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EXTRAMURAL ENGLISH ACTIVITIES AND INDIVIDUAL LEARNER DIFFERENCES
non-existent, they were chosen to be adopted in this research project. Ihe next
sections thus provide an overview of these concepts.
2.3.2.1 Foreign language anxiety
Foreign language anxiety is considered to be one of the most important affec¬
tive factors, first proposed in the affective filter hypothesis by Krashen (1982),
where he claimed that certain affective variables, such as motivation, self¬
confidence, and anxiety, determine the ultimate success of second language
acguisition. Horwitz et al. (1986: 128) created a theoretical model that defined
foreign language anxiety as "a distinct complex of self-perceptions, beliefs,
feelings, and behaviors related to classroom language learning arising from
the uniqueness of the language learning processes.” In this theoretical model,
Horwitz et al. (1986) differentiated foreign language classroom anxiety from
other forms of anxiety.
The previous empirical studies investigating the foreign language anxiety
model developed by Horwitz et al. (1986) found that anxiety may have either
a positive or a negative effect on foreign language learning. A smaller propor¬
tion of these studies found that anxiety has a positive impact on foreign language
learning (Brown 2000, Ewald 2007, Kitano 2001, Marcos-Llinas—Garau 2009);
this is known as facilitating anxiety. A larger body of these empirical studies,
however, found that anxiety has a negative impact on foreign language learn¬
ing (Horwitz 2001, 2010, MacIntyre-Gardner 1991, MacIntyre-Gardner 1994,
Liu 2016, Liu-Zhang 2008, Onwuegbuzie et al. 1999, Sparks et al. 1997, Töth
2008, 2009, 2011), which is known as debilitating anxiety. These findings are
further supported by two relatively recent meta-analyses by Zhang (2019) and
Teimouri et al. (2019), who also found a negative correlation between foreign
language anxiety and L2 performance.
As for its relation to motivation, Gardner et al. (1997) found that anxiety
correlates negatively with L2 motivation as well. In the Hungarian context,
Csizér and Piniel (2016) conducted a questionnaire study with secondary school
EFL learners and obtained the same results. Similarly, Papi (2010) found in his
study that the Ideal L2 Self and the L2 Learning Experience have a positive
impact on foreign language anxiety, i.e., they can reduce L2 anxiety; however,
the Ought-to L2 self may make learners more anxious. In their interview study,
Kormos and Dornyei (2004) identified a strong negative correlation between L2
use anxiety and lexical variety; therefore, they concluded that low anxiety enables
learners to use a more varied vocabulary, thus expressing themselves in a more
varied manner. In the extramural L2 context, previous research found that
extramural L2 activities may create a low-anxiety or even anxiety-free learning
environment. Piniel and Albert (2018), for instance, carried out a qualitative
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