Practical Proficiency Podcast
Where world language teachers gather to transition to proficiency oriented instruction through comprehensible input. All through practical, real-life, teacher-friendly ideas that make teaching language more joyful! Hosted by Devon of La Libre Language Learning.
Practical Proficiency Podcast
8 Ways to Lower Student Anxiety in World Language Class
Asking students to speak in a new language can feel like asking them to step on stage without a script. We dig into why anxiety hits world language classrooms harder than most, then share nine practical ways to make participation feel safe, predictable, and—dare we say—enjoyable. Drawing on resources from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the International OCD Foundation, we translate research into clear moves you can use tomorrow: stable routines, visible agendas, partner‑first interactions, and quick one‑to‑one check‑ins that remove the burden of self‑advocacy from anxious learners.
We walk through how validation works without lowering expectations, how to slow the pace without losing momentum, and why generous recycling of input is not remedial—it’s the core of acquisition. You’ll learn how to bake stress relief into your class culture with box breathing and short regulation breaks, and how to design predictable, proficiency‑oriented assessments that mirror your daily practice. No pop‑quiz panic, no mystery formats—just small, routine checks that show growth in listening, reading, speaking, and writing. Along the way, we share sample prompts, participation flows that replace cold calling with safer partner talk, and simple benchmarks to gauge when to pause and reinforce.
If you’ve ever wondered whether quiet means apathetic (spoiler: it often means anxious), this conversation offers a humane toolkit to lift the affective filter and raise target language use. Expect tangible ideas you can plug into your syllabus, from weekly agendas to rotation plans for targeted relationship building. Subscribe for more practical strategies, share this with a colleague who needs a calmer class, and leave a quick review so we can reach more teachers who want safer, braver language learning spaces.
RESOURCES FOR UNDERSTANDING STUDENT ANXIETY:
https://www.schoolcounselor.org/newsletters/january-2020/coping-with-student-anxiety
https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/anxiety-factsheet.html
https://anxietyintheclassroom.org/school-system/resources-for-school-personnel/how-to-talk-to-your-students/
https://www.aap.org/en/patient-care/school-health/mental-health-in-schools/supporting-students-with-anxiety-in-school/?srsltid=AfmBO
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What's up? World language teachers. Welcome to the practical proficiency pod on the campus, where we make the transition to proficiency-oriented instruction in your world language class. In a way that works for you, your unique context and teaching style. And doesn't sacrifice your well-being along the way. I'm your host, Devin Cunningham, the teacher of earth, conference host, curriculum creator, and consultant becoming Lamba Language Teacher. This podcast is for the creative world language teacher like you, who's ready to touch the overwhelming pressure of switching to acquisition-driven instruction and CI overnight. You're ready to discover how using more target language in class can actually bring you and your students more joy instead of having to wait with practical, and early strategies that don't require reinventing wheels or more training. We all work together towards the magic of a community-based target language-rich classroom, rooted in the power of community and comprehensible input. Let's go. Well, hey there! Thanks so much for joining me again on the Practical Proficiency Podcast. Today's topic is juicy and affects all of us. And that is we're gonna talk about ways to reduce student anxiety in your classroom. Let's get started. So we are in a unique situation as world language teachers where we are asking students to put themselves and their egos on the line every day when they come into class, which means that the fact that we are dealing with an anxiety epidemic affects us more than the other teachers in the room because we really are asking a lot of our students. And some of the things like, hey, speaking a world language that you're not very familiar with and you know you're gonna sound silly, is a huge ask for a student who is working with anxiety. So let's get into some of these ideas. First of all, I have for you some research-based tips and ideas that come from a few different sources, mainly from the American Academy of Pediatrics. My mom is a pediatrician, and I would really get in trouble if I didn't give you some research-based info. So you will find below here a link to those three articles, including one from the AAP that talks about what anxiety often looks like in students, what the different types of anxiety are in children and adolescents. I almost said adults there, but children and adolescents, and what it looks like in our classroom, because it can show up in some surprising ways. So, first of all, let's start with what our healthcare providers are talking about with anxiety in students. What does it look like? So we have here anxiety disorders will cause people to feel frightened, distressed, or uneasy during situations when when most people would not feel that way. Or the AAP also defines it as anxiety is a normal, healthy response to developmentally appropriate stressors that ask the student or the child, adolescent, whatever, to rise to the occasion, but anxiety is getting in the way of that. There's an excessive amount of this normal human survival-associated behavior. So it