This diploma thesis explores the link between Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA) and oral performance in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) as observed with Austrian learners at the secondary level. The phenomenon of FLA and its effect on language learning has been of great interest for applied linguists for some time, with the majority of linguists investigating the relation between FLA and language proficiency. In order to confirm either the debilitating or facilitating impact of FLA on Second

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... nguage Acquisition (SLA), final course grades and/or test scores have usually been considered to be the best indicators of how achievement is influenced by FLA. However, other criteria for examining the effect FLA has on language learning – especially on oral production – have remained largely unexplored. Steinberg and Horwitz (1986) were the first researchers to take a different approach to FLA, with the objective of investigating how different anxiety levels contribute to denotative and interpretive language elements in speech. Their findings – that higher levels of FLA trigger less interpretive speech, whereas lower levels correlate with a larger amount of interpretation using spoken utterances – added groundbreaking insights into FLA research. However, over the last 30 years no attempts have been made to confirm or refute their findings by replicating their study, and it is therefore the objective of this thesis to undertake this task. To this end, a replication study modeled on the original study entitled "The Effect of Induced Anxiety on the Denotative and Interpretive Content of Second Language Speech" was conducted. The language analyzed in the replication study derives from an experiment carried out at an Austrian vocational school leading to higher education entrance qualifications and was elicited through Murray's Thematic Apperception Test (1971). Anxiety levels were calculated using Spielberger's State-Trait Inventory questionnaire (1983). The findings of the replication study across populations, settings an [...]