Anxiety and Perceived English and French Language Competence of Education Students

Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education. P.O. Box 34091, RPO Fort Richmond, Winnipeg, MB R3T 5T5, Canada. Tel: 204-474-6404; Fax: 204-474-7561; e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: http://www.umanitoba.ca/csshe/Pub/pub.html

Y

26

Foreign Countries; Elementary School Teachers; Preservice Teacher Education; Correlation; Anxiety; French; Second Language Instruction; Language Skills; Secondary School Teachers; Preservice Teachers; English; Self Evaluation (Individuals); Student Attitudes; Cultural Differences; Language Usage

0316-1218

The authors examined manifest anxiety and perceptions of English and French language competence among Anglophone (n = 35), Francophone (n = 29), and Mixed-heritage (n = 34) elementary education (60%) and secondary education (40%) students (80% female) in their second, third, or fourth year of study at the Faculte Saint Jean (University of Alberta). Participants assessed their language competence differently in English and French. Francophone and Mixed-heritage students felt equally competent in the two languages, but Anglophone students reported much higher language competence in English. Manifest anxiety and self-assessments of language competence were related only among the Anglophone group, with high levels of manifest anxiety associated with both low self-assessments of French language competence and high self-assessments of English language competence--the two being correlated with each other. (Contains 4 tables and 6 notes.)

Author

33

2007

EJ771034