Granschow and Sparks - Anxiety About Foreign Language Learning Among High School Women

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Anxiety about Foreign Language Learning among High School WomenAuthor(s): Leonore Ganschow and Richard SparksSource: The Modern Language Journal, Vol. 80, No. 2 (Summer, 1996), pp. 199-212Published by: Wiley on behalf of the National Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations

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Anxiety

bout

ForeignLanguage

Learning

among High

School

Women

LEONORE GANSCHOW

Department

f

Educational

Psychology

Miami

University, xford,

OH

45056

EMail:

ganschow

@msmail.

muohio.edu

RICHARD SPARKS

Department f

Education

College

f

Mt.

St.

Joseph

Mt.

St.

Joseph,

OH

45233

EMail:

richard

[email protected]

This

study

xamined

the

relationship

between

anxiety

nd

native

language

skill

and

for-

eign

language

aptitude

measures

among

154

high

school

foreign

anguage

learners.

Three

levels of

anxiety

were

identified

using

the

Foreign Language

Classroom

Anxiety

cale

or

FLCAS

(Horwitz,

Horwitz,

&

Cope,

1986).

Low

Anxiety

LO-ANX)

studentswere

expected

to

have

significantly

tronger

native

language

skills

and

foreign anguage

aptitude

than

High Anxiety

HI-ANX)

students nd

significantly igher

foreign

anguage grades.

Aver-

age

Anxiety

AVE-ANX)

studentswere

expected

to score

somewhere

n-between.

indings

showed overall

significant

ifferences

mong

the

groups

on

nine

variables,

ncluding

meas-

ures of

native

language

phonology/orthography,

emantics,

nd

verbal

memory;

foreign

language

aptitude;

eighth-grade

English grade;

and

end-of-year

oreign

anguage grade.

On

measures

of


ighth-grade

English,

and

foreign

language

grade, LO-ANX and AVE-ANXstudentsoutperformedHI-ANX students. On a foreign

language aptitude

measure

and

foreign

anguage grade,

LO-ANX

students

utperformed

both AVE-

and HI-ANX

students.On

measures of

verbal

memory

nd

reading

comprehen-

sion,

LO-ANX

students

outperformed

HI-ANX

students.

Discriminant

analysis

results

showed

that

all test

measures

but one

were

significant

n

distinguishing

he

three

groups.

Among

others,

mplications

nclude

the

suggestion

that

skill

n

one's

native

anguage

and

aptitude

for

earning

a

foreign anguage

may

affect

nxiety

evel

and that

the

FLCAS

may

provide

an

early

ndicator of

basic

language problems.

FOR A

NUMBER

OF YEARS

FOREIGN

LAN-

guage

educators

have

hypothesized

hat

nxiety

impacts

on

foreign anguage learning.'

In

the

1970s and

1980s

researchers

xamined

students'

self-reports

f

anxiety

n

relation to

language

skill

measures,

uch

as final

course

grades

(Cur-

ran, 1976;

Guiora,

1983;

Stevick,

1980).

Stein-

berg

and

Horwitz

(1986)

studied the

effect f

environmentally

nduced

anxiety

on

oral

com-

munication in

a

foreign

language

and

found

that

students

experiencing

an

anxiety-produc-

ing

situation

attempted

to

convey

more con-

crete

messages

than

those

in a

non-anxiety-

producing

setting.

Krashen

(1982)

hypothe-

sized that

anxiety

contributes

negatively

o

an

affective

ilter,

whichmakes

an individual

ess

responsiveto language input.

While

many

scholars

have studied

general

language

anxiety

For

a

review

f this

research,

see

Horwitz

&

Young,

1991),

Horwitz,

Horwitz,

and

Cope

(1986)

were

the first

o

suggest

that

foreign

anguage

research

had

neither

defined

anxiety

that is

specific

to

foreign

language

learning

nor

described

the

effects f

anxiety

n

foreign

language

learning

in

classroom

set-

tings.

They hypothesized

that

anxiety specific

to

foreign

anguage

learning

parallels

three

re-

lated

performance

anxieties:

communication

apprehension,test nxiety, nd fearofnegative

evaluation.

Horwitz et

al.

further

peculated

that

foreign

language

anxiety

was

not

simply

the

combination of

the three

performance

nx-

ieties but

was

a

distinct

complex

of

self-

The

Modern

Language

ournal,

0,

ii

(1996)

0026-7902/96/199-212

$1.50/0

?1996 The

Modern

anguageJournal







200

The

Modern

anguage

ournal

0

(1996)

perceptions,

beliefs,

feelings,

nd

behaviors re-

lated

to

classroom

language

learning

arising

from

the

uniqueness

of the

(foreign)

language

learning process (p.

128).

They

hypothesized

that

performance

difficulties n a

foreign

an-

guage may

be due, in somemeasure,to

anxiety.

In

connection with their work

with

college

students

enrolled

in

foreign anguage

courses,

Horwitz,Horwitz,

nd

Cope

developed

the For-

eign

Language

Classroom

Anxiety

cale

(FLCAS)

(Horwitz,

Horwitz,

&

Cope,

1986).

The

FLCAS

is a

33-item,

forced choice

format

question-

naire that sks

questions

reflective

f

the three

performance-related

ctivities

communication

apprehension,

test

nxiety,

earof

negative

val-

uation),

but its

questions apply specifically

o

foreign language learning. In their initial

studies with the

instrument,

he authors found

that

foreign anguage

anxiety

was

experienced

by many

students

n

at least

some

aspects

of

foreign anguage learning.

Horwitz

(1991)

con-

ducted research

to

verify

he

reliability

nd con-

struct

alidity

f the

FLCAS

and

reported

a

sig-

nificant

negative

correlation between

anxiety

and

foreign language grades.

MacIntyre

and

Gardner

(1991a)

supported

Horwitz et al.'s

findings

by suggesting

that

foreign language

proficiency

increases as

anxiety

decreases.

However, heyraised the question of causality:

Does

anxiety

interact

with

pre-existing

lan-

guage

ability,

which,

in

turn,

impairs foreign

language

performance

or

does

poor

foreign

language performance

ead to

anxiety

s a

con-

sequence?

In

general,

they

have taken the

posi-

tion that

anguage

anxiety

an

play significant

causal

role

in

individual

differences

n

learning

a

foreign language,

and

they

place language

anxiety

under the

broader

category

of social

anxiety

(MacIntyre,

1995;

MacIntyre

&

Gard-

ner,

1991b).

We

(Sparks,

1995a;

Sparks

& Ganschow,1991,

1995a)

have

suggested

that

theories that

pro-

pose

affective

ifference

s

causal

factors n

for-

eign language

learning

must be

approached

withcaution

because of the

possible

confound-

ing

effects

of

language

variables.

Using

the

FLCAS

as

an

example,

we examined each

of

the

33

questions

on the scale

and estimated

that

60%

of the

questions

involved

comfort evel

with

expressive

or

receptive anguage.

