A Review of Research on Pre-service EFL Teachers’ Anxiety

Abstract

Teaching is a profession characterized by an emotional burden. Anxiety, as a considerable emotion experienced, was found experienced not only frequently by in-service EFL teachers but also by pre-service EFL teachers. A high level of anxiety may cause problems in pre-service EFL teachers’ academic and teaching performance. However, the study on pre-service EFL teachers’ anxiety has been long marginalized within the field of EFL teachers in China. Reviewing the previous academic research results, the purpose of this study is to synthesize the primary research studies on pre-service EFL teachers’ anxieties at home and abroad. For this purpose, academic papers published in journals that were recorded in Google Scholar, WOS (Web of Science), Elsevier, and JSTOR in foreign countries, and CNKI in mainland China were analyzed through content analysis. The findings showed that EFL teacher candidates experience high-level anxiety; the sources of anxiety can be categorized into social-cultural, affective factors, cognitive factors, and personal factors; it has physiological and psychological effects on their academic and teaching performance; studies on intervention measures indeed functioned well. As a result of the study, problems in research on pre-service EFL teachers’ anxiety are identified. Recommendations and enlightenments to future research in China are discussed as well. At the end of this study, it also states the existing limitations and proposes a solution.