Chihiro Tajima, Simon Cookson
桜美林言語教育論業 7 79-97 2011年3月
Second language (L2) learners try to make language gain through authentic interactions in study abroad (SA) contexts. However, entering into the home of strangers and building a relationship in L2 is a challenging task. As a consequence, there is a possibility that language anxiety, one of the affective factors, may interfere more with the amount of interactions L2 learners have while abroad.This paper fi rst examines the experiences of 26 Japanese university students during a 15-week SA in Canada, comparing pre-departure anxiety and while-abroad anxiety to see the changes in learners' language anxiety level, and then focuses on the interview responses of learners with high anxiety. By analyzing the interview responses, some experiences related to language anxiety were highlighted. This study indicates that anxiety generally decreased after four weeks of SA in most cases. However, some exceptions were observed. First, learners who identifi ed themselves as shy with high pre-departure anxiety continued to have hgh anxiety.Second, learners with limited English profi ciency with high pre-departure anxiety continued to have high anxiety.