Foreign Language Anxiety in Professional Contexts

Vasiliki Gargalianou (), Katrin Muehlfeld (), Diemo Urbig and Arjen van Witteloostuijn ()
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Vasiliki Gargalianou: UNICEF Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Office (LACRO)
Katrin Muehlfeld: Trier University
Arjen van Witteloostuijn: Tilburg University

Schmalenbach Business Review, 2016, vol. 17, issue 2, No 5, 195-223

Abstract: Abstract While increasing globalization of the business world and rising numbers of people working in foreign language contexts are undoubted facts of modern work life, there are surprisingly few studies on individuals’ emotional reactions to working in a foreign language. Facilitating further research, we introduce a short scale for foreign language anxiety that is applicable in business and other professional contexts. Additionally, we investigate its relationship with gender and general personality traits. Our analysis of survey data from 320 adult bilinguals with Dutch as their mother tongue and English as foreign language demonstrates the reliability of the short scale. Furthermore, we find that females experience higher levels of FLA, but that this association is mediated by differences in personality. Our study contributes to the emerging literature on individuals’ (emotional) responses to using foreign languages in business contexts.

Keywords: International management; Foreign language anxiety; Gender; Personality; Survey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M00 M16 Z19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1007/s41464-016-0007-6

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