Abstract:
This study investigated the level of foreign language anxiety in the classroom,
plus the correlation between foreign language anxiety and cooperative learning
attitudes and practice among university students at one university in the United
States and three universities in Southern Taiwan. Two instruments (The Foreign
Language Classroom Anxiety scale by Horwitz et al., 1986 and the Style Analysis
Survey by Oxford et al., 1999a) were employed along with ten questions designed
by the author: five sought to establish student perceptions of their classrooms’
cooperative atmosphere and five concerned students’ predilection towards
cooperative learning. No significant correlation was found between foreign
language anxiety and cooperative learning at the United States University. Of the
three Southern Taiwan colleges, results from only one school showed a significant
correlation. This was the only school that had a Taiwanese teacher.
