проект

1. -Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education «Irkutsk State University» -Contest «Bridging Subjects:

Federal State Budgetary
Educational Institution of
Higher Education «Irkutsk
State University»
-
-Contest «Bridging Subjects:
One English Project, Two
Disciplines»
-Creative project
Speak without
fear
pSychology of
language
anxiety
• Maria Medvedeva
• Maria Shuvaeva
Practical Psychology, 2026, group 204231-DB
• Tatyana Turygina
Irkutsk, 2026
• Ekaterina Shapovalova

2. Relevance

Interest in learning foreign languages keeps growing all over the world.
English remains the most in-demand language in the professional
sphere, tourism, online education and international communication. At
the same time, many people find that even with sufficient knowledge
of grammar and vocabulary, speaking English feels frightening. This
creates a serious psychological barrier that stops them from using their
skills in practice

3. Aim and objectives

• The aim of our project is to find
ways to reduce language anxiety
when speaking English
Objectives:
1. To study the theory.
2. To understand how anxiety
shows up – on the physical,
cognitive and emotional levels.
3. To select methods that work
and give specific
recommendations, so that people
can speak without fear

4. Two disciplines: how psychology and English are related in the project.

• English shows where the barrier
appears: in speaking, in
dialogue, in practice.
• Psychology explains why this
barrier appears and how to
remove it – not in general, but in
relation to language learning

5. What is language anxiety? Definition by Horwitz

• Language anxiety-“a distinct
complex of self-perceptions,
beliefs, feelings, and behaviors
related to classroom language
learning arising from the
uniqueness of the language
learning process.”

6. Components of language anxiety according to Horwitz

componentS of language anxiety
according to horwitz
• 1. Communication apprehension – fear of speaking with other
people: a person is afraid to speak and to be misunderstood.
• 2. Fear of negative evaluation – fear that others will judge us or laugh
at our mistakes: fear of criticism, ridicule and judgement.
• 3. Test anxiety – fear of tests, exams and oral answers, and of any
situation where the answer is checked and graded.

7. How it shows up and why

• First, physical reactions.
• Second, emotional reactions
• Third, behavior

8. Practical methods for overcoming language anxiety

9. Method 1.

• Reframe anxiety as excitement
Instead of fighting this state,
change how you interpret it. Tell
yourself: “I’m not afraid, I’m
excited!” This shifts your mind
from “protecting against a threat”
to “looking forward to an
opportunity”, which helps you
speak more confidently

10. Method 2

method 2
Climb the fear ladder Move step
by step, from easy to hard:
• Talking to yourself.
• Recording your voice and
listening to it.
• A short one-to-one conversation
(with a friend or a teacher).
• Speaking or answering a
question in front of the whole
group

11. Method 3

• Write down your worries before
the test
About 10 minutes before a test or
an important speech, take time to
write all your worries on paper.
This exercise helps to “unload”
extra thoughts

12. Method 4

• Be kind to yourself
Treat your mistakes the way you
would treat a close friend’s
mistakes. Excessive self-criticism
only increases tension

13. Method 5

Box breathing
If you feel panic growing in your
body, use a breathing technique:
• Breathe in for 4 counts.
• Hold for 4 counts.
• Breathe out for 4 counts.
• Hold for 4 counts.

14. Useful phrases for filling pauses in English

uSeful phraSeS for filling pauSeS
in engliSh
• “Let me think.” – lets you take a pause to think.
• “Can you repeat, please?” – helps if nerves stopped you from hearing
the question.
• “How do you say in English?” – helps if you forgot a word: you ask for
help instead of stopping.
• “Sorry, I need a moment.” – a polite way to take a pause and collect
your thoughts.
With these phrases you can take a pause, ask for help and stay in the
conversation instead of staying silent.

15. Booklet

Our booklet: Speak Without Fear
What is inside: what language
anxiety is and how it shows
three types of anxiety • five ideas
to try and useful phrases
sources.
Where to use it: at school • at
university • in English class.
Scan the QR code to read the
booklet

16. Conclusions

During the project we came to three conclusions.
• 1. Anxiety blocks speech at the level of working memory.
• 2. One of the main triggers is not the language itself, but fear of
negative evaluation
• 3. General advice like “calm down” does not work, so specific
techniques are needed

17. Sources

• Atamanova, I. V., & Fedorovsky, A. E. (2022). Severity of language anxiety in students of
linguistic programmes [in Russian]. Russian Journal of the Humanities, 11(1).
• Ankor Center. (n.d.). Language barrier in English [in Russian].
https://ankorcenter.ru/articles/yazykovoy-barer-v-angliyskom
• B17.ru. (n.d.). [Article title] [in Russian]. https://www.b17.ru/article/672313/
• Balban, M. Y., Neri, E., Kogon, M. M., Weed, L., Nouriani, B., Jo, B., Holl, G., Zeitzer, J. M.,
Spiegel, D., & Huberman, A. D. (2023). Brief structured respiration practices enhance
mood and reduce physiological arousal. Cell Reports Medicine, 4(1), Article 100895.
• Brooks, A. W. (2014). Get excited: Reappraising pre-performance anxiety as excitement.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(3), 1144–1158.
• Chistopolskaya, K. A., et al. (2020). The concept of self-compassion: A Russian adaptation
of the scale by Kristin Neff [in Russian]. Cultural-Historical Psychology.
• Englex. (n.d.). How to speak English fluently [in Russian]. https://englex.ru/how-to-speakfluently/

18.

• Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M. B., & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign language classroom anxiety. The Modern
Language Journal, 70(2), 125–132.
• Inlibrary.uz. (n.d.). [Article title]. https://inlibrary.uz/index.php/internationalscientific/article/view/101169
• Kalganova, G. F., & Mardanshina, R. M. (2015). Problems of language anxiety in foreign language
learning at an economics university [in Russian]. Modern Research of Social Problems.
• Kim, C., et al. (2025). Language anxiety: Understanding past research and new directions with
d/Deaf, DeafBlind, and hard of hearing communities. Frontiers in Psychology, 16, Article 1558714.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1558714
• Neff, K. D. (2003). Self-compassion: An alternative conceptualization of a healthy attitude toward
oneself. Self and Identity, 2(2), 85–101.
• Ramirez, G., & Beilock, S. L. (2011). Writing about testing worries boosts exam performance in the
classroom. Science, 331(6014), 211–213.
• Timakov, E. S. (2024). [Thesis title] [Master’s thesis, Ural Federal University].
https://elar.urfu.ru/bitstream/10995/136097/1/m_th_e.s.timakov_2024.pdf
• Yu, Q. (2024). Foreign language anxiety research in System between 2004 and 2023: Looking back
and looking forward. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, Article 1373290.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1373290
• Zhukovets, O. S. (2022). Fear of speaking in English classes: Reasons and coping strategies [in
Russian]. In Practice of teaching foreign languages at the Faculty of International Relations of BSU
(Issue 12). Belarusian State University. https://elib.bsu.by/handle/123456789/291271

19. Thank you for attention!!