Teacher’s Role In Alleviating Anxiety Among Second Language Learners

Feelings of nervousness, apprehension and fear are common among learners in theprocess of second language acquisition (SLA). Extensive studies have shown negativecorrelation between anxiety and language performance. Modern communicative languageteaching approaches have put more requirements on learners’ communicative skills. However,the existence of foreign language anxiety (FLA) prevents them from achieving the desiredgoal.In light of social constructivism, humanism, and social interactionism, the authoranalyzes the important position of teacher in the process of anxiety-alienation and proposesthat the role of the teacher under social constructivist model may successfully reducelanguage anxiety. In this model, the teacher, based on the learners’ feeling and personal needs,works as a mediator rather than a dominator to lead students to construct their own knowledgesystem actively in an interactive teaching and learning environment, thus alleviates theanxious feeling in learners.The study utilizes the combination of quantitative and qualitative research approaches.The quantitative research investigates the current anxiety level of non-English-majorundergraduates with the instrument of foreign language classroom anxiety scale (FLCAS)questionnaire. It proves the common existence of FLA in language class and then identifiesthe relation between anxiety and the factor of language teacher. The qualitative component isdone through class observation and interviews. The results show the common manifestationsof FLA. It also indicates the close tie between learners’ anxious feeling and teachers’instruction. With the support of second-hand data from previous studies, it reaches theconclusion that, the role of teacher within social constructive model, by raising awareness ofanxious behavior, shifting traditional role, designing appropriate tasks and cultivatingemotionally safe milieu, can effectively alleviate anxiety among second language learners.Based on this kind of role, the author suggests some pedagogical implications in the end.