often looks like with, especially with what's called generalized anxiety disorder, they have many worries most of the time, especially about things that they perceive that they can't control. So check out these articles that I have below here, linked in the um, like right underneath this video if you're watching, or for the majority of you who are listening in the show notes below for the podcast. You will see those articles linked to give you a little bit more information about that. And the Society for OCD, the International OCD Foundation, I should say, also has a lot of great resources and like a full school guide for school workers and educators about how to work with students who exhibit symptoms of anxiety or OCD. So, with that in mind, I have mixed in for you eight tips. Some are from my own personal experience working with students with anxiety, as well as from some of the sources that are presented below. So let's get started. Without further ado, I have for you this first tip that is great for all of your students because honestly, anything that is anxiety reducing for your students who are experiencing anxiety, which is according to all three of these sources that I'm going to list for you, is creeping up on 30% of your student population right now as of 2025. Wild. So we're not really talking about a minority anymore, like this is peaking on majority here. And those are just the identified cases. So the first tip that I have for you is something that will make your life easier and these students' lives easier, and that is build and maintain classroom routines. I cannot tell you how validating it is for students when they know exactly what format you're going to present your instruction in. And I'm talking about simply that you start class usually the same way, that you have a middle part and you have, you know, like five or so different ways that you like to interact with material and move from I do, we do, you do, like ways that you move through that progression. And then a way that you close out class. One of my favorite ways, moving right on to tip number two, is that when you provide the agenda in advance, when you give like a quick little list, even if you only have 25 or 30 minute classes of, hey, we're gonna start with this number one, then we're gonna move to this, and this is what it's gonna look like, and then we're gonna move to this. Number three. And by the way, in a few, this is what we'll be working on for a few days. Next week we'll move to this. And it doesn't have to be, it's not like you have to have everything completely mapped out, because I also don't work that way. I'm a very creative person and I love to add new ideas on the fly. But with all of those things in mind, I actually found that it allowed me to be more creative and for my students to be more prepared for the task at hand. It's a lot less work for me when you're creative within boundaries and parameters that allow your creativity to thrive. So if you're like me and you're a creative teacher, what I mean by that is I liked to have like a certain part of my class was always about input. A certain part of my class was always about interaction, and a certain part of my class was always about review. So that means like within those three parameters, input, interaction, and reviewing and recycling things, as well as some personalization. Like I'm always gonna be working within those four parameters instead of thinking about what needs to happen in class the next day and being like, oh my God, there's so many activities that I could choose between, or oh my God, I don't even know where to start, all of that. Like working within parameters makes it a lot easier to express your creativity if you are creative in the classroom. And if you are working with like, oh my God, I'm just trying to get through the day and I don't want to reinvent the wheel type deal, then it's a lot easier if you're working from similar routines. It doesn't have to be similar materials, it means similar routines. Like, oh, I know we're gonna do an activity from YouTube this day. I know we're gonna do an activity from the textbook this day, and I know on Wednesday we're gonna have musique mercredi or musica miércoles, just like my Sierra Cruz t-shirt today. Things like that. That really helps your planning and it helps students to know and understand, like, oh, this is what I can expect in class today. When you provide the agenda and explain it, it you're already like letting students take a deep breath. They're like, okay, I know what to be ready for. Another thing that we can specifically do in our classes is rely less on choral and individual responses, which is the norm in a world language classroom. That's what I see most of the time and what most teachers tell me that they're relying on to get um clarification as well as CFUs and checks for understandings from students. And plus just those like quippy, simple interactions that aren't things that you're planning out, but you're saying things like, Cuál es la fecha de hoy? What's the date today? And you're just asking for students to respond to you. And then when you don't hear anybody, you just call on somebody like, hey, Celia, ¿cuál es la fecha de hoy? That's actually there's better ways to do that. So it might work if your students are already, they've been doing that for a while and they're familiar with how to respond to you. But a better way to do that is building up to that. Whenever I work with teachers individually in the practical proficiency network, we have this cool thing called office hours where we meet one-on-one to do some instructional coaching and things like that. A lot of people are coming to me with like, my class is really quiet. There's so