Several

additional

questions

(15%)

involved

verbal

memoryfor language and speed of language

processing

(12%).

We noted

thatHorwitz et

al.

had failed to use

a

comparison group

in their

research,

and

they

did not assess

the students'

native

anguage

skillsor

foreign anguage

apti-

tude to

determine

if

highly

anxious

students

had

overt

or

subtle native

language learning

problems

r

weak

foreign anguage aptitude.

Au

(1988)

suggested

that failure

to control

for

the

level

of

language

proficiency

n

research

tudies

investigating

econd

language

learning

s a se-

rious

methodological

weakness. We

(Sparks

&

Ganschow,

995a)

speculated

that

failure o

con-

trolforfirst nd

second

language

skill

n studies

involving

ffective ariables

does not allow re-

searchers

to determine

whether students with

low

levels

of

language

skill

might

be

experienc-

ing high anxiety

or low

motivation,

r

whether

high anxiety

r

low motivation

might

ffect tu-

dents with

higher

and lower evels

of

language

skill

differentially.

o

date,

proponents

of

the

anxietyhypothesis ave not publishedresearch

that

xplores

the

relationship mong

native

an-

guage

skills,

oreign anguage aptitude,

nd for-

eign language

anxiety.

LINGUISTIC CODING PROBLEMS

AND

THEIR

RELATIONSHIP TO ANXIETY

In 1991we

introduced

the

LinguisticCoding

Deficit

Hypothesis

nto the

foreign

anguage

lit-

erature.

Recently,

we

changed

the term Defi-

cit

to

Differences

n order to

highlight

he

idea of ndividualdifferencesn basic language

skills,

o

clarify

hat

anguage

performance

x-

ists

on

a

continuum,

nd to

emphasize

our

hy-

pothesis

that there

s not

a

distinct

ntity

uch

as a

foreign language learning

disability

(Sparks

&

Ganschow,

1995a).

Initially,

he

hy-

pothesis

was introduced

n the

learning

disabil-

ities literature

o

describe

difficulties hat

this

population

has

learning

a

foreign

language

(Sparks,

Ganschow,

&

Pohlman,

1989).

How-

ever,

many

tudents

without

earning

disabilities

have been

found to have

similar difficulties

with

foreign anguage learning

(see Ganschow

&

Sparks,

1995;

Ganschow,

Sparks,

Anderson,

Javorsky,

kinner,

&

Patton, 1994;

Sparks

&

Ganschow, 1993a,b;

Sparks,

Ganschow,

Flu-

harty,

&

Little, 1996;

Sparks,

Ganschow,

Ja-

vorsky,

ohlman,

&

Patton,

1992a).

The

Linguis-

tic

Coding

Differences

Hypothesis

is derived

from

native

language

research,

especially

the

work

of Vellutino

and

Scanlon

(1986),

who

found that

poor

readers

and writers

rimarily

had

problems

with

the structural

phonolog-

ical/orthographic nd syntactic) ut not mean-

ing

(semantic)

aspects

of

language.

Poor

readers

have been

foundto have

specific

diffi-

culty

with

the

phonological/orthographic,

or

sound and

sound-symbol,

code

of

language







Leonore

anschownd Richard

parks

201

(Bradley

&

Bryant,

985;

Stanovich,1986,

1988a;

Wagner

&

Torgesen,

1987).2

In the

Linguistic

Coding

Differences

Hypothesis

we

proposed

that skills

in

one's

native

language

in

the

phonological/orthographic,syntactic,

nd

se-

mantic codes

provide

the basic foundationfor

foreign

anguage

learning.

Further,

we

specu-

lated

that

he

majority

f

poor

foreign anguage

learners,

or underachievers

(see

Pimsleur,

Sundland,

&

McIntyre,

964)

have the

mostdif-

ficulty

with the

phonological/orthographic

s-

pects

of

foreign anguage

learning.

n our

1991

article and more

recently,

n a

response

to

Mac-

Intyre

on

suspected

causal factors

n

foreign

language

learning Sparks

&

Ganschow,

1995a),

we

suggested

thatnative

anguage

skill nd stu-

dents' aptitudeforforeign anguages maycon-

found

findings

bout the role

of

anxiety

when

learning

a

foreign anguage

in traditional lass-

room

settings.

n

this

view,

tudents

with ubtle

or overtdifferences n native

anguage

skill re

thought

to exhibit

weaker

performance

n for-

eign

language

learning,

which

may

or

may

not

affect heir

attitude

and

motivation

owardsor

anxiety

bout

learning

a

foreign anguage.

The

critical

point

here is that one's level

of

native

language

skill and

aptitude

for

earning

a for-

eign

language

should be considered when ex-

aminingtherole ofanxiety nforeign anguage

learning.

THE

IMPORTANCE

OF

NATIVE

LANGUAGE SKILL AND

FOREIGN

LANGUAGE APTITUDE IN

FOREIGN

LANGUAGE LEARNING

Since

the

publication

of

our

1991

article,

we

and our

colleagues

have

conducted a numberof

empirical

studies on various

facets

of

foreign

language

learning

among good

and

poor

for-

eign

language

learners. In

general,

results of

our research

have

provided

support

for

the

Lin-

guistic

Coding

Differences

Hypothesis

n

that

good

foreign language

learners

have been

found to

exhibit

significantly

tronger

native

oral

and

written

anguage

skills

nd

foreign

an-

guage

aptitude

than

poor

foreign

language

learners. These

differences

have been

demon-

strated at both the

secondary

and

postsecond-

ary

evels of

education. All of

the studieshave

used native

anguage

skill

nd

foreign anguage

aptitude measures to studydifferences n the

skills

of

good

and

poor

foreign

anguage

learn-

ers.3

Most

germane

to the

present study

was an

investigation

of the

relationship

between for-

eign language

aptitude

and native

language

skills and

anxiety among

low,

moderate,

and

high

anxious

college foreign

anguage

learners

who

were identified

through

Horwitz's

FLCAS

(Ganschow

et

al.,

1994).

In that

tudy, ignificant

group

differences

y

anxiety

evelwere found

on measures of native

language phonology/

orthography,

overall

reading,

oral

language,

and

foreign anguage aptitude.

No differences

were

found

among

the three

groups

on seman-

tic

(vocabulary)

and short-term erbal

memory

measures.

High-anxious

foreign anguage

learn-

ers achieved

relatively

ower

final

grades

in for-

eign language

courses

over two semesters han

moderate

and low-anxious

earners. This

study

also

provided

empirical support

forour conten-

tion that anguage skills re likely o accountfor

a

significant art

of the variance n

foreign

an-

guage learning

and that

n the examination of

affectivedifference uch as

anxiety,

ne must

consider the

possible confounding

ffects f an

individual's

basic

language

skills

(Sparks

&

Ganschow, 1991, 1993d,

1995a).

