Language anxiety is a common experience among language learners. It creates a distinct problem for language acquisition: students are less likely to attempt to speak in the foreign language.
Language anxiety manifests in various ways, such as avoiding class, intentionally passing on opportunities to speak, or even experiences of going blank when it comes time to verbalize anything in the foreign language. Further, it creates fear around evaluation from the teacher and judgement by peers (Horowitz, p. 127).
All of these manifestations contribute to avoiding the most important part of language learning: talking!
In my experience as a Spanish teacher, both in the classroom and as a private tutor, I have seen students time and again fail to overcome nerves, uncertainty, and anxiety despite having achieved success in other academic areas. Students work hard to avoid speaking opportunities, or are unable to bring themselves to participate verbally even when they wish they could.
As a current self-student of Mandarin, though I think my language anxiety is low, I even still struggle to find enough opportunities to speak. Even in a formal class, you are limited to very few opportunities to practice even if you are able to overcome language anxiety.
SuperChinese is an effective solution to overcome language anxiety and insufficient opportunities for practicing language skills, especially in a no-pressure, flexible environment:
This app creates needed opportunity for speech practice, while eliminating the anxiety that comes from imperfect practice with real people. It allows for incredible flexibility and informed language learning that lowers the barrier of entry by minimizing the language anxiety for learners motivated to speak a foreign language.
References
Horowitz, Elaine K., Horowitz, Michael B., & Cope, Joann. (1986). Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 70(2), 125-132. https://doi-org.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/10.2307/327317