Language Anxiety as a Major Impediment in Learning/Teaching English

Abstract

Feelings of anxiety, apprehension and nervousness are commonly expressed by second/foreign language learners in learning to speak a second/foreign language. These feelings are considered to exert a potentially negative and detrimental effect on communication in the target language. I shall dwell on my own experience as a practitioner of ELT, and narrate the lessons that I learnt by trial and error method. I can divide my class in four distinct groups, (the Rural Hindi group /the Urban Hindi group/ the Classroom Exposure group and the Classroom & Social Exposure group; RH/UH/CE/CSE) as they sit together in the Engineering class. Since I am more interested in the psychological aspect of language anxiety, I have used humour, relaxation and even distraction to therapeutic effects.