Perfectionism and Language Anxiety

Abstract

The paper is of theoretical nature. Its main objective is to suggest whether and how the constructs of perfectionism and language anxiety may be related to each other. The introduction of perfectionism its models, types, sources and language anxiety its definition, components, sources and the discussion on their common grounds are supported by brief reports and a critical look at a few studies examining the connection between the two concepts Gregersen and Horwitz 2002; Toth 2007; Pishghadam and Akhondpoor 2011. Finally, further research directions with a few practical implications are offered. The paper forwards that while unhealthy perfectionism, particularly socially prescribed perfectionism, can result in high levels of language anxiety, healthy perfectionism may lead to low facilitative language anxiety.