little engagement, and I don't know what to do about it. The first thing I say is there's probably a lot of things that we can adjust, but always the first suggestion that I have is how often are you doing full class responses or calling on individuals? Let's add some more partner individuals. Hey, I'm gonna ask this to you as a class. Turn and tell the person next to you the answer. Or go pick somebody you want to work with if that works for your classroom environment. Most of the time it will. And see if they can um if they can answer with people that they're comfortable with. You're reducing a lot of that social anxiety that way. I would also say, too, don't be afraid to do groups, like the, especially in the first few months of class in a level one or level two, where there's not a lot of confidence and not a lot of output, then put them in groups and say, okay, guys, put your heads together and try and think of the answer for this question. Ready? Here comes in Spanish. Cuál es la fecha de hoy, que día es hoy. And then you give them some time to figure it out, write out the answers, talk to each other about it. Huge way to reduce anxiety. I would say too that, and something that I found that was a research-based response for just general education classrooms is schedule in some programmed one-on-one check-ins. So I used to do this right before grading periods, like, hey, grades are due in a week. Let's just check in and see what your grades look like and how you feel about it. And everybody would have like a long reading to do or maybe some station activities to rotate through. And I would call kids up to my desk one by one and just do a quick check-in. Hey, how are you feeling about class? Um, on average, do you feel prepared for class every day? Do you feel like you understand what's going on? Um, or do you feel lost? How do you feel about your grades? What are some things that you'd like to check in or fix? Um, or what are some missing assignments that you have? This is a really common practice in the work world. So I'm not sure why we don't do this in the school environment more often. Probably just because, I don't know, you probably have too much ish to do. Surprise. But this one thing can actually reduce a lot of your admin overhead and paperwork. If you get ahead of those, oh, these kids, um like this, these three students have a lot of missing work to complete. But it also for your students who are struggling with anxiety, whether it's diagnosed or not, the one-on-one check-in means that they don't have to be advocates for themselves anymore, which is a very stressful experience for students with anxiety. They don't even know how to talk about their anxiety or what they're worried about because it's they don't want to be judged. That's like one of the number one things, especially with students with social anxiety, is they have an amplified, invisible peer group around them. They feel like people are always watching what they're doing and they know what they're thinking, which we know is not the case, but or maybe if you have anxiety, you felt that way before. So if you have some scheduled check-ins, and again, they can be quick, just ask students one-on-one, how are things going? How do you feel about your about your grades, all of that? Just program a quick check-in and that will really help. Tip number five is recognize and validate their experience. This is different from agreeing with them, but recognizing and validating their experience can look like if I was constantly afraid of making mistakes in front of my teacher, I wouldn't want to raise my hand either. This is this comes from um the American Academy of Pediatrics, is like that very careful validation of what they're feeling so that they feel seen and understood, but in a way that helps them to move away from the fear that they're experiencing and more into the related emotions around that fear. So let's talk about instead, okay, so you have this constant fear of saying the wrong accent or tripping over a word. I would be nervous about answering too if I felt that way. Let's talk about the and you can dive into some strategies to help them feel more confident when those things come up in your class. I would also say, too, my tip number six is don't be afraid to repeat things, to go back and revisit and recycle material, and don't be afraid of moving slow. Today's students really do need a slower pace than what you may be accustomed to. And you can check on this by seeing, do I have this magic number that again just comes from my own anecdotal experience, but try it out and see how it works for you. That if 70% of the time, 70% of your students are with you, that's a pretty good pace. And of course, we want more like 85% of students with you all the time, and then giving that personalized attention to the students who may need more repetitions in different ways. However, that if you are getting anything less than that, it doesn't matter what's scheduled for next week. Nothing next week is going to go well if they don't have a foundation what you're working on this week. Because everything in a world language classroom, it's like math class. It builds upon the material before it. So be careful with that. Move slower than you think. Number seven is practice stress relief at school. We are all in this age where we are recognizing more of the effects of stress on our central nervous system and how much it shuts down anything about learning. And we know, as world language teachers, we're actually uniquely equipped for this situation. We know, and we've always known, that when your effective filter is up, your learning goes down, and there's nothing that we can do further to promote that student's acquisition. So