AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
ANXIETY MANAGEMENT IN SPEAKING IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN THE CONTEXT OF
COGNITIVE AND BEHAVIORAL METHODS
a
MARIANNA MÜLLER DE MORAIS,
b
EVA
ŠKORVAGOVÁ,
c
ZDENA KRÁĽOVÁ
a
Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Department of
Pedagogy, Drážovska cesta 4, 949 74 Nitra, Slovakia
b
Psychological Counseling Center Predmestska 1613, 010 01
Zilina, Slovakia
c
Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Department of
of Language Pedagogy and Intercultural Studies, Drážovska
cesta 4, 949 74 Nitra, Slovakia
email
: a
mmdmorais@ukf.sk,,
b
eva.skorvagova@gmail.com,
c
zkralova@ukf.sk
____________________________________________________
Abstract: Anxiety and fear are ubiquitin emotions that have adaptive function and help
to face the world that is unpredictable. They significantly contribute to regulation of
interpersonal, group and society relationships and their level of importance is proof in
an individual´s achievement. They are also closely connected with the tendency of
avoidant behaviour. This article presents a basic definition of these ubiquit
phenomenons in a human´s life. It brings a view on their dominant demonstrations and
represents possibilities of anxiety management with an accent on selected cognitive
and behavioral methods. The knowledge of their management with the aim of
achievement support and minimalizing of their negative consequences for an
individual´s achievement is a central topic, that can help with improvement of
achievement.
Key words: anxiety, anxiousness, worry, fear, vicious circles of anxiety, cognitive-
behavioural approach, cognitive and behavioral methods;
_____________________________________________________________________
1 Introduction
The concepts of anxiety and fear are used alternatively in recent
literature which does not accept the existence of fear without an
object (i.e. anxiety in the classic meaning of the word). There
always exists an object or at least “the keys” that provoke fear.
The concept of anxiosity denotes a personal feature and the
concept of worry means the anticipation of fear and anxiety
(Kondáš, 1973). Heretik and Heretik et al. (2007) agree with this
opinion and they differentiate anxiety as a diffusive emotion that
is vague, without an object and it can be verbalized with
difficulties. They perceive anxiosity as a permanent personal
predisposition and fear as an emotion connected to a specific
object. Also Praško (2005b) says that anxiety is an unpleasant
emotional state whose cause cannot be defined more precisely. It
is a feeling as if something threatening should happen, but we
are not aware of what exactly it should be. We are just prepared
for danger. Therefore can be defined as en emotional and
physiological reaction to particular danger. When compared to
anxiety, fear has a specific object.
Říčan, Krejčírová (1997) say
that fear is always related to manifold specific objects or
particular situations. Anxiosity as a more permanent
characteristic personal quality is defined constitutionally.
According to Matĕjček (2011) it is a character basis for
excessively frequent feelings of uncertainty and threatening and
also for excessively frequent feelings of anxiety. Anxious
children and adults have useless worries, they are afraid and they
anticipate failure without any reason. The outer expressions of
anxiosity are manifold. Some people are excessively shy and
unsure in the presence of unknown people or among several
people and they are not brave enough to express themselves.
Another outer expression of anxiosity is the fear of getting
negative evaluation, fear of authorities and non-spontaneous
behaviour in certain situation. An example to this can be found
at a business meeting where it is necessary to speak in a foreign
language.
Říčan, Krejčířová et al. (1997) include anxiety and
fear among normal adaptive developmental phenomena. Praško
et al. (2006) agree with this opinion adding that anxiety and fear
are adaptive emotions. Anxiety prepares for possible dangerous
situations and fear gives an impulse to quick reactions of the
body at the moment when this danger appears. It helps to
preserve life in dangerous situations. They are very useful
emotions even nowadays when modern people live rather
“calmly”. Psychological research proved the fact that people
achieve the best performance when they feel slightly anxious.
Other authors such as Heretik and Heretik et al., (2007)
emphasize the biological importance of fear and anxiety and they
say that fear is necessary for surviving in life and health
threatening situations. The intensity of anxiety and fear can be
different. It may be expressed only by a slight discomfort or
nervousness or, on the other hand, it can be a state of horror and
panic. Anxiety can flow freely without any limitations in specific
situations, or it can be expressed in attacks. If these attacks
appear suddenly without any obvious reasons, we talk about the
spontaneous anxiety or a spontaneous attack of panic. If they are
related to specific situations (in this case - it is fear) when
people are usually not worried, we talk about phobia. If this
phobia develops when expecting some threatening situations,
then we talk about anticipating anxiety (Praško, 2005b). It is
evident that anxiety itself is not harmful and it does not cause
any physical nor psychical damage. However, if people are not
able to control their anxiety, they can experience unpleasant
situations. In the state of excessive anxiety people are not even
able to think and do the easiest things. Many people with these
reactions are also worried about losing control of themselves
because they are overwhelmed by fear and panic. Their physical
reactions (e.g. blushing) appear also in usual and easy situations.
Then we talk about hypersensitiveness to fear and anxiety. For
this reason these people avoid activities and situations that cause
these unpleasant feelings. When people start avoiding certain
situations, they get used to it very quickly. They get into the so
called vicious circle: when they stop doing certain things, they
lose their self-confidence and therefore they avoid them even
more frequently (Praško et al., 2006).
2 The main manifestations of anxiety
As aforementioned, anxiety is not only a certain feeling caused
by physical reactions. It includes several components that
influence us together and they cause particular symptoms of
“anxiety”. Praško et al. (2006), Praško, Prašková (2001, 2005)
mention the following components:
Physical symptoms - physical tension, shaking, problems with
irregular breathing, sweating, faster heartbeat, need to go to the
toilet, etc. Some people notice their physical feelings first and
they start feeling afraid. They do not realise that these physical
reactions are also a way of experiencing stress and they often
appear unexpectedly. For example, faster heartbeat can be
wrongly interpreted as a symptom of heart attack, shortness of
breath as a possible symptom of tuberculosis or another disease,
etc. These unpleasant physical symptoms represent a typical
reaction to stressful situations. When stress takes longer time,
the mind and body get into the state of permanent tension and
fear. People often have problems with breathing - their body is
preparing for fighting or running away and they start breathing
in a faster and more shallow way. However, it is not possible to
overcome the given problem with fighting or running away
because it has a psychical character. For this reason the organism
remains in the state of permanent excitation and people get used
to breathe in this way - breathing out excessive amount of carbon
dioxide and inhaling excessive amount of oxygen. They cannot
absorb it because they are not doing any physical activity. In this
way changes the acid-base balance. The body reacts to this
situation and the brain restricts the breathing. However, stressed
people can have a feeling that they do not have enough air and
they start breathing more intensively. The acid-base balance gets
worse and so the brain stops breathing for a while. Otherwise
there could appear spasms.
Behaviour -
what we do when we are in the situation that
provokes our anxiety. In these stressful situations anxious people
postpone difficult tasks, they avoid problematic situations, they
feel confused and ask others for help and reassuring, they start
crying, etc. These expressions of behaviour can be divided into
taking precautions, avoiding and hurrying (escape), expressions
of aggressivity (fight) and nervous behaviour (mixture of both).
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