Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety and Why We Need to Talk about it Beyond Language

Xueting (Emma) Li

Instructor’s Introduction

Xueting (Emma) Li created her inspired podcast episode for WR 151: Burning Questions, a course in which students are asked to complete a semester-long research project on a topic of their choosing. Xueting chose to study the relationship between bilingual speaking anxiety and one’s perception of power and belonging in a new culture, in particular as it relates to Chinese international students in North America. Her podcast episode, which served as the final component of her project (as an alternative genre remediation of a long research paper) presents a riveting combination of insightful personal reflection and rigorous research. Xueting’s compelling story of her own experience as an immigrant student and English language learner interacts meaningfully and seamlessly with her sophisticated study of the tension between acculturation and language acquisition. Her perspective throughout the episode is authoritative while still being inquisitive; it is both wise and laden with possibility. I’m so proud of Xueting, and I can’t wait to see what she does next!

Sam Myers

From the Writer

In an increasingly globalized world, languages have evolved into a transgressive linguistic capital. The ability to speak a dominant language of a culture is the ironclad proof of power. With language’s newly acquired value, bilingual speaking anxiety is something often experienced by minority ethnic groups. In particular, Chinese international students in the United States are a group that are particularly susceptible to this form of anxiety as they exemplify the push and pull between the economic incentive of English as a linguistic capital and the inherent anxiety that comes with acquiring it. Examining through personal experience and an anthropological lens of social positionality, I hope to expand the perceptions of language beyond the linguistic quotidian tool. There is ample complexity behind bilingual speaking anxiety, and perhaps the more we discuss the root of it, the more we can grow cognizant of stereotypes around accents from foreign language speakers. It is our multilingual backgrounds that make the world so freshly diverse and heterogeneous.

Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety and Why We Need to Talk about it Beyond Language

Xueting (Emma) Li is a senior studying Advertising and Film in the college of Communications at Boston University. As a decade-long foreign language learner herself, she immigrated from Hangzhou, China to Vancouver, Canada and now to Boston to pursue higher education. She believes the immigrant and international experience is a complex journey dense with growing pains, but also beauty. She would like to extend her gratitude to WR 151 professor Samantha Meyers for pushing her and believing in the potential of the topic even before she did herself.