How Does Anxiety Affect Second Language Learning? A Reply to Sparks and Ganschow

Abstract

The linguistic coding deficit hypothesis, introduced by Sparks and Ganschow (1991, 1993a,1993b), postulates that language aptitude is the primary source of individual differences in language achievement. This may be seen to reduce affective variables, such as language anxiety, to the role of unfortunate side effects, devoid of explanatory power. This paper advocates that language anxiety can play a significant causal role in creating individual differences in both language learning and communication. It reviews evidence from investigations of anxiety in general and studies of the role of anxiety in the language learning processes and concludes that the linguistic coding deficit hypothesis makes a significant omission by assigning mere epiphenomenal status to affective variables in general and language anxiety in particular.