate in a Second Language: The Japanese EFL Context 1994Examination of Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope's Construct of Foreign Language Anxiety: The Case of Students of Japanese 1989Anxiety and Second‐Language Learning: Toward a Theoretical Clarification*2006Anxiety and Speaking English as a Second Language

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