add more breaks in where you are teaching students about box breathing, where you are teaching students about how to just take a deep breath before they do something difficult. It will make a huge difference in their experience. And my last one for you is have routine and predictable assessments. This is an area where I find most world language educators struggle. And that is because since we don't have standards in the US at least, we are not required to use specific assessments at a certain time. However, most world language teachers that I've worked with have a very hodgepodge approach to assessment. And many of the times they forget about doing assessment until it's way too late. So they, I have lots and lots of podcast episodes for you about assessment. Dive into it further, but think about your own assessment practices and how much anxiety that actually adds to a student's plate when you're thinking like two days before a marking period, oh my gosh, I only have three grades in the gradebook right now and I need to do a quick assessment. That's not really fair to your students. What your students need and what will reduce their anxiety a lot more, especially when it comes to assessments and test taking, is if you have routine, small assessments over time. And then when it comes to assessments that you are practicing like crazy for them. And that, I mean, in world language, it's not like a big, oh, we need to make sure that the assessments are always a surprise. It's actually the opposite. We want in a proficiency classroom, you should be able to give your students assessments ahead of time every single time. They should be, it's not the type of assessment where you're like, oh, okay, they have these multiple choice questions. In a proficiency-oriented classroom, what you're doing most of the time is you're doing listening assessments of, hey, when I say this word desk in French, you should know which picture that corresponds to. And we can practice that. And I can give you the assessment ahead of time so you know exactly what the format is. Hey, I would like you to write three sentences about three different things that you see in your backpack and that you use every day. That's an assessment that you should be practicing for, and they should get the exact assessment practiced for it before it's actually assessment day. That is an integral part of a proficiency classroom. It shouldn't be a surprise what is on your assessments. They should be seeing those well in advance, and you guys should be working towards those in class. It makes a huge difference. And my last tip was a little bit of a bonus tip. So maybe number nine, is there are so many things in your environment and the way that you interact with students that can help to reduce anxiety. And one of those things really is stuff that you're already doing, which is to make sure that you're rotating through a few students each week who get specialized individualized attention from you. You are not able to do this every day. Okay. It is not something that you can like, oh, I can give kids individualized attention every day. Sure, you're doing that on the fly in the moment because you're an incredible instructor. But something simple that you can do to reduce anxiety is what you are already doing, which for many teachers, they have a relationship and an engagement strategy of this kid needs a little bit more of my attention this week. I'm gonna talk to this student more a little bit this week and check in with them more. Next week, you'll notice that this student's going through some stuff and they need uh or they're having a bad day and they just need a little bit of extra attention from you. It will vary throughout the week and throughout the instructional section that you are with them, and that's okay. That's life, that's natural. So again, let's go over what these nine tips are. Number one, build and maintain routines. Kids are not getting bored in your class because they're doing similar activities and strategies all the time. They're getting bored because the actual activities are boring. So focus on routines. Kids appreciate structure, so don't feel afraid to give them that. Number two, is provide the agenda and explain it. Again, with that structure in mind, it helps students prepare for what's coming. Three, use partner and group answers more and one-on-one answers less because we often overuse them in a world language setting. Four, schedule some one-on-one check-ins into your routine. Five, recognize and validate their experience. Six, don't be afraid of going slower and repeating any instructional material. Recycling is an important part of being an effective world language educator. Seven, practice some type of stress relief at school. It'll just set them up for being a happier human, anyways. Eight, have routine and predictable assessments with built-in review and prep at school, not at home. And number nine, continue with the relationship building that you're doing on a one-on-one basis with the students who need it at that time. Again, all of the resources mentioned and some of the research that I use to compile this list are provided below or in the show note links. And thanks so much for caring about your students with anxiety and helping to support them in a world language classroom. I'll catch you on the next episode. Leave a rating if this helped you so that we can reach more teachers and help them as well. And if you have a question that you'd like answered on the podcast, there's info below about how you can do that. Quick, simple form, tell me your question. I'd love to answer it on air. Okay, y'all. That's it for now. Thanks for hanging out with me. Bye for now. Adios, que les vaya bien. Au revoir.