Trait anxiety or foreign language anxiety and their effects on learners' foreign language proficiency and achievement

Abstract

The present investigation concerns itself with how trait anxiety on one hand and foreign language anxiety on the other affects learners' level of foreign language proficiency and achievement. One hundred and seventy seven Turkish learners of EFL enrolled in the English language program for freshmen at Beykent University (Turkey) took part in the study. Data collection was conducted by means of selfreport scales consisting of items translated from Horwitz and colleagues' Foreign Language Class Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), the Turkish version of the Spielberger's Test Anxiety Inventory (TAl) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAl). Subjects' level of foreign language competence was determined employing a standardised proficiency exam, the Michigan Test of English Proficiency, as well as subjects' final course grades. Subjects' responses, which were sought in subsequent administrations in two successive semesters, were subjected to quantitative analyses (Pearson correlation, a series of one-way ANOVAs, and the relevant post hocs). The subjects' levels oftest anxiety were controlled so that the data of highly test anxious subjects could not confound the results of the foreign language anxiety measure. The findings support the view that foreign language anxiety is a distinct, situation specific 'form of anxiety, not necessarily related to trait anxiety, which is a general personality characteristic.