Second language (L2) anxiety has been the object of constant empirical and theoretical attention for several decades. As a matter of both theoretical and practical interest, much of the research in this domain has examined the relationship between anxiety and L2 achievement. The present study meta-analyzes this body of research. Following a comprehensive search, a sample of 97 reports were identified, contributing a total of 105 independent samples (N = 19,933) from 23 countries. In the aggregate, the 216 effect sizes (i.e., correlations) reported in the primary studies yielded a mean of r = −.36 for the relationship between L2 anxiety and language achievement. Moderator analyses revealed effects sizes to vary across different types of language achievement measures, educational levels, target languages, and anxiety types. Overall, this study provides firm evidence for both the negative role of L2 anxiety in L2 learning and the moderating effects of a number of (non)linguistic variables. We discuss the findings in the context of theoretical and practical concerns, and we provide direction for future research.

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The positive psychology movement (Seligman, 1998) has contributed to the proclamation of a positive turn in second language acquisition (SLA) (MacIntyre et al., 2016). Within the context of individual differences, self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997), an individual’s judgment of their capability to achieve goals, has gained particular interest in language learning (e.g., Lake, 2013). The present study meta-analyzes a body of research that has investigated the relationship between second language (L2) self-efficacy and L2 achievement by exploring 1) reporting practices in this domain, 2) the strength and direction of the relationship, and 3) the effects of moderator variables on the self-efficacy-achievement link. A comprehensive literature search uncovered 37 studies, which contributed to a total of 40 independent samples (N = 23,050). The average observed effect in the sample was r = .46. A moderator analysis showed systematic variations in the effect size for learners’ first language, target language, proficiency level, and both self-efficacy and achievement type. We discuss our findings with respect to theoretical constructs and methodological practices and suggest implications for L2 pedagogy and future research into self-efficacy in SLA.

This study investigates language teachers’ verbal construals of classroom anxiety and its cognitive precursors by drawing on the TRANSITIVITY and ATTITUDE systems in systemic functional linguistics (Martin & White, 2005) and integrating them with appraisal theory in cognitive psychology (Smith & Lazarus,1993). Three collegiate-level German teachers in a CLIL-like context participated in a two-week classroom observation sequence, which included 8 in-depth, semi-structured interviews that employed stimulated recall methodology by way of recorded classroom observations. Transcribed interview data were examined using both TRANSITIVITY analysis to capture experiential meanings and a multi-step TRANSITIVITY and ATTITUDE analysis to capture both emotional meanings and cognitive appraisals simultaneously. Findings revealed individual patterns of verbal construals of anxiety for each participant. The multi-step analysis uncovered discernible patterns for the verbal construal of cognitive appraisals that are strongly associated with both participants’ feelings of anxiety and their beliefs about the nature of language teaching. Based on these findings, a new system network for the description and approach to the analysis of foreign language (FL) teacher emotions is proposed and implications of the findings for future research into teacher emotions and beliefs, as well as for teacher training, emotional well-being, and foreign language pedagogy research are discussed.

Despite emerging evidence for the link between teacher emotions and student outcomes, research on language teachers' classroom emotions is still scarce. This study adopts a framework rooted in appraisal-based emotion theory to explore the complexity of teachers' emotional lives and the nature of language teacher emotions in the classroom, using anxiety as a starting point and drawing on vignette methodology for emotion elicitation. A total of 272 foreign and second language teachers from North America, Asia, and Europe completed an online version of the Foreign Language Teacher Emotion Questionnaire. Each teacher evaluated two vignettes of anxiety-provoking classroom scenarios along six appraisal dimensions and reported their emotions. Results indicate great levels of emotional complexity, revealing both the frequent presence of multiple positive emotions and the rare experience of anxiety as the sole emotion in anxiety-provoking classroom scenarios. At the same time, regression analyses found that anxiety's appraisal pattern explains between 16% and 48% of the variance in anxiety across all vignettes. Implications for adopting appraisal-based emotion theories and vignette methodology in language teachers' classroom emotion research in second language acquisition are discussed. K E Y W O R D Sappraisal theory, emotional complexity, language teacher anxiety, language teacher emotions, vignette methodology Language teacher emotions recently received increased research attention (Mercer & Kostoulas, 2018). This increase is motivated by claims that language teachers are one of the most important factors for student learning (Dörnyei, 2018) and by emerging empirical evidence for the systematic link between teacher emotions and student outcomes (Frenzel et al., 2021;Moskowitz & Dewaele,