Is there a Relationship between Motivation and Fear to Learn a Foreign Language?

Learning a foreign language involves both motivation and emotions, with their relationship being more complex than a simple “one goes up, the other goes down.†Drawing on Gardner’s (2001) motivation framework and Horwitz et al.’s (1986) model of foreign language anxiety, this study examined the link between motivation and fear of learning a foreign language across three dimensions: communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation, and test anxiety. A 5-point Likert scale survey with 207 participants included sections on demographics, motivation, communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation, and test anxiety. Findings revealed a weak positive relationship between motivation and fear, suggesting that high motivation does not always reduce anxiety; highly motivated learners may experience more fear due to higher performance expectations. Teaching strategies should therefore balance motivation and anxiety management in foreign language learning.