The intra- and interpersonal dynamics of foreign language anxiety during task-based interaction: an idiodynamic study

Abstract

Purpose This study investigates the micro-temporal dynamics of foreign language anxiety (FLA) during a discipline-specific information-gap task, drawing on Complex Dynamic Systems Theory and the idiodynamic method.Design/methodology/approach Eight second-year undergraduate students enrolled in an English Language Teaching program participated in a jigsaw reading-and-speaking task in groups of four. Before the task, participants completed the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale, and their scores were used to form groups comprising learners with varying levels of anxiety. Task performances were video-recorded and subsequently used to elicit retrospective anxiety ratings through idiodynamic software, followed by stimulated recall interviews. Idiodynamic graphs were analyzed descriptively, while interview data were examined using thematic analysis.Findings The findings revealed highly individualized and nonlinear anxiety trajectories. Anxiety increased in response to cognitive demands, including retrieval difficulties, comprehension breakdowns, and cognitive overload, whereas it decreased during fluent performance, when participants encountered familiar content, and upon task completion. An anticipatory phase of anxiety also emerged, with participants reporting heightened anxiety while waiting for their turn, before direct performance demands arose. Anxiety was also influenced by interpersonal processes: one speaker's disfluency could disrupt peers' comprehension and heighten their anxiety, while visible signs of anxiety in one group member appeared to influence the emotional reactions of others.Originality/value The study extends existing research by demonstrating, at a micro-temporal level, how FLA emerges through the interaction of multiple processes during collaborative task performance. These findings support a conceptualization of FLA as an emergent and socially co-constructed phenomenon and attest to the value of micro-temporal and idiodynamic approaches for understanding the complex nature of language learner emotions.