Why Anxious Students Avoid the Library: A Psychological Model of English Language Anxiety and Information Avoidance in Nigerian Universities

Abstract

Students in Nigerian universities are expected to search for, read and use academic sources written almost entirely in English, and some of them experience anxiety when they encounter dense English texts, unfamiliar library systems and the need to ask for help. This paper proposes that English language anxiety may be a significant and under-examined contributor to information avoidance in university libraries. Using a conceptual design based on a purposive integrative review, it brings together the literature on foreign language anxiety, library anxiety, information avoidance, self-efficacy and the stress and coping process, and relates it to the position of English in Nigerian higher education. From this synthesis, the paper develops the Language Anxiety and Information Avoidance Model. The model proposes that the gap between students’ English proficiency and the demands of academic sources, combined with evaluative library and classroom settings, may be appraised as threatening and give rise to English reading anxiety, communication apprehension and library anxiety. These responses are expected to result in source avoidance, help avoidance, and anxiety-driven substitution and delay, with possible consequences for the depth of information use and the quality of academic writing. Approachable librarians and information literacy instruction embedded in English courses are among the resources proposed to weaken the link between anxiety and avoidance. The relationships described are theoretical expectations rather than empirical findings, and seven testable propositions are set out to guide empirical research.