Beyond General Anxiety: A Systematic Review of the Distinct Roles of English Four-Skills Anxiety in Language Acquisition

Abstract

Mohammed Abdulkareem A. Alkamel

Foreign language anxiety (FLA) is a significant affective factor in second language acquisition. While historically treated as a unitary construct, contemporary research posits it as multidimensional, with distinct manifestations across the four core language skills. This systematic review synthesizes evidence from 15 empirical studies published between 2015 and 2025 to analyze the distinctive nature of listening, speaking, reading, and writing anxiety among English language learners. The findings reveal that each skill anxiety is triggered by unique, modality-specific antecedents: speaking anxiety by fear of negative evaluation and real-time performance pressure; writing anxiety by perfectionism and evaluative concerns; reading anxiety by textual complexity and cognitive overload; and listening anxiety by the uncontrollable nature of aural input. These anxieties demonstrate differential correlations with learner variables, such as domain-specific proficiency and motivation, and exert unique impacts, acting as cognitive filters for receptive skills and performance inhibitors for productive skills. The synthesis culminates in a two-dimensional framework (receptive/ productive, online/offline processing) to interpret these distinctions. The review concludes that a skill-specific lens is imperative, advocating for diagnostic assessments and targeted pedagogical interventions over general anxiety measures to effectively support learners and advance theory.

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