Individual and parental factors associated with preschool children's foreign language anxiety in an EFL setting

Abstract

The present study aims to examine individual and parental factors that affect young children's
foreign language anxiety (FLA) in an EFL setting. Subjects included 453 mothers and 47 English teachers
of children between the ages of three to five years old. Both individual (child’s gender, age, temperament)
and parental (household income, parents’ educational attainment, mothers’ beliefs about early English
education) factors were collected with the mothers’ questionnaires. Children's FLA was measured with
both their mothers’ and teachers’ assessments. Results show that maturity and a higher tendency for
impulsiveness and harm avoidance correlate with a higher level of FLA in children. Furthermore, it shows
that FLA in children is directly impacted by their parental figures; children whose mothers held stronger
beliefs in the cognitive benefits of early English education were likely to show a higher level of FLA.
Future directions and implications are also discussed.