Introduction

Mark Daubney, Jean-Marc Dewaele and Christina Gkonou

Preliminary Thoughts on Language Anxiety and the Focus of this Anthology

This anthology focuses on the topic of language anxiety (LA), a complex emotion that, for approximately four decades, has consistently attracted the attention of second language acquisition (SLA) researchers, teacher educators and teachers across the globe. In turn, this interest has led to substantial, diverse and exciting contributions to the literature in the field. In their recent publication on learner characteristics, Gregersen and MacIntyre (2014: 3) describe LA as reflecting 'the worry and negative emotional reaction when learning and using a second language and is especially relevant in a classroom where self-expression takes place'. Within the classroom, it has been found to subtly and pervasively shape the thoughts, feelings and actions of those engaged in the teaching and learning of a foreign or second language (L2). As a rule, LA research has focused on learners, yet teachers have also been shown to be susceptible to the nervous reactions anxiety arouses (Daubney, 2010; Horwitz, 1986). In L2 classrooms across many different settings, research has established that LA is a relatively common but largely unwelcome emotion, due to its potential to impact negatively in a myriad of ways on the language learning experience.

Indeed, contemplating the potential fallout from LA makes for fascinating yet unnerving reading. Among other things, it can impede the learning of the target language and hinder academic success; lead learners to abandon their studies; engender negative attitudes towards the target language and its respective culture(s); diminish the willingness to communicate; create counterproductive tensions among a class of language learners; sow the seeds of self-doubt in the minds of learners regarding their identity, feelings of competence and degree of self-esteem; and have a corrosive influence on the very lifeblood of L2 learning itself – the enthusiasm and motivation necessary to engage and embrace another language other than one's own.

Such a list helps to explain why LA continues to resonate with researchers and practitioners alike and why the ongoing fascination with this affective variable is both relevant and understandable. It also underpins our desire, as editors of this volume, to bring this collection of chapters to fruition in order to achieve a more up-to-date understanding of this emotion.

It has been nearly 40 years since Scovel's (1978) review urged greater scientific and methodological rigour upon SLA researchers investigating affective variables. In the ensuing years, much research has been undertaken, and LA is now indisputably part of the SLA landscape. Presently, the influence it is deemed to exert within the complex network of factors impacting on the degree of success of language learning is such that it is rare indeed to encounter publications in SLA focusing on individual differences or affective factors that do not refer to it. In fact, when SLA scholars ponder these characteristics, anxiety is often the first to be discussed (see Gregersen & MacIntyre, 2014). Arnold and Brown (1999: 8) believe it to be the most influential affective factor 'obstructing the learning process', while in terms of interest generated, Scovel (2001: 127) ranks it as 'second only to motivation'.

The present volume focuses on some of the most recent developments in LA theory and research as well as the implications these have for classroom practice. Further, it does so in the light of an increasingly influential paradigm shift currently shaping the field of SLA, a dynamic turn, which currently positions research as 'situated and process-oriented, which means that learners attributes are neither stable nor context-independent, but interact with the context and over time' (Dewaele, 2012: 43). An important driver of this perspective is dynamic systems theory (DST; de Bot et al., 2007; Larsen-Freeman & Cameron, 2008), also known as complex dynamic systems theory (CDST; MacIntyre et al., 2015), which we will consider further in the following sections.

Why an Anthology about Language Anxiety?

As editors, we are all of the firm conviction that the current climate shaping SLA research is a most propitious one for re-evaluating LA. When positioning the present volume in this landscape, one of the key considerations that has influenced our thinking is that, given the remarkable interest in LA over the last 40 years, accompanied and driven by what MacIntyre (1999: 24) referred to, at the advent of the 21st century, as 'a virtual explosion' in research, interestingly, only two bespoke volumes on LA have been published over the same period.

The first was Horwitz and Young's (1991) landmark collection, which itself included reprints of key papers on the topic. The second was Young's (1999), which, like the first, brought together theoretical, empirical and practical contributions, and whose subtitle – A Practical Guide to Creating a Low-Anxiety Classroom Atmosphere – gives a clear indication of the overarching goal that preoccupied – and continues to preoccupy – researchers and practitioners when addressing LA. A 17-year hiatus, then, between Young's and the present volume, would suggest a reassessment, including new insights, is somewhat overdue.

Further, the aforementioned paradigm shift and growing influence of DST, together with the flourishing field of language learning psychology (Gkonou et al., 2016; Mercer et...