Anxiety as a decisive factor in learning English as a Second Language

The present research has the main purpose of explaining how the feeling of anxiety is recurrently present in Compulsory Secondary Education (CSE) and among Baccalaureate students in English classrooms in Andorra. It also examines how this affects the process of learning the English language. Another of the main purposes of this work is to offer alternative practices and techniques to reduce this feeling and to be able to promote success in our educational practice of teaching English. In the reality of learning English as a Second Language (ESL) regardless of the methodology used by the teacher there is also present the issue of fear. Some approaches which put an emphasis on communication and oral interaction may tend to increase this feeling of fear. This feeling generates anxiety and it directly affects the development of language skills. When learning is frustrated by fear all this can lead to trauma in students and this can last well into adulthood. Therefore it will be a reflection tool for the analysis of how the teaching methodology and the educational practices in the English class can favour or reduce the feeling of anxiety and how this affects students.