PURPOSE OF STUDY

The

purpose

of

the

present

study

was

to

ex-

amine the

relationship

between

anxiety

nd na-

tive language skill and foreign anguage apti-

tude measures

among

a

population

of

high

school

foreign anguage

learners.

The

study

if-

fered from

the aforementioned related

study

(Ganschow

et

al.,

1994)

in

that

high

school,

rather

han

college

students,

were

nvolved,

nd

the

present

population

was

substantiallyarger,

consisting

f an

entire

class of

first-year

oreign

language

students at

a

private

school

for

women.

As in

the

previous study,

tudentswere

divided

into

high

anxious

(HI-ANX),

average

anxious

(AVE-ANX),

and

low-anxious

(LO-

ANX)

groups

based on their overall

perfor-

mance

on the

FLCAS

(Horwitz,

Horwitz,

&

Cope,

1986).

Drawing

from

the

findings

of the

anxiety

tudy

n the

college population,

we

hy-

pothesized

that

there would

be:

(a)

significant

overall

group

differences

y

nxiety

evel on the

testing

measures used in

the

study

see

descrip-

tion of

measures in the

Appendix

and

under

Testing

Instruments n

the

Methodology

section); (b)

significant

differences

between

HI-ANX and

LO-ANX studentson measures

of

nativelanguage phonology/orthography,ead-

ing

comprehension,

foreign anguage aptitude,

eighth-grade

English grade,

and

final

foreign

language

grade-AVE-ANX

students were ex-

pected

to score

somewhere n-between

HI- and







202

TheModern

anguage

ournal

0

(1996)

LO-ANX

students;

and

(c)

no

significant

between-group

differences n

measures of na-

tive

anguage

vocabulary

and verbal

memory.

METHODOLOGY

Subjects

Subjects

were

154 females who

attended a

highly

elective,

single

sex

college

preparatory

high

school and were enrolled in

the first f a

3-year

foreign

language

course

sequence.4,

5

There

were 143 ninth

graders

and

12

tenth

graders.6

The mean

age

of the

studentswas 14

years,

7

months,

with n

age range

of 13

years,

months

o

16

years,

months.

oreign

anguages

included

Spanish

(N

=

78),

French

(N

=

52),

German (N=16), and Latin (N= 8). Each stu-

dent

received

parental permission

to

partici-

pate

in the

study.

Testing

nstruments

The

test

battery

dependent

measures)

in-

cluded

measures of


semantics,

verbal

memory,

and

foreign

lan-

guage aptitude. Eighth-gradeEnglish

and end-

of-the

year foreign anguage grades

were also

dependent

measures. The test

battery

s de-

scribed in the

Appendix.

The

Foreign Language

Classroom

Anxiety

Scale

(FLCAS)

(Horwitz,

Horwitz,

&

Cope,

1986)

was the

independent

measure used

to

classify

the 154 students

into

one

of three

groups:

HI-ANX, AVE-ANX,

nd

LO-ANX. Stu-

dents

were

grouped

in

order

to

compare

their

performance

on the

testing

measures.

(The

procedure

for

forming roups

is described

be-

low.)

The

33-item

nstrument

esigned

to meas-

ure

foreign

language

anxiety

includes such

questions as: I alwaysfeel that the other stu-

dents

speak

the

foreign anguage

better

than

I

do

and

It

frightens

me

when

I

don't

under-

stand what the

teacher

is

saying

n the

foreign

language.

Its authors

have conducted

several

validity

and

reliability

tudies on

the FLCAS

showing atisfactory

eliability,

nternal

consis-

tency,

onstruct

alidity,

nd test-retest

eliability

(Horwitz,

1991;Horwitz,

Horwitz,

&

Cope,

1986).

They

have

reported

that their

measure is

.

independent

f the

confounding

ffects f

(gen-

eral)

test

nxiety

Horwitz,

1991,

p.

39).

Procedure

Classroom

teachers dministered

he FLCAS

during

a class

period

at the

beginning

of

the

fourth

uarter

of

the school

year.

We wroteout

directions

for

completing

the FLCAS for the

teachers. The

students

recorded

their answers

on scantron sheets that were read

into

a

data

base.

Upon

administration

and

scoring

of

the

FLCAS,

we

divided and classified the 154 stu-

dents

into three

groups according

to their

scores on the FLCAS. Because the FLCAS does

not have a

standard

scoring procedure,

we

devised a

standard

and

consistentmethod

for

determining

group

membership.

We accom-

plished

this

procedure

by

using

an ideal an-

swer

for

each of the 33

questions,

calculating

the

group's

sample

mean for

the

33

questions,

and

determining

he

degree

to which students

deviated from he

sample

mean. An ideal an-

swer was

either

strongly agree/agree

or

strongly isagree/disagree,

depending upon

the direction

of the

question.

Students

coring

one

or more standard

deviations above

the

overall

sample

mean

were identified

as

LO-

ANX;

those between

+.99

and -.99 standard

de-

viations

from

the

sample

mean

were identified

as

AVE-ANX;

and those

one or more standard

deviations

below the

sample

mean

were identi-

fied as HI-ANX.

Table

1

presents

the number

and percentof students dentified n each ANX

category

nd

the Mean

anxiety

evel and

range

for each identified

group.7

During

the first

2

to

3 weeks

of

the

school

year

we

administered

the tests

designed

for

TABLE

1

Number

nd

Percent f Students

dentified

n Each

Anxiety ategory

nd

Mean

Anxiety

evel

and

Range

Anxiety ategory

Number

Percentage

Mean

Range

LO-ANX

29

18.8

+1.56 +1.08

to +2.79

AVE-ANX 98 63.7

-.18

-0.89 to +0.95

HI-ANX

27

17.5

-1.16

-1.02

to-1.42

Note. tudents

eviating

ne standard

eviation

r

more

bove

the Mean were dentified s

LO-ANX;

thosebetween

.99

and

-.99,

AVE-ANX;

nd those

one standard

eviation

r

morebelow

the

Mean,

HI-

ANX.







204

TheModern

anguage ournal

0

(1996)

TABLE 3

Significant

ifferences

etween

Groups

by

Anxiety

evel

Measure

LO-ANX

LO-ANX

AVE-ANX

vs.

AVE-ANX

vs. HI-ANX

vs. HI-ANX

PHONOLOGY/ORTHOGRAPHY

PHONEME

DELETION

*

*

WRAT

SPELL

*

*

WRMT BASIC

SKILLS

*

SEMANTICS

NELSON

READING

*

*

PEABODY

VOCAB

MEMORY

WJ

MEMORY

CLUSTER

FL APTITUDE

MLAT LONG

FORM

*

*

*

ENG 8 GRADE * *

FL GRADE

*

*

*

*p

=

<

.05

F(2,151)

=

5.16;

p

=

.007,

and WRMT

BSC,

F(2,151)

=

5.05;

p

=

.008.

