Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety and Self-Esteem: the relation between the Two Psychological Aspects explained through A Survey among University Students

Abstract

The topic of this paper is the relationship between Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety (FLSA) and self-esteem. They are two psychological aspects which play an important role during the process of Foreign Language acquisition. In fact, several studies showed how self-image is a factor that has a prominent role in studying a foreign language, especially when the communication is oral. Most of them focused on the effect of self-esteem or of self-efficacy on academic achievement, while the present dissertation investigates the characteristics of the relationship between the level of self-esteem and Language Speaking Anxiety. In order to achieve this aim, a sample of students of foreign languages department at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice was asked to answer two questionnaires. The first questionnaire is inspired by the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) by Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope, while the second questionnaire is the Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale. The objective of the survey is to understand the nature of the relationship between the level of self-esteem of the students and their degree of Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety.