Foreign Language Listening Anxiety: A Self-Presentation Theory

When it comes to communicating and listening to others, everyone has their apprehensions. Whether it is how they will come across in conversation, or a worry they will say the wrong thing, it is enough to make any average person nervous. Now imagine having these same anxieties, but also having to face them in a completely different language than your own. In Harumi Kimura’s journal article, “Foreign Language Listening Anxiety: a Self-Presentational”, she explores the anxieties and the psychological repercussions faced by second language listeners. Using the Self Presentation theory as a basis for her study, Kimura discovered truth to her hypothesis, and created greater insight into problems faced by second language listeners.
To begin it
To define, social anxiety is the “fear experienced in interactional contexts”, and worry is “an anxious apprehension about possible future, negative events” (Kimura, 2017, p 145). To separate general worry from second language listener worry, Kimura added a component to the study called a general disposition to worry. This component was necessary for the validity of the study, since everyone exhibits some capacity of worry. After analyzing the different aspects that may hinder the research, the study began. “The survey participants were 1,177 Japanese university students of English who were taking required English classes at the time of study (Kimura, 2017, p.146). At a mean age of nineteen years old, the students participating in the study attended multiple schools and studied in a variety of academic areas. Divided into two groups, students were placed into high or low listening proficiency groups. This became the independent variable of the study. To measure their listening anxiety students were administered three questionnaires that focused on each area of study by professors of the university. The areas of study, or dependent variables, included self-focused apprehension, task focused apprehension, social anxiety, and general disposition to worry. On top of the written aspect of the study they also conducted “think-aloud sessions”, which were used to understand the thought process that