On WRAT

SP

and

PHON

DEL,

LO-ANX

and

AVE-ANX

outper-

formed

HI-ANX.

On the WRMT

BSC,

LO-ANX

outperformed

HI-ANX;

we

found

no differ-

ences

between

LO-ANX

and AVE-ANX

or be-

tween

AVE-ANX

and

HI-ANX.

The

hypothesis

that therewould be significant ifferences e-

tween

LO-ANX

and

HI-ANX

students

n meas-

ures

of

phonology/orthography

was

partially

supported.

On the

measures

of

semantics,

which

in-

cluded

PPVT-R

and

NELSON,

we

found

signifi-

cant

differences

on

one

measure,

NELSON,

F(2,151)

=

6.78;

p

=

.002.

Here,

LO-ANX and

AVE-ANX

outperformed

HI-ANX. We

found

no

differences

n

the

PPVT-R.

The

hypothesis

hat

there

would

be no

differences

among

the

groups

on the

vocabulary

measure

was

sup-

ported,

as was the findingof significant iffer-

ences

on the

reading

comprehension

measure.

On the

measure

of

verbal

memory,

WJMC,

we

found

a

significant

difference

favoring

LO-

ANX between

LO-ANX

and

HI-ANX,

F(2,151)

=

3.51;

p

=

.03.

This

finding

was

contrary

to

expectation.

On the

measure

of

foreign

anguage

aptitude,

MLAT

LF,

we

found

significant

differences

among

the

three

groups,

with

LO-ANX

outper-

forming

oth

AVE-

and

HI-ANX,

and

AVE-ANX

outperformingHI-ANX, F(2,151)

=

12.08; p

=

.0001.

This

finding

was

in accordance

withex-

pectation

of the

hypothesis.

On the

eighth-grade

nglish

grade,

we

found

significant

ifferences

mong

the

three

groups,

in

accordance

with

our

expectation,

F(2,151)

=

6.00;

p

=

.003.

Here

LO-ANX

and

AVE-ANX

out-

performed

HI-ANX;

there

were

no

differences

between

AVE-ANX

and

LO-ANX.

On the

end-of-year

oreign

anguage

grade,

the

hypothesis

was

supported,

with

LO-ANX

outperforming

both

AVE-ANX

and

HI-ANX

and AVE-ANXoutperforming I-ANX,F(2,151)

=

26.90;

p

=

.0001.

Using

a

chi-square

statistic,

we

performed

cross

tabulation

between

end-

of-year

oreign anguage

grades

and the

evel of

anxiety experienced

by subjects

in this

study.

The

results

howed

a

dependency

between

end-

of-year

rades

and

students'

evel

of

anxiety

n

the

FLCAS

(1X

with

6

df=

21.12;

p

=

.002).

Results

of the

discriminant

nalysis

showed

that

all

testing

measures

but

the

PPVT-R

were

significant

n

discriminating

the

anxiety

risk

groups.

Table

4

shows

the

percent

of students

correctly lassifiedin each anxietyriskgroup

and the

overall

error

rate.

As

the table

ndicates,

the

analysis

orrectly

lassified

60%

of

the low-

risk,

5%

of

the

average,

nd

63.3%

of the

high-

risk

groups.

Total

error

rate was

.47.

DISCUSSION

In this

study

we were

interested

n

determin-

ing

the

relationship

between

anxiety

evel

and

measures

of

native

language

skill,

foreign

an-

guage aptitude,

and

foreignlanguage grades

among

a

population

of

high

school women

enrolled

in

first-year

oreign

anguage

classes.

We

speculated

that

when

grouped

by

anxiety

level

on

the

FLCAS

(Horwitz,

Horwitz,

&

Cope,







Leonore anschow

nd Richard

parks

205

TABLE

4

Percentage

f Students lassified

nto Risk

Groups

ANXIETY

RISK

GROUPS

LOW AVERAGE HIGH

LOW

60

24

37

(N=

25)

AVERAGE 28

35

37

(N=

100)

HIGH

16.6

20

63.3

(N=

29)

ErrorRate

=

.47

Note.talic numbers ndicate

nxiety

isk

groups

correctly

lassified.

1986), ow-anxious tudentswouldperformbet-

ter

than

high-anxious

tudents

on measures of

native

language

skill

in the

phonological/

orthographic

domain,

on

a measure

of

foreign

language aptitude

(MLAT),

and on

end-of-year

foreign language grade.

Findings

clearly

sup-

ported

our

speculations.

We

found overall

dif-

ferences

among

women classified

n

HI-, AVE-,

and LO-ANX

groups

on

eight

of the

nine

vari-

ables,

seven of which had been

hypothesized

o

have

significant

differences.

We

found

the

greatest

differenceson native

language pho-

nology/orthographyPHON DEL, WRAT SP,

and

WRMT

BSC),

foreign language aptitude

(MLAT LF),

and

end-of-year

oreign

anguage

grade,

with tudents ound to be LO- and

AVE-

ANX

scoring significantly igher

than

HI-ANX

on most measures.

Findings

of the

discriminant

analysis

were

particularly nteresting

ecause of the

relatively

low

percentage

of

students

correctly

lassified

into

anxiety

isk

groups by

the

testing

measures

and the

large

error

rate

in

classifying ubjects

(47%).

The

highest

rate

of misclassification c-

curred in the

Average

group,

where

only

35%

were

correctly

lassified. The

other

two

groups

had at least

60%

of

the students

orrectly

lassi-

fied. These results

uggest

thateven

though,

n

general,

the more

anxious

studentshave lower

native

language

skills,

foreign

language apti-

tude,

and

end-of-year

rades,

there s

inconsis-

tency

nd

variability mong

the

anxiety

groups.

This

point

is illustrated n a

recent

paper

on

anxiety

nd

foreign

anguage learning,

n

which

we

speculated

that the

relationship

between

anxiety

and

language

skills

is not clear-cut

(Ganschow

et

al.,

1994).

In

the

present tudy

we

noted

that

a small

subgroup

of

highly

nxious

students

found the

study

of

foreign

anguage

easy

but were

nevertheless

highly

anxious,

as

measured

by

the

FLCAS.

Another

ubgroup

ex-

pressed

ow

anxiety

but found

foreign anguage

learning quite

difficult.

As

in

a

previous

study

on

anxiety

and

lan-

guage

skills

mong

college

students

Ganschow

et al., 1994), a

general

finding

ofthisstudywas

thatthe

overall

Mean score of HI-ANX students

was

in

the

average

to

above-average

ange

on

all

the

measures,

whereas

the overall

Mean

score

for LO-ANX students

was

in

the above

average

to

superior

range.

