Exploring EFL Listening Anxiety and Its Correlation With Learners’ Perceived Listening Proficiency, Interest, and Practice
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1506.04Keywords:
listening anxiety, listening proficiency, EFL listening teaching and learningAbstract
This study investigated the listening anxiety experienced by Vietnamese tertiary English-majored students, and its relationships with students’ perceived listening proficiency, interest in listening, and frequency of listening practice. A mixed-methods approach was employed, collecting data through questionnaires from 160 English-major students at a university in central Vietnam and in-depth interviews with 15 of them. The findings identified four major sources of listening anxiety: learner-related factors (such as fear of missing key words and lack of linguistic knowledge); material itself (including fast-paced speech, abstract content, and unfamiliar accents; particularly low-quality audio devices, which caused the highest level of anxiety); instructional factors (primarily focused on pre-listening stages and lack of teacher feedback); and task-related factors (such as listening for specific details or summarizing tasks). Significant negative correlations were found between students' anxiety levels and their perceived proficiency, interest in listening, and frequency of practice, indicating that higher proficiency, interest, and practice are associated with lower anxiety levels. Based on these findings, the study offers practical implications for educators and students regarding EFL listening teaching and learning and calls for further research to explore additional teacher- and learner-related factors that might affect levels of EFL listening anxiety in different educational settings.
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