The effects of virtual environment on young adolescents’ foreign language anxiety

Foreign language learning is a tough process which contains gaining of knowledge, comprehension and finally employing acquired knowledge into practice. Since acquisition of foreign language knowledge include emotional capabilities as well as mental activities, foreign language anxiety (FLA) is a crucial component of this process. While there has been various research on FLA in literature for years, most of the previous research mainly focuses on adults or young adult learners (aged 18-25) in formal education environment. There exists a certain gap when it comes to FLA levels of learners from different ages and learning activities in various educational environments. In that sense, this study uniquely spotlights young adolescent learners of foreign languages and their FLA levels in virtual classrooms. Considering the fact that young adolescents have a very close relationship with technology, such students’ FLA levels present distinctive variations in virtual classrooms when compared to face-to-face classrooms. This study fundamentally aims to reveal to what extend virtual classrooms and online materials affect young adolescents’ FLA and to explore the reasons lying behind the possible changes in FLA levels by using a sample group of learners of English studying in middle school. A questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were used to obtain data. Based on the collected data, it was discovered that the upsides of virtual education positively affected young adolescents’ FLA levels. However, certain shortcomings of virtual education have also been unveiled during this study. This study presented crucial insights on young adolescents’ FLA levels and how these levels showed an alteration in virtual classrooms.