This

finding uggests,

n

gen-

eral,

that

t s not thatthe

HI-ANX studentshad

particular

difficulties ith

anguage

but,rather,

that

the LO-ANX students

had

specific

lan-

guage

strengths

that

made

foreign language

learning

perhaps

easier

and,

udging

from

per-

formanceon the FLCAS, less anxiety-produc-

ing

for them. Humes-Bartlo

1989)

also

found

that

poor

foreign language

learners showed

mild deficits

in

their native

language

when

compared

to

good

foreign

anguage

learners.

Although

the

poor

foreign anguage

learners n

her

study

scored

significantly

elow the

good

foreign language

learners on

language

skill

tasks,

their

cores

were not

far

below the

mean

of

the test.Humes-Bartlo

uggests

hat

low,

but

not

pathologically

ow scores

on

L1

tasks

sug-

gest

a

language processing

ystem

which s ade-

quate forL1 but is overloaded byL2 (p. 51).

In

the current

study,

students'

language

strengths

were

particularly

vident

in

their

basic

aptitude

for

learning

a

foreign

lan-

guage,

as measured

by

the

MLAT

LF,

where

LO-

ANX students cored almost one

standard

devi-

ation

higher

than HI-ANX students

M

=

112.7

vs.

M=

98.6).

Strength

n

foreign

anguage apti-

tude,

as measured

by

the MLAT

LF,

was also

reflected

in

students'

end-of-the-year oreign

language

grades,

where

LO-ANX

students

scored 1.3

quality points higher

than HI-ANX

students M = 3.4 vs.M = 2.1).The

finding

that

the mean

English

grade,

too,

was

in

the

supe-

rior

range

for

LO-ANX students

3.6

on a

4.0

scale)

but

in

the

average range

for

HI-ANX

stu-

dents

(3.1)

supports

the inference.

n

several

studies

we and

our

colleagues

have

found that

the

MLAT LF

distinguished ood

and

poor

for-

eign

language

learners

(Ganschow

&

Sparks,

1995;

Ganschow et

al., 1991, 1994;

Sparks

&

Ganschow,1995b,

n

press; Sparks

et

al., 1992a,

b,

1996)

and that he MLAT LF is

a

good predic-

toroffirst-yearoreign anguage grade (Sparks,

Ganschow,

&

Patton,

1995).

In a

recent

study,

Ehrman

and Oxford

(1995)

found that the

MLAT LF

showed

strong

correlations

with for-

eign language

speaking

and

reading

in

a

large







206

The

Modern

anguage ournal

0

(1996)

sample

of adults

in

intensive

raining

with

the

U.S.

Department

of

State.

Another

finding

of

the

study

was that

among

the

native

language

codes

(phonology/

orthography,

emantics),

differences

mong

the

groups

were best noted on tasks

measuring


kills. On the

pho-

nology/orthography

asks,

LO-ANX

students

outperformed

HI-ANX students on all

three

tasks

(WRAT

SP,

PHON

DEL,

and WRMT

BSC).

This

result

s consistent

with tudies

con-

ducted

by

Sparks,

Ganschow,

and

their col-

leagues

in

which


tasks

have

discriminated ble from ess

able

for-

eign

language

learners

(Ganschow

&

Sparks,

1995;

Ganschow et

al.,

1991, 1994;

Sparks

&

Ganschow,1995b, n press; Sparkset al., 1992a,

b,

1996).

In a

study

that

attempted

to

predict

English learning

by

Finnish children

over

a

three-year

period,

Service

(1992)

found that


tasks-pseudo-

word

repetition

and

pseudoword copying-

along

with the

ability

to

compare

syntactic-

semantic

structures,

predicted

English

learn-

ing,

and

that

the


repetition

and

copying

tasks were

specifically

related

to

language learning.

She concluded

that the

ability

o

represent

unfamiliar

honol-

ogical material in workingmemoryunderlies

the

acquisition

of

new

vocabulary

tems

n for-

eign language

learning.

Other

researchers,

such as Pimsleur

(1966),

Carroll

(1962),

and,

more

recently,

Skehan

(1986)

and

Spolsky

(1989),

also

have

stressed he

mportance

of this

skill

n

learning

a

foreign anguage.

The

hypothesis

hat

the three ANX

groups

would

distinguish

themselves

by eighth-grade

English grade

is consistent with

the

specula-

tions of

foreign

anguage

researchers,

who

have

found

that

end-of-year rade

in

a

foreign

an-

guage

relates to students'

previous

grades

in

English

courses

(e.g.,

see Currall &

Kirk,

1986).

The results

re also consistentwith

prediction

study

hat

found earners'

eighth-grade

nglish

grade

to be

one of the best

predictors

of

final

foreign

anguage grade

in

two

different

roups

of

first-year,

econdary-levelforeign

anguage

learners

Sparks,

Ganschow,

&

Patton,

1995).

The lack of a

significant

difference

on the

PPVT-R,

a measure

of

receptive

vocabulary,

supports previous

studies

showing

that scores

on semanticmeasuresusuallydo notdifferenti-

ate able from ess

able

foreign

anguage

learn-

ers

(Ganschow

&

Sparks,

1995;

Ganschowet

al.,

1991,1994;

Sparks

&

Ganschow,

n

press; Sparks

et

al.,

1992a,b,

1996).

Findings

of

significant

if-

ferences on

the

reading

comprehension

test

(NELSON)

support comprehension

differ-

ences found

n

a

related

study y

the authorson

anxiety

among college foreign

anguage

learn-

ers

(Ganschow

et

al.,

1994).

In

the

present tudythe authors

peculate

thatthe

significant

iffer-

ence

between LO-ANX and HI-ANX

students

on the

NELSON test

may

have

occurred

for wo

reasons.

First,

the NELSON is a

timed

test,

and HI-ANX

students

may

have

been slower

readers.

Second,

students who

received lower

foreign

language

grades

had

significantly

poorer


kills,

which

are used

in

reading (decoding)

words. Studies

in native

language

research

have shown that

poor

readers

may

comprehend

less than

good

readers because poor readers do notread as fast

as

good

readers,

often

because

of their

poor

phonological/orthographic processing

skills.

(For

a

review of

research that

explains

these

differences between

skillful and less skillful

readers,

see

Stanovich,

1986).

Verbal

memory

cores

favored

LO-ANX stu-

dents over

HI-ANX

students,

contrary

o our

previous

related

study

on

college

learners,

which showed no

memory

differences

mong

the

anxiety

groups

(Ganschow

et

al.,

1994).

However,

t

is

important

o note that the

scores

here of the LO-ANX group were in the above

average range

(M=

113.9),

whereas

the

HI-ANX

students

till

scored

in

the

average range

(M

=

105.0).

Carroll

(1962)

hypothesized

that rote

memory

s an

important

ariable

n

foreign

an-

guage

learning,

nd he included

memory

asks

on the

MLAT.

Recently,

Skehan

(1986)

sug-

gested

that students

may

have

problems

with

speed

of

language

processing

and with

storing

information.

