Exploring the Interplay between Perfectionism, Teacher-Student Dynamics and Foreign Language Anxiety: Correlation and Multiple Linear Regression Analyses

A positive teacher-student relationship plays a crucial role in fostering self-confidence and emotional comfort, motivating students to engage more with academic life (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Deci & Ryan, 1985). Applying Attachment Theory (Bowlby, 1969) to the learning environment, scholars (i.e., Skinner et al. 1990; Pianta 1998; Appleton et al. 2008) argue that supportive teachers create a low-anxiety, safe educational space, enhancing students’ sense of “relatedness” (Ryan & Deci, 2000) and improving their learning outcomes (Skinner et al., 1990; Pianta, 1998; Appleton et al., 2008). On the contrary, teachers’ failure to establish rapport, along with negative emotions such as fear or disappointment, can lead to student disengagement, emotional withdrawal and even dropout (Fine, 1991; Strambler & Weinstein, 2010). Thus, teacher-student relationship can moderate students’ academic success and engagement (Juvonen & Wentzel, 1996; Skinner et al., 2009). Based on this literature, our study aims to analyse the extent to which teacher-student relationship in the foreign language classroom can affect Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA), a feeling of distress and agitation ignited by the experience of communicating in a language other than the native one (Horwitz et al., 1986; McIntyre 1999, 2017; Horwitz 2013, 2017). To this end, a convenience sample of 106 participants was collected, including both undergraduate and postgraduate students on a Modern Language course at the University of Naples Federico II taking English and another language between French, German or Spanish as part of their study course. A questionnaire was administered to the participants, consisting of Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (FMPS) (Stober, 1998), Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) (Horwitz et al., 1986) and two sub-dimensions of Teacher Effectiveness Scale (TEF) (Calaguas, 2012), this being, Perceived Teacher Personality Scale (PTPS) and Perceived Teacher Relational Competence Scale (PTRCS). FLCAS, PTPS and PTRCS were administered twice in the questionnaire, the first time participants were asked to consider their experience with learning English, the second time with the other language (i.e., French, German or Spanish). While Perfectionism is already known to predict FLA (Dewaele et al., 2017), the relationship between students’ Perceived Teacher Personality (PTP), Perceived Teacher Relational Competence (PTRC) and FLA is relatively unexplored. The analysis, conducted through Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), reveals that Perfectionism correlates with FLA in the English class (r = .307, p < .001) and in the other language class (r = .394, p < .001), confirming the literature previously mentioned. Also, both PTP (r = - .336, p < .001) and PTRC (r = - .279, p < 0.01) correlate negatively with FLA in the other language class, thus exhibiting an interdependent relationship between teacher-student dynamics and FLA in the other language. Our interpretation of data is that the reason why this correlation appears significant only in the other language class but not in the English one is that most participants were exposed to English from a very young age, both at school and in non-educational contexts (i.e., digital environments such as the internet or Netflix, to name but a few). On the other hand, hardly any participant might have been exposed to the other language either in secondary education or outside the learning setting. In light of this, such extensive and consolidated experience with English may foster more confidence, diminishing the English teacher’s role as an ‘initiator’ in influencing FLA. In addition, a multiple linear regression analysis was performed with Perfectionism, PTP and PTRC as the independent variables, and FLA as the dependent variable, to test the extent to which Perfectionism and teacher-student relationship can predict FLA, the regression model being statistically significant in both cases. These results confirm our initial hypothesis that teacher-student dynamics can moderately shape FLA, with their role being even more determining with the learning of languages students are less familiar with. However, in both the models developed, it can be noticed that while PTP proves significant in predicting FLA both in English (p = .032) and in the other language (p = .016), PTRC does not either in English (p = .416) or the other language (p = .178). Such results can be accounted for by contending that PTP has a more immediate impact on FLA, for PTRC may be perceived as more abstract, intangible and less directly linked to classroom dynamics. This study yields practical implications for language teaching, calling on instructors to reflect on the centrality of teacher-student dynamics, emphasise relationship-building and design language programmes that address both linguistic skills and the emotional and psychological aspects of learning, thereby making ELT more effective and inclusive.