Majority Language Anxiety (MLA)

The aim of the present paper is to present a new development in language anxiety research, namely the distinction between heritage language anxiety and majority language anxiety. Immigrants experience both to varying degrees in their host country and during visits to their home country. We refer to recent research on Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands.

By exploring two novel concepts, heritage language anxiety (HLA) and majority language anxiety (MLA), this study draws attention to the hitherto neglected topic of language anxiety in immigrant and minority contexts. Based on semi-structured interviews with three generations of Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands (n = 30), we investigate why members of an immigrant community experience language anxiety and how it affects them. Findings suggest that language anxiety in the immigrant context, in both its HLA and MLA manifestations, can be attributed to linguistic and socioemotional causes. These linguistic and socioemotional causes, however, are occasionally difficult to isolate and they often interact in bringing about a number of negative consequences. Immigrants may ultimately avoid using the language about which they feel anxious, which will in turn cause further problems in terms of conflicted identities and reduced proficiency in the language concerned. We thus propose that there is a vicious circle that connects bilinguals' language knowledge, language use and language anxiety.

By exploring two novel concepts, heritage language anxiety (HLA) and majority language anxiety (MLA), this study draws attention to the hitherto neglected topic of language anxiety in immigrant and minority contexts. Based on semi-structured interviews with three generations of Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands (n=30), we investigate why members of an immigrant community experience language anxiety and how it affects them. Findings suggest that language anxiety in the immigrant context, in both its HLA and MLA manifestations, can be attributed to linguistic and socioemotional causes. These linguistic and socioemotional causes, however, are occasionally difficult to isolate and they often interact in bringing about a number of negative consequences. Immigrants may ultimately avoid using the language about which they feel anxious, which will in turn cause further problems in terms of conflicted identities and reduced proficiency in the language concerned. We thus propose that there is a vicious circle that connects bilinguals' language knowledge, language use and language anxiety.

The aim of the present paper is to present a new development in language anxiety research, namely the distinction between heritage language anxiety and majority language anxiety.  Immigrants experience both to varying degrees in their host country and during visits to their home country.  We refer to recent research on Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006917690914

Abstract:

Sevinç, Y. (2017). Language anxiety in the immigrant context: Sweaty palms? International Journal of Bilingualism. DOI: 10.1177/0123456789123456

Aims and objectives:
This is a proof-of-concept study designed to evaluate the level of language anxiety among immigrants by assessing autonomic arousal associated with heritage language anxiety and majority language anxiety among three generations of Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands. It examines the possible relationship between physiology, bilingual speech, language background variables and language anxiety.

Design:
Two measures of electrodermal activity – skin conductance level (SCL) and skin conductance response (SCR) – were recorded during a video-retelling task in six experimental phases: baseline (2×), free (bilingual) mode (2×), monolingual heritage-language (Turkish) mode, and monolingual majority-language (Dutch) mode. Participants (n=30) ranked their level of language anxiety after the Turkish monolingual mode and Dutch monolingual mode. A Likert scale-based questionnaire was used to gather information on language background variables (i.e. age of acquisition, oral language proficiency and frequency of language use).

Findings:
Third-generation bilinguals, to a greater extent than first- and second-generation bilinguals, demonstrated greater autonomic arousal during the Turkish monolingual mode than during the Dutch one. Participants’ SCLs/SCRs in monolingual modes were strongly correlated with their self-reports on heritage and majority language anxiety. Higher levels of SCLs/SCRs in the Turkish monolingual mode were negatively correlated with participants’ Turkish oral proficiency levels and frequency of daily use of Turkish. The correlations between SCLs/SCRs in the Dutch monolingual mode and participants’ Dutch oral proficiency levels and frequency of daily use of Dutch, on the other hand, were low to non-significant. These findings suggest that language anxiety is also related to social and psychological factors, rather than only self-perceived low language proficiency.

Implications:
The outcome confirms the presence of language anxiety in immigrant contexts. An interdisciplinary approach that applies physiological measures together with social factors and self-reports can shed further light on language anxiety.

Originality:
The study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of language anxiety in immigrant contexts and provides evidence for the relationship between anxiety, bilingual speech and autonomic arousal.

Aims and objectives: This study examines the language anxiety that occurs in immigrants’ daily lives when speaking the heritage language and the majority language, both in their host country and during visits to their home country. It compares the levels of heritage language anxiety and majority language anxiety across three generations of the Turkish immigrant community in the Netherlands and explores the link between immigrants’ language anxiety, and sociobiographical (i.e. generation, gender, education) and language background variables (i.e. age of acquisition, self-perceived proficiency, frequency of language use).
Design: A Likert scale-based questionnaire was administered to 116 participants across three generations who reported their language anxiety levels when speaking the heritage language and the majority language in three social contexts (i.e. family, friendship and speaking with native speakers).
Findings: Statistical analyses revealed that heritage language anxiety and majority language anxiety were prevalent in immigrants’ daily life, and that levels of both forms of anxiety differed across generations, and in different daily life situations. First- and second-generation immigrants typically experienced majority language anxiety, while second- and predominantly third-generation immigrants suffered from heritage language anxiety. Relationships emerged between language background variables and both forms of anxiety, but only in certain situations. These findings suggest that language background variables on their own may be insufficient to explain immigrant language anxiety in certain social contexts (i.e. within family). Rather than merely language background factors, a variety of other issues within social, cultural and national currents must be considered when examining language anxiety in the immigrant context.
Implications: Taking an interdisciplinary approach that combines language contact and foreign language anxiety/second language anxiety research, this study suggests that the concept of foreign language anxiety/second language anxiety should be expanded beyond the confines of the classroom in order to include daily interactions of immigrant or minority communities.
Originality: This study contributes to the limited body of evidence on the topic of language anxiety in immigrant contexts and presents a new construct ‘majority language anxiety’.
Key words: Language anxiety, immigrant context, minority context, majority language anxiety (MLA), heritage language anxiety (HLA), Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands, three generations, interdisciplinary approach.