Doodling the Nerves: Surfacing Language Anxiety Experiences in an English Language Classroom

Abstract

This qualitative study explored the use of doodling to surface experiences in the psychological phenomenon of language anxiety in an English classroom. It treated the doodles of 192 freshmen from a premier university in Northern Luzon, Philippines. Further, it made use of phenomenological reduction in analysing the data gathered. Findings reveal that doodling can be an effective tool in surfacing experiences of a psychological phenomena, such as language anxiety, although this may not be generalizable. The gathered doodles show that English language learners go through shimming and shaming experiences, specifically, buffing, baffling, shutting, sweating and shivering, and shattering. The findings of the study can benefit teachers for they can use doodling, a non-verbal tool, in generating the classroom experiences of their students. More so, the anxiety experiences unveiled in this study will help language teachers realize the impact of language anxiety on English language learners.