Latest Issue of the MindBrainEd Think Tank + (ISSN 2434-1002) 5 MindBrainEd Bulletin V4i5 Think Tank Emotion May | Page 14

Now with this new approach to emotions, let us take a fresh look at the concept of
language anxiety: a situation-specific emotion concept that second language
acquisition researchers have paid special attention to for decades. More than a
quarter of a century ago, Guiora (1984) maintained that L2 learning is “a profoundly
unsettling psychological proposition” (p. 28) because, in communicat ing in L2, we
cannot present ourselves as being as able as we wish and tend to consider L2
communication as a face-threatening, emotional experience. With limited vocabulary
and fluency, at least some L2 learners have difficulty in expressing themselves in L2
and they experience more tension, more frequently than others. They think that
performing in L2 leads to embarrassment, or even humiliation; thus, anxious L2
learners tend to avoid using L2, keep silent in L2 classrooms, and miss chances to
practice. Past studies have mostly focused on these detrimental effects of L2 anxiety.
The general view is that L2 anxiety has negative effects on L2 learning processes and
outcomes, not to mention a decrease in their psychological well-being.
Some researchers, however, think that L2 anxiety does not always impede learning or
performance. Ehrman (1996) called L2 anxiety, “tension or arousal” (p. 148), saying
that learning with a little anxiety is helpful, but no more than needed for the tension
to work for the better, to keep learners alert and attentive. MacIntyre (1999) also
stated that learners with a minimal level of anxiety feel “energized or keyed up” (p.
28); this is beneficial to learning. For these researchers, the amount of anxiety
matters: a little is good, but too much is bad.
Is it really the amount that matters? If emotions are not automatically triggered by
some outside stimuli, but actively constructed in our brain’s predictions, then what
matters is how the brain categorizes or explains its predictions, i.e., what meaning it
assigns to the experience. L2 anxiety can be differently categorized and construed by
different brains as either harmful nervousness and agitation, or energizing
anticipation and excitement, depending on the brains’ past experiences, the current
situations, and the culture; thus, some brains under some circumstances predict a
situation as threatening, causing panic, while others process the same situation as a
challenge and become focused. In this new approach to the brain, there is no single,
correct reality to be explained or no single meaning to be attached to any particular
circumstance.
In fact, some psychologists take yet another perspective and make a distinction, in
kind, not in amount, between facilitative and debilitative anxiety. Alpert and Haber