Gathercole

and

Baddeley

(1993)

hypothesized

that

working

memory,

or the

short-term

memory ystem

nvolved

n

the

tem-

porary

processing

and

storage

of information,

could

play

an

important

ole in the

processing

of

anguage,

including

areas such as

vocabulary

acquisition,

speech

production,

reading

devel-

opment,

and

language

comprehension.

n na-

tive

language

research,

findings

suggest

that

the

verbal

memory

roblems

of ess

able readers

may

be related

to less

proficiency

n

using

the


code

(Rapala

&

Brady,

990).

In this

tudy, hough

HI-ANX stu-

dents scored

in the

average

range

on

phonolog-

ical/orthographic measures, they performed

significantly

ess well than

both LO- and

AVE-

ANX students

on two

of the three

phonolog-

ical/orthographic

measures.

The

finding

of

large

and

significant

differ-







Leonore

anschow

nd

Richard

parks

207

ences

in

foreign

anguage

grades

by

ANX

level

is

consistent

with

findingsby

some

foreign

an-

guage

researchers,

who

have examined

the

cor-

relation

between

grades

and

the FLCAS.

Hor-

witz,

for

example,

found a

strong negative

correlation

between

foreign

anguage

anxiety

and

measures

of

foreign

anguage proficiency

(Horwitz

et

al.,

1986).

Research

reviewed

by

Gardner

(1991)

supports

Horwitz's

study.

able

5

presents

a breakdown

of

end-of-year

oreign

language

grades

by

nxiety

evel.

Generally,

O-

ANX students

achieved

grades

of

A and

B

(89%)

with the

mode

at

A;

AVE-ANX

students

achieved

grades

of

B

and C

(67%)

with

he

mode

at

B;

and

HI-ANX students

achieved

grades

of C and

D/F

(69%)

with the

mode

at C. How-

ever,almost one third of the HI-ANX students

achieved

grades

of

D

and

F

(31%).

These find-

ings

are not

surprising,

iven

that the

LO-ANX

students

emonstrated

ignificantly

tronger

a-

tive

language

skills

and

foreign

anguage apti-

tude

than

the

HI-ANX students.

The

findings

lend

support

to

our

hypothesis

hat native

an-

guage

skills

may

serve

as the foundation

or

uc-

cess

in

the

foreign

anguage

classroom and

that

students' evel

of

anxiety

or

motivation)

bout

foreign

language

learning

may

be associated

with he

strength

f

one's

language

skills

Sparks,

1995a; Sparks& Ganschow,1991,1993d,1995a).

Our

more recent

speculations

about the role

of

anxiety

n

foreign anguage

learning

are that

anxiety,

n

and

of

tself,

may

be

difficult

o

study

because basic

language

skills

may

confound

the

assumption

that

nxiety

xperienced

byforeign

language

learners causes their

learning

diffi-

culties

(Sparks,

1995a;

Sparks

&

Ganschow,

1995a).

Au

(1988)

has

suggested

that

failure to

control for

language proficiency

n

research

studies

involving

ffect

e.g.,

motivation)

is a

significantmethodological

weakness.

We con-

cur and

propose

that once basic

language

abil-

ity

s

factored

n

or out as a

variable,

then nfer-

ences

about

anxietymight

be

examined

because

the

effects

f

anguage

skill

re

no

longer

a con-

founding

variable.

In

general

the

findings

of this

study

upport

our

LinguisticCoding

Differences

Hypothesis,which

suggests

hat

anguage

variablesdifferen-

tiate

good

and

poor

foreign

anguage

learners

and that

high,

average,

nd low evels

of

anxiety

may

be

a

consequence

of these

language

skill

differences

Sparks,

1995a;

Sparks

&

Ganschow,

1991,

1993d,

1995a).

The

results

also reinforce

findings

of

a

previous

study

on

anxiety

con-

ducted

with a

substantially

maller

population

of

college

foreign

anguage

learners

Ganschow

et

al.,

1994).

IMPLICATIONS

A

major implication

of this

study

s

that

for-

eign

language

educators

might

consider

alter-

natives

other

than affective

ariables,

such

as

anxiety,

n

examining

reasons for the

relatively

weaker

performance

of some

of their students

in

foreign anguage

classes.

Though

it is

possi-

ble that

anxiety

could

be

responsible

for

poor

performance

in

the

foreign language

class-

room,

other variables

are

also

likely

to

be

in-

volved.

n

particular,

he

foreign anguage

edu-

cator might consider variables such as the

student's basic native

anguage

ability,

s meas-

ured

by

his/her

performance

n measures that

test the

language

codes

of

phonology/orthog-

raphy,

yntax,

nd

semantics,

nd

a measure of

foreign anguage aptitude

such as the

MLAT.

(For

a

battery

f

testing

nstruments hat an

be

used

to measure

native

anguage

skills nd for-

eign

language

aptitude,

ee Ganschow&

Sparks,

1993;

Sparks,

1995b;

Sparks

&

Ganschow,

993a,

c;

and

Sparks,

Ganschow,

&

Javorsky,

992).

A

second

implication

s that the FLCAS

maybe a useful and

quick

measure for

dentifying

early

n

the

course those studentswho

may

have

TABLE 5

Distribution f Grades

byAnxiety

evel

LO-ANX AVE-ANX

HI-ANX

(N=

27) (N= 98) (N=

29)

Grade

N

Percentage

N

Percentage

N

Percentage

A

15 56

28

29 2

7

B 9 33 43 44 7 24

C

3

11

23

23

11

38

D/F

0 0

4 4

9 31

Note.

chi-square

nalysis

howed

dependency

etween

nd-of-yearrades

nd

students' evelof

anxiety

n

the

FLCAS

(X2

with

df=

21.12;

=

.002).







208

The

Modern

anguage

ournal

0

(1996)

relative

difficulty

ith

learning

a

foreign

an-

guage.

That

is,

performance

on the

FLCAS

(and,

perhaps,

other

affective

measures)

may

reflect

students'

evels of

native

language

skill

and

foreign

anguage

aptitude.

n

this

tudy

he

instrument as used with n entireschool sam-

ple

of

first-year

oreign

anguage

students,

nd

the

students'

scores on

the FLCAS

were

reflec-

tive

of

their

anxiety

about their

performance

in

the

foreign

anguage

course

up

to the

date

that the

FLCAS was

administered

fourth

uar-

ter of

the school

year).

By

determining

he

de-

gree

of

deviation froma

sample

mean,

the

au-

thors

were able

to

identify

which

studentswere

most

anxious,

and

only

17.5%

were

determined

to be

at least one

standard

deviation

away

from

thesamplemean (Table 1).Within hispopula-

tion,

the

average

end-of-the-year

oreign

lan-

guage grade

fell

only

lightly

bove

a

C,

suggest-

ing

that there

does

appear

to be a

positive

relationship

between

low

anxiety

and

strong

performance

n

foreign

anguage

classes. Sim-

ilarly,

here

would

appear

to be a

negative

rela-

tionship

between

high

anxiety

nd weaker

per-

formance

in

foreign

language

classes.

