Anxiety

For many of us, taking tests is one of the most anxiety-provoking situations we encounter as learners. Being judged is very difficult and arouses an enormous amount of anxiety. Far more energy can go into worrying about the test and your results than into learning and performing on the test. There are a number of reasons why you might feel anxious about taking a test:

   previous conditioning;

   self-image;

   consequences;

   fear and frustration caused by limited language skills; and

   “facing the music.”

Your previous experience (previous conditioning) with tests in school may have conditioned you to expect an unpleasant experience, filled with anxiety and fraught with heavy consequences. In some cases, much or even everything may depend on a single performance, and if you had a bad day, that is your bad luck. That need not be the case, however. If you had a bad day, see if you can negotiate a retest or other way of demonstrating your knowledge. You receive a rating, whether by a course or test grade or by assignment of a language proficiency level. A rating has an effect on our self-image, and we may end up labeling ourselves in ways that hurt our learning ability. For example, a learner may be tempted to think “I got a bad grade – I’m really a bad student.” This is very destructive and to be avoided if at all possible; it is much better to think, “I got a bad grade this time. Next time I’ll try to do better.” When something concrete depends on the test, such as pay increases, a future job, or parents’ willingness to continue to pay for coursework, the anxiety is compounded. If you are in this situation, try to keep the consequences out of your mind as much as possible. Probably the most powerful is to think about something else – such as the content of what you are learning. In a class setting, the anxieties may be spread out over time and mixed with many successes, but in a test, they are distilled into an hour or two, so it is important for you to find ways to keep them at bay. Test anxiety is not easy to manage, but there are some things you can do. Here are some examples with explanations that follow:

   Manage your image of yourself.

   Manage your learning before the test.

   Managing yourself before the test (your feelings and your activities)

   Manage yourself during the tests.

   Manage your relationships with those who evaluate you.

Coping with the stresses that tests cause most of us is something only you can do. It therefore depends heavily on your self-regulation skills; you need to manage your feelings, your thoughts, your activities before and during the test, and your relationships with people who rate you. Being prepared for a test may be the best defense against test anxiety. Managing pre-test learning consists of a number of steps. First, ensure that you are keeping up in class, and if you are not, seek help from your teacher – the earlier the better. This way, nothing on the test should be a surprise to you. Second, clarify what will be on the test. Paying attention to the most important things and letting the less important ones slide by if you do not have enough time for them is the best way to spend your study time. Third, study time is important; prepare for a test a little bit every day. Cramming the night before is very counterproductive and only causes greater test anxiety. In general, self-management techniques include relaxation, distracting yourself, and rest. Everyone has different ways to relax. Some people might soak in a hot bath; others might meditate. I highly recommend escape literature like mysteries or other fiction, for example. Even if it means you lose a little time from studying, it will pay off, because a refreshed mind is a more receptive and productive mind. When you sleep, you refresh your abilities and push anxiety away. In fact, many people find that they do a lot of mental processing when they sleep, resulting in consolidated knowledge or new ideas. While in the test, focus on the task, not on “what-if” thoughts. That is, think about how to do your best on the questions or tasks you have right now. Don’t think about “What if I get this one wrong?” Instead, think about strategies to “beat” the test. For example, if something is too hard or taking too much time, move on to the next thing. In an oral interview test, build a relationship with the interviewer, and show friendliness (but not obsequiousness). An interviewer who feels positive toward you is likely to be more helpful to you.

For example, if you don’t pay attention to sports, you will have a hard time talking about them in any language, so let the interviewer know this isn’t an area you have much to say about. Depending on the situation, you may be able to suggest another topic. For example, you might say something like, “I don’t much like sports, so I don’t know much about them, but I do know that Western music is very popular in your country. Do you like it?”

Bibliography:

1.    Brown, H.D. (2000): Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. White Plains, NY: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. Gass,

2.    S.M. I L. Selinker. (2008): Second Language Acquisition. An Introductory Course. New York: Routledge. VanPatten,

3.    Leaver, B.L; Ehrman, M; Shekhtman, B. (2005): Achieving Success in Second Language Acquisition. CUP

4.    B. i J. Williams. (red.) 2007: Theories in Second Language Acquisition. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

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