Anxiety and Formal Second/Foreign Language Learning

I will consider briefly the inverted-U model, facilitating and debili-tating anxiety and state trait anxiety. I will also examine the relationship of these concepts to second-language learning. Finally, I will present the work accomplished in the area of foreign-language classroom anxiety. The inverted-U model is dependent on the concept of arousal, which is defined in the Longman Dictionary of Psychology and Psychiatry (1984) as a state of alertness and readiness for action (p. 60). The model states that when arousal is low, performance is low. Then, for a time, as arousal increases, so does performance, to an optimal point. As arousal increases further, performance falls ultimately to zero (Lundberg, 1982). It has been theorized that stress (anxiety) may function in a similar man-ner (McGrath, 1982). The inverted-U model has seldom, if ever, been tested in the second-language classroom. But research has suggested and been interpreted in a way that indicates the presence of this uni-dimensional construct. For ex-