Thus,

affective

measures,

n

some

cases,

could be

indi-

rectly

measuring

students'

levels of

native

language

skill

and

foreign anguage

aptitude.

A third mplicationof thisstudy s that the

MLAT

might

also be a

useful

instrument or

discriminating

students who have

differing

levels of

anxiety

about

learning

a

foreign

an-

guage.

In

this

tudy

ll of

the

groups

differenti-

ated

themselves

n

the MLAT. It

may

be

that a

language aptitude

instrument such as the

MLAT

might predict anxiety

about

language

learning ust

as well as an

affective nstrument

such as

the FLCAS.12

Foreign

language

re-

searchers

might

undertake further

esearch to

examine the

relationship

between

foreign

an-

guage aptitude

measures and students'motiva-

tion

for,

attitudes

toward,

and

anxiety

about

learning

a

foreign

anguage.

A

fourth

mplication

is

that the

study

ends

further

upport

to

the notion that

foreign

an-

guage

differences

re

likely

to be a

result

of

differences

n

basic

language competence

in

the three

codes of

language- phonology/

orthography,yntax

not

assessed

here),

seman-

tics-and

perhaps

verbal

short-term

memory.

In

particular,

honological/orthographic

kills

are thought obestdistinguish ood frompoor

foreign

anguage

learners. n this

study, ighly

anxious

studentshad

significantly

ower scores

than low

anxious students

on

language

meas-

ures,

especially

the


measures.

Although

there

can be

students

who

exhibit

strong

native

language

skills and

high

foreign

language

aptitude

but whose

foreign

language

learning

difficulties

re

directly

re-

lated

to,

for

example,high

levels of

anxiety

or

lowmotivation

Ganschow

et

al.,

1994;

Sparks,

1995a;

Sparks

&

Ganschow,

1991,

1993a, d,

1995a),

the

authors

suggest

that

anxiety

n

for-

eign

language

classrooms

may

be a

result,

rather

han a

cause,

of a

significant

umber of

foreign

language

learning

problems

and

that

furtherresearch

is

needed

to determine

the

complex

relationship

between

native

language

skills nd

foreign

anguage

learning.

Last,

because of

the

ambiguity

nherent

n

the

anxiety

construct,

where

anxiety

s

thought

to

help,hinder, r bothhelp and hinder earning,

we

question

the use of this

variable either

to

predict

one's

degree

of

success

in

foreign

an-

guage

learning

or to

suggest

that

foreign

an-

guage

learning problems

are due

directly

to

high

levels of

anxiety.

n

our

view,

t is

more

likely

that the effectof

anxiety

s

indirect,

as

stronger

anguage

skills

usually

but

not

always)

allow the

foreign

language

learner to

experi-

ence the

foreign language

learning

environ-

ment

in

a more

positive

fashion;

stronger

an-

guage

skills and a

positive foreign

language

learning experience usuallyresultin stronger

achievement.The

finding

hatthe

discriminant

analysis

correctly

dentified over

60%

of the

high-risk

roup

suggests

that the

anxiety

meas-

ure

might

help

identify

tudentswho are

likely

to

perform

poorly

nd

might

therefore e can-

didates for

anguage

intervention.

Undoubtedly,

affective

variables,

including

anxiety,

are

important

for

foreign language

learning.

For some

time

now,

ffective ariables

such as

motivation nd

anxiety

have been held

in

high regard by foreign anguage

educators.

However, esearch has not been

forthcoming

o

show that

affective ariables

are

more

impor-

tantfor

foreign

anguage learning

than for

any

other academic task. Until

foreign

anguage

re-

searchers rule out the

variable

of

possible

lan-

guage aptitude

differences

n

their

ubject

pop-

ulations,

it will be difficult o determine

the

importance

of affect s a

contributing

r inter-

fering

variable

in

the

performance

of

students

who

have

difficultyearning foreign

anguage.

Furthermore,

one's basic

linguistic compe-

tence is an important ariable to consider,gen-

erally,

n

the examination of

foreign anguage

learning

potential.

To

paraphrase

the words of

foreign

anguage

educator

Dolly Young

(1995),

foreign anguage

educators

might

want o

begin







Leonore anschow

nd Richard

parks

209

to use

systems

thinking

to

integrate

disci-

plines

in order

to use .

..

a wider

angle

of

focus

. . . when

working

with

tudents

who

ex-

perience

problems

earning

a

foreign anguage.

Linguisticcompetence

is

an

integralpart

of

the

picture.13

NOTES

1

he authors

contributed

equally

in

the

prepara-

tion of

this

manuscript.

2

Phonological coding

refers to the

sound and

sound-symbol ystem

f

language.

Phonemic

aware-

ness refers o

the

ability

o

identify

ound

segments

(phonemes)

within

words.

It involves

a meta-

awareness of

language

because

one must be

able to

identify

nd

segment

the

phonemes

within a word

(e.g., slap

has

four

phonemes, s-l-a-p).

Orthographic

coding

refers

o the visual

representation

of

a lan-

guage

and

can be defined as the written

atterns

f

a

language

and their

mapping

onto

phonology

and

meaning

(Aaron

&

Baker,

1991,

p.

13).

3

For more detailed

information,

he reader

is re-

ferred to

the

following

tudies:

(1)

native

language

skill and


differences

(Ganschow

&

Sparks,

1991, 1995;

Ganschow,

Sparks,

Javorsky,

ohlman,

&

Bishop-Marbury,

1991;

Gan-

schowet al., 1994;Sparks& Ganschow, 995b, npress;

Sparks

&

Ganschow, 1993a,b;

Sparks,

Ganschow,

Ja-

vorsky,

Pohlman,

&

Patton, 1992a,b;

Sparks,

Gan-

schow, Pohlman, Artzer,

&

Skinner, 1992c;

Sparks,

Ganschow,

Fluharty,

Little,

1996). (2)

foreign

an-

guage grades

(Sparks

&

Ganschow,

1995b,

in

press;

Sparks,

Ganschow,

&

Patton, 1995;

(3)

factor

nalyses

(Ganschow

et

al., 1992;

Sparks,

Ganschow,

&

Patton,

1995); (4)

students'

self-perceptions

(Javorsky,

Sparks,

&

Ganschow, 1992;

Sparks,

Ganschow,

&

Ja-

vorsky,

993); (5)

teachers'

perceptions

(Sparks

&

Ganschow,

n

press);

(6)

parents' perceptions Sparks

&

Ganschow,

1995b);

and

(7)

foreign

anguage

profi-

ciency Sparks,Ganschow,Artzer, Patton, npress).

4

The entire freshman lass of

171

students erved

as

the

subjects

for

this

study.

However,

17

students

were removed because

of

missing

data.

