Foreign Language Anxiety and Foreign Language Performance: A Meta‐Analysis

Abstract This meta‐analysis investigated the relationship between foreign language (FL) anxiety and FL performance. Fifty‐five independent samples with more than 10,000 participants were surveyed. It was found that the overall correlation between FL anxiety and FL performance was −.34 ( p < .01). FL listening anxiety had the strongest correlation with FL listening performance. Both FL reading anxiety and test anxiety had a weaker correlation with FL performance as compared to other types of anxiety. The anxiety–performance correlation remained stable across groups with different FL proficiency levels, suggesting that the role of FL anxiety should not be ignored regardless of the FL learners’ proficiency level. As compared to language family, lexical similarity was found to have a more decisive modulating effect on the anxiety–performance correlation. However, language family and lexical similarity may interact to affect the anxiety–performance correlation. Finally, a metaregression analysis showed that age could affect the correlation between FL anxiety and performance.