Investigating the Role of Foreign Language Anxiety in Explicit and Implicit L2 Knowledge

Empirical studies have provided evidence for the negative role of foreign language anxiety in language proficiency measured via final course grades, self-assessments, objective language tests, and GPAs. However, its role in language proficiency from the perspective of explicit and implicit L2 knowledge is under-investigated. The current study therefore investigates the relationship between foreign language anxiety and explicit and implicit L2 knowledge in an English as a foreign language context. Participants were 156 university-level non-English majors. The results of the t test and multiple regression analyses showed that foreign language anxiety has a negative role in implicit L2 knowledge and also can predict it, but it was not found to have a significantly negative role in explicit L2 knowledge. The nature of the tests and knowledge may account for the results.