English Language Anxiety and Language Achievement Among EFL Students in Saudi Arabia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1211.04Keywords:
English as a foreign language, English language anxiety, foreign language classroom anxiety scale, language achievement, Saudi ArabiaAbstract
Foreign language anxiety impedes language acquisition. Previous studies in various cultural contexts have found significantly negative and moderately high correlations between scores on the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) and foreign language grades. This study aims to investigate the factor structure of the FLCAS in the Saudi Arabian context and to determine whether the main FLCAS factors predict English language achievement, as operationalised by university grades. A total of 257 Saudi students (19–21 years old) studying accounting and business administration completed a Saudi Arabian version of the FLCAS. Simultaneously, these students provided their most recent grades from university English courses. Maximum likelihood extraction with direct oblimin rotation was performed, and three main factors (trait anxiety, situation-specific anxiety, and communication apprehension and confidence) were identified, accounting for 17.5%, 18.6%, and 4.1% of the total FLCAS variance, respectively. The linear regression model with these factors as predictors and language achievement as a criterion was non-significant (F = 0.479; p = 0.685), indicating that the main FLCAS factors were not connected to English language achievement. The study highlights specific areas (trait anxiety and situation-specific anxiety) that English teachers in Saudi Arabia need to address using better-targeted techniques and strategies.
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