The Effect of Body Posture on Foreign Language Anxiety

Year 2019, Issue: 37, 46 - 65, 30.06.2019

Suleyman Kasap , Fuat Tanhan

Abstract

The Effect of Body Posture on Foreign
Language Anxiety

 

 

Abstract

 

Some people of an anxious
disposition  have the tendency to enter a
closed body posture while communicating with others, which is often seen as a
physical response to their mental distress caused by the performance of this
action.  This closed posture, as it
continues, has been show to further affects the anxiety felt by the speaker,
feeding into their worries and forming a cycle of anxiety and difficulty in communication.
Given that body posture is a factor in this cycle, if the posture is altered to
a more positive form it is expected that the speaker will be less affected by
anxiety potential reduction in may lead to improvements in the ability to
communicate. 

 

The aim of this study is to examine whether the language and general
anxiety scores of ELT third-year students changed depending on their body
posture and accordingly whether adopting high- vs. low-power poses  can improve an individual‘s  English speaking performance. In this study,
the students' bodies were altered into ‘open’ postures, and the effect of this
posture on the students' general anxiety and language anxiety levels was
examined through the General Anxiety Scale and the Foreign Language Anxiety
Scale, as well as through semi-structured interviews conducted with the
participants.

 

The study concluded that changing the body posture to an open style had
a positive effect both on foreign language anxiety and on general anxiety.
Moreover, the qualitative analysis of the interview protocols revealed
consistency between the perception of the students about their speaking
performance and their anxiety levels.

 

               Key words:  body posture,
foreign language anxiety, general anxiety.

 

 

---

1.      ^{Asst. Prof. Dr, Van Yuzuncu Yil University, Department
of ELT , Van, Turkey  [e-mail]}

2.     
^{Assoc. Prof. Dr,
Van Yuzuncu Yil University, Department of Counselling and Psychological
Counselling , Turkey  [e-mail]}

Keywords

body posture, foreign language anxiety, , general anxiety.

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