English as a Second Language Students and English Language Anxiety : Issues in the Mainstream Classroom

RESEARCH IN THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH • VOLUME 36 • FEBRUARY 2002 This study addresses issues of English language anxiety in two settings: English as a second language and mainstream classrooms. Participants were 178 middle-school Mexican immigrant students attending school in the U.S. Participants were given the English Language Anxiety Scale, which was analyzed with three statistical tests: paired t-tests to analyze broad levels of anxiety between ESL and mainstream classes; ANCOVAs to identify how levels of anxiety correlated with the specific factors of years in the U.S., levels of academic achievement, listening and speaking skills, reading and writing skills, and gender; and an exploratory factor analysis to identify additional factors contributing to anxiety. A second data set, focus group transcripts, was analyzed to identify additional factors and coping strategies. Results showed several related but different types of English language anxiety and a significant gender difference. The focus groups revealed that interaction with Chicano students raised anxiety levels and that such strategies as avoidance were used to reduce anxiety. The paper concludes with recommendations for teaching and research that recognize the complexity of anxiety for English language learners.