Affective Reactions to Foreign Language Listening: Retrospective Interviews with Korean EFL Students

Abstract

The present study is concerned with affective reactions of foreign language students to listening comprehension activities. This qualitative inquiry focuses on sources and effects of listening anxiety on the basis of learners' experiences presented in retrospective interviews. Twenty university students were requested to report the levels of their anxiety after participating in several listening activities, and to discuss what their psychological or physical responses were and why they felt anxious. The results showed that students were afraid of failing in basic understanding and the subsequent malfunctioning, supporting the existence of listening anxiety. They indicated that EFL students had the highest levels of listening apprehension at the beginning part of listening and that they were sensitive to the types of listening passages or tasks. Based on students' explanations, factors viewed as causing anxiety were divided into three categories: characteristics of text, personal characteristics, and characteristics related to listening process.