5 Other unrelated studies

that

used

data

collected

from

this

subject pool

are either

n

process,

n

press,

or

published.

They

include a

study

on

predictors

of

student

performance

n

first-yearigh

school

foreign

language

courses

(Sparks,

Ganschow,

&

Patton,

1995)

and

resultsof a

survey

f teachers'

perceptions

about

students'

foreign anguage

academic

skills

nd affec-

tive characteristics

Sparks

&

Ganschow,

n

press).

6

Six

of

the

10th

graders

had

previously

failed

a

foreign language in the ninthgrade and two had

dropped

a

foreign

language

course

in

the ninth

grade.

Three of the

10th-grade

tudents

passed

a for-

eign language

course

in

the

ninth

grade

but

had

transferred o a

different

oreign

anguage

in

the

10th

grade.

One

studenthad

not taken a

foreign anguage

in

the

ninth

grade.

7

The

procedure

used

to

identify

he

sample

Mean

is

similar to

that described

in Ganschow et

al.,

1994.

In

that

tudy,

owever,

ot all

subjects

were included

in calculating the sample Mean. The difference c-

curred

in

the

AVE-ANX

range,

which included

only

those students

with scores

between

+.49

and

-.49.

In

the

present

study,

he

AVE-ANX

range

includes stu-

dents

with scores

between

+.99

and -.99.

8

The

MLAT

LF,

which took

approximately

one

hour to

complete,

and the

NELSON

and WRAT

SP,

which

took

approximately

30

minutes to

complete,

were

given

n

separate

sessions.

9

The

authors thank

Sue

Aielli,

Sue

Jarvis,

Jane

Pohlman,

Mikki

pringer,

Kim

Stevens,

MaryThomp-

son,

and Connie

Yoho,

who

assisted

n

administering

and

scoring

the

battery

f tests.

10The authors hank hirley peaks,MarySies,and

their

stafffor

making

this

study

possible.

Their

pa-

tience and

understanding

were

greatly ppreciated

by

the authors.

Thanks are

also extended

to

Joanne

Brewer,

arol

Dettenwanger,

nd

MarilynHerring

for

their

untiring

participation

and

patience.

A

special

note of

gratitude

s offered o

Kim

Icsman for

his vital

role

as

both

facilitator

nd school liaison

in

this

tudy.

11

he authors

note that the NELSON

is

not

a

pure

measure of semantics.

n

order to

comprehend

writ-

ten

language,

a student

must also decode

the words

(phonology/orthography)

nd use

syntactic gram-

mar)

skills.

n

addition,

the test

s

timed,

which ntro-

duces a speed componentto the task.

12

ome

foreign anguage

educators

(e.g.,

Krashen,

1982)

have

argued

that

foreign anguage aptitude,

as

embodied

by

the

MLAT,

is

relevant

only

for

formal,

conscious

learning-based

situations

(e.g.,

class-

rooms).

Skehan

(1986),

however,

ndicates that there

has been little or no research to validate

this claim

and

argues

that

aptitude

is an effective

redictor

of

language learning

success

in

either formal or infor-

mal

settings.

Other

foreign anguage

educators

(e.g.,

Oxford,

1990)

have

suggested

that

foreign anguage

aptitude

tests uch

as

the

MLAT

focus

on

analytical

and

analogical

skills nd not on the student's

poten-

tial for the

development

of more

global

skillsneeded

for communication

(p.

68).

However,

Stanovich

(1988b)

has

argued

that the

procedures

used to un-

cover or

diagnose explanations

for

performance

n

a

learning

kill

re not

necessarily

he same

procedures

used to facilitate

erformance

of that

kill

n

a

learn-

ing

environment.

13

The

authors

hankJon

attonfor

his

assistance

n

the statistical

spects

of

this

study.

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APPENDIX

List and

Descriptions

of

Testing

nstruments

Foreign

anguage

creening

nstrument

FLCAS)a:

The

FLCAS

(Horwitz,

Horwitz,

&

Cope,

1991)

s an

instrument

pecifically

designed

to measure

foreign

language

classroom

anxiety.

The

33

forced-choice

items re said to be reflective f communication

p-

prehension,

test

nxiety,

nd fear of

negative

evalua-

tion

in

the

foreign anguage

classroom

(p.

32).

Modern anguageAptitudeest, ongFormMLATLF)b:

This

test

measures

foreign anguage aptitude

using

a simulatedformat o

provide

an

indication of

proba-

ble

degree

of success

in

learning

a

foreign anguage;

it includes five

subtests: Part

I:

Number

Learning;

Part

I:

Phonetic

Script;

Part II:

Spelling

Clues;

Part

IV: Words

n

Sentences;

and Part

V: Paired Associates.

Nelson-Dennyeading

Test

NELSON),

Form

c:

This test onsistsof

eight

paragraphs

thatmeasure

the

ability

to read and answer

multiple-choice

om-

prehension

questions

in a timed format.

Peabody

icture

ocabulary

est-Revised

PPVT-R),

orm

d:

This testmeasures

receptive

vocabulary

for Stand-

ard American

English.

Phoneme eletion

PHON DEL)

This informal

author-designed

measure

is com-

posed

of

20

items that test

bility

o delete an

initial,

final,

or medial

phoneme

and form a

spoken

word

(e.g., say

desk iththe

/d/;

stick ithout he

/ck/;

frog

without he

/r/).

Wide

Range

Achievement

est-Revised,pelling

ubtest

(WRAT SP)e:

This test measures

performance

on

writing ingle

words fromdictation.

Woodcock

eadingMastery

est-Revised,

orm

G,

Basic Skills

Cluster

WRMT

BSC)r:

This test measures two

aspects

of

reading:

Word

Identification,

r

ability

o read isolated

words;

and

Word

Attack,

or

ability

to read nonsense

(pseudo)

words.

Woodcock-Johnson

sychoeducationalattery, emory

luster

(WJMC)g:

This

testmeasures

verbal

memory

nd includes two

subtests:

Memory

or

Sentences,

which tests

bility

o

remember

material

presented

auditorily;

nd

Num-

bers

Reversed,

which tests

bility

o hold a

sequence

of numbers

in

memory

while

reorganizing

that

sequence.

Note.

he FLCAS was the

ndependent

measure

n

this

study.

The

other

measures were the nine

dependent

variables

n

this

tudy.

a

FLCAS

(Horwitz,

Horwitz,

&

Cope,

1986)

b

MLAT

(Carroll

&

Sapon,

1959)

c

NELSON

(Brown,Bennett,

&

Hanna, 1981)

d

PPVT-R

(Dunn

&

Dunn,

1981)

e

WRAT SP

(Jastak

&

Wilkinson,

1984)

f

WRMT-BSC

(Woodcock,

1987)

g

WJMC

Woodcock

&

Johnson,

1978)

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Granschow and Sparks - Anxiety About Foreign Language Learning Among High School Women

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