Teaching anxiety in foreign language classroom: A review of literature

Abstract

Foreign language teaching anxiety is a complex phenomenon recently receiving increasing attention. Negative emotions, such as anxiety, may significantly impact a teacher’s professional practices, identity, and student’s ability to learn a foreign language. Recognizing such feelings is crucial for language teachers, learners, and researchers to improve language education quality and promote successful learning outcomes. Therefore, this narrative research review examines the causes, effects, and possible interventions for anxiety about foreign language teaching. This review aims to explore the current state of research on the topic, identify gaps in the literature, and suggest future research directions. This review provides a narrative synthesis of the literature on FLTA through a systematic, comprehensive search on teaching anxiety among foreign language teachers. The study highlights that students and EFL teachers are prone to anxiety during the language teaching-learning process. When EFL teachers try to alleviate their students’ anxiety, they may experience anxiety that can negatively impact their teaching behavior. The literature on teacher foreign language anxiety (TFLA) is sparse compared with EFL learners’ studies. Researchers have yet to explore the unique psychology of EFL teachers. Hence, the consequences of such an experience are highly questionable. Therefore, it is essential to address EFL teacher anxiety before evaluating how teachers can alleviate student anxiety.