LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 13 : 1 January 2013
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Foreign Language Learning Anxiety among Iranian EFL Learners Along
Gender and Different Proficiency Levels

Naemeh Nahavandi, Ph.D. Candidate & Jayakaran Mukundan, Ph.D.

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to understand the level of anxiety of the Iranian EFL students towards English as a foreign language. To do so, all 548 students (elementary to advanced learners) studying in Jahad-e-Daneshgahi institute of Tabriz, Iran were selected based on random sampling. Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale FLCAS (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986) was used to measure anxiety with four scales of communication apprehension, test anxiety, fear of negative evaluation, and fear of English classes. Furthermore there was an effort to see whether anxiety domains differed across different first languages, proficiency levels and gender. The results of the study indicated that students in the present study experienced anxiety in all four scales on the higher side of the range. Contrary to the findings of other studies, communication anxiety was found to be the predominant anxiety component in the students, as compared to other three scales. In addition, gender and first language didn’t affect their anxiety significantly. However, level of proficiency affected their anxiety in all four domains significantly. The study concluded with some pedagogical implications.

Keywords:Foreign Language, Anxiety, FLCAS, Iranian EFL learners

Introduction

Early studies on Second Language Acquisition emphasized the role of cognitive variables like intelligence, language aptitude, and learning styles on learning a second or foreign language. However, after Gardner and Lambert studies (1972) on attitudes and motivation in second language learning, second language researchers began considering emotional or affective factors and how these factors facilitate or hinder language acquisition (Horwitz, Tallon, & Luo, 2010). For many researchers learning a second language is a process in which affective and personality factors play a significant role. For Brown (2007) affective and personality factors are important psychological factors to investigate in order to understand the process of language learning and in improving language-teaching designs. Among other affective variables, anxiety has stimulated special interest in the field of second language acquisition and learning over the past decades (Argaman & Abu-Rabia, 2002; Bailey, 1983; Chen, 2002; Gregersen & Horwitz, 2002; Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986; Liu, 2006; Na, 2007; Yan & Horwitz, 2008). Since 1970s, several instruments have been developed to measure anxiety, such as Gardner’s (1985) French Class Anxiety Scale and French Use Anxiety Scale, and Horwitz et al.’s (1986) Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Naemeh Nahavandi, Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Language and Humanities Education
Faculty of Educational Studies
Universiti Putra Malaysia
naemeh_nahavandi@yahoo.com

Jayakaran Mukunda, Ph.D.
Department of Language and Humanities Education
Faculty of Educational Studies
Universiti Putra Malaysia
jaya@educ.upm.edu.my
jayakaranmukundan@yahoo.com

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