Learners’ anxiety in audiographic conferences: a discursive psychology approach to emotion talk

• Published in: ReCALL (Cambridge, England) Vol. 21; no. 1; pp. 3 - 17
• Main Authors: de los Arcos, Beatriz, Coleman, James A., Hampel, Regine
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.01.2009
• Subjects: Anxiety; audiographic conferencing; Audiolingual Skills; Beliefs; Bulletin Boards; Classroom Communication; Classroom Techniques; Computer Assisted Instruction; Computer Mediated Communication; Distance Education; Distance language learning; Educational psychology; Educational Technology; Electronic Learning; Emotions; Environment; Foreign Countries; Foreign language learning; Internet; Interviews; Language Acquisition; Language Aptitude; Motivation; Nonverbal Communication; Open Universities; Resistance (Psychology); Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning; Spanish; Student Attitudes; Tutors; United Kingdom; United Kingdom; Distance language learning; anxiety; audiographic conferencing
• ISSN: 0958-3440; 1474-0109
• DOI: 10.1017/S0958344009000111

Success and failure in language learning are partly determined by the learners’ ability to regulate their emotions. Negative feelings are more likely to frustrate progress, while positive ones make the task of learning a second language (L2) a more effective experience. To date no significant body of research has been carried out into the role of anxiety in the field of computer-assisted language learning (CALL). The present study adopts discursive psychology (DP) as its methodological approach to examine anxiety not as a psychological state, but as a social construct in the context of an audiographic conferencing tool. After interviewing a sample of learners of Spanish at the Open University (OU), our findings reveal a strong connection between emotion and learner beliefs.