While researchers in the second language (L2) field often consider that L2 anxiety determines subsequent L2 achievement, an emerging line of research suggests that language skills better predict L2 anxiety. This viewpoint has yet to be experimentally evaluated, and thus it motivated the present study. Two groups of university language students enrolled in the Department of English as an L2 were followed over one semester at three time points while taking a general university course unrelated to language learning. The experimental group received extra instruction (course unrelated) designed to expand their L2 vocabulary knowledge, including strategies for learning and using new vocabulary in real-life contexts over the whole semester. A typical teaching method was delivered to the control group. The conditional dual-domain latent growth curve modeling (LGCM) with grouping variable as a covariate was used to study the possible effect of the intervention on the trajectory of language anxiety and vocabulary knowledge. Results indicated that teaching vocabulary knowledge to the experimental group led to an increase in their L2 vocabulary achievement. In turn, the increase in L2 vocabulary significantly reduced students’ L2 anxiety. Notably, this reduction in anxiety was attributed solely to the improvement in vocabulary achievement, as teachers did not employ any anxiety-controlling strategies. In contrast, the control group showed no significant changes in L2 vocabulary knowledge or L2 anxiety, which aligns with typical observations in standard learning settings. Findings from the present experimental study support the idea that increasing students’ L2 achievement (e.g. vocabulary) through providing practical resources, strategies, and opportunities for using the language (even with minor errors) can reduce their L2 anxiety. According to our findings, using language-enhancing strategies, rather than anxiety-reducing ones, can more effectively help reduce L2 anxiety.

中文翻译：

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通过提高语言成绩来减少语言焦虑：一项新的实验研究


虽然第二语言 （L2） 领域的研究人员通常认为 L2 焦虑决定了随后的 L2 成就，但一项新兴的研究表明，语言技能可以更好地预测 L2 焦虑。这一观点尚未经过实验评估，因此激发了本研究的动机。两组作为 L2 注册英语系的大学生在一个学期的三个时间点进行了随访，同时参加了与语言学习无关的普通大学课程。实验组接受了额外的指导（与课程无关），旨在扩展他们的 L2 词汇知识，包括在整个学期中在现实生活中学习和使用新词汇的策略。向对照组提供典型的教学方法。以分组变量为协变量的条件双域潜在生长曲线模型 （LGCM） 用于研究干预对语言焦虑和词汇知识轨迹的可能影响。结果表明，向实验组教授词汇知识可以提高他们的 L2 词汇成绩。反过来，L2 词汇量的增加显着降低了学生的 L2 焦虑。值得注意的是，这种焦虑的减少完全归因于词汇成绩的提高，因为教师没有采用任何焦虑控制策略。相比之下，对照组在 L2 词汇知识或 L2 焦虑方面没有显着变化，这与标准学习环境中的典型观察结果一致。本实验研究的结果支持这样的观点，即提高学生的 L2 成绩（例如 词汇）可以减少他们的 L2 焦虑。根据我们的研究结果，使用语言增强策略，而不是减少焦虑的策略，可以更有效地帮助减少 L2 焦虑。