TEST ANXIETY LEVELS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNERS

Abstract

The complex process of foreign language learning cannot be adequately explained solely by cognitive or non-affective factors. It is obvious that in a holistic understanding of language learning process, affective variables need to be examined so that learners' diverse needs and interests can be better understood and addressed. Since the 1970s, research interest in foreign language learning has shifted from teachers to learners and increasing numbers of studies have been undertaken from the learners' perspectives. These studies have focused on learners’ affective variables such as self-esteem, risk taking, inhibition, empathy, tolerance of ambiguity, beliefs, attitudes, motivation and especially anxiety. Anxiety is one of the key factors that has considerable influence on language learning. Spielberger (1966), defines anxiety as subjective, consciously perceived feelings of apprehension and tension, accompanied by and associated with activation or arousal of the autonomic nervous system. Test anxiety refers to phenomenological, physiological, and behavioral responses that accompany concern possible negative consequences and failure on an exam or similar evaluative situation (Zeidner, 1998). According to Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986), foreign language anxiety is separate complicated phenomenon of self-perception, beliefs, feelings and behavior related to classroom language learning process. Horwitz et al. (1986) defines three components of Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA). They associate FLA with the fear of negative evaluation, test anxiety and communication apprehension. Fear of negative evaluation consists of the feelings of apprehension related to other people’s evaluations, refraining from the situations that need evaluation and false perception that they will always be evaluated in a negative way. Foreign language learners often experience this fear as they are evaluated both by their teachers and by their peers. Test anxiety arises from a fear of failure and includes worry because of tested. Communication apprehension is a type of shyness characterized by fear or anxiety sbout communicating with people. It derives from the personal knowledge that one will almost certainly have difficuly understanding others. Liebert and Morris (1967) described two major components of test anxiety: a cognitive component they labeled "worry," that referred to concerns about being evaluated and about the consequences of failure, and an affective component they labeled "emotionality," that referred to the perception of autonomic reactions evoked by the test situation. It can be easily observed that there is an ever-growing body of research on Foreign Language Anxiety, research in test anxiety levels in two subscales receives much less interest. In order to fill this gap, this study aims to determine test anxiety levels of university preparatory students learning English as a foreign language. Another purpose of the study is to find out whether there is a significant relationship between learners’ gender, age, the department which they will study, compulsory or voluntary status of the students and two subscales of test anxiety. Yabancı Dil Öğrenenlerin Sınav Kaygı Düzeyleri 245 Turkish Studies International Periodical For the Languages, Literature and History of Turkish or Turkic Volume 10/7 Spring 2015 Method: The participants of the study were 301 (211 female and 90 male) students aged between 17-22 years old attending a one-year EFL preparatory school at Ondokuz Mayıs University, School of Foreign Languages. Students, who will study at Foreign Language Department and Faculty of Medicine, are obliged to enroll in the preparatory school (n= 187). The students of other departments attend voluntarily (n= 114). The TAI (Test Anxiety Inventory) developed by Spielberger (1980) was used to collect the data. The TAI is a self-report scale that was designed to measure individuals’ test anxiety as a situation-specific trait, it consists of 20 items which are to be responded by using a four-point rating-scale format. In addition to a total score, separate scores for worry (8 items) and emotionality (12 items) can be obtained. Turkish version of TAI adapted by Öner (1990) was used in the present study. Cronbach alpha of worry subscale was to be 0.89, for emotionality subscale was found to be 0.93 by the researcher. The analysis of the data was carried out using SPSS (Version 17.0). Descriptive statistics such as means, standard deviations, an independent-t test and ANOVA were used. Results: This study aims to determine worry and emotionality scores in test anxiety of university students learning English as a foreign language and also investigate the effects of variables such as gender, age, compulsory or voluntary status of the students and departments they will study on the students’ worry and emotionality subscales. The results showed that the participants in the current study exhibited relatively low level anxiety in both worry and emotionality subscales of test anxiety. The second research question examined if there is a significant relationship among gender and test anxiety subscales. The results indicated that female students’ mean scores were higher than those of male students in both worry and emotionality subscales. Females reported higher levels of test anxiety than males. This suggests that females are significantly more anxious than males in two subscales of test anxiety. According to results, age wasnot significant statistically. Another research question investigated whether there is a relationship between compulsory and voluntary status of the students and subscales of test anxiety. The results showed that there was no meaningful relationship between compulsory and voluntary status of the students and emotionality subscale of test anxiety. On the other hand, it was clearly evident that compulsory preparatory students’ scores were higher than those of volunteer students in emotionality subscale of t

Özet

Bu çalışma, İngilizceyi yabancı dil olarak öğrenen üniversite öğrencilerinin sınav kaygı düzeylerini iki alt boyuta göre belirlemeyi ve bu kaygı boyutlarının cinsiyet, yaş, okuyacakları bölüm, zorunlu veya isteğe bağlı hazırlık okuma gibi bağımsız değişkenlerle ilişkisini ortaya koymayı amaçlamaktadır. Araştırma, durumu betimlemeye yönelik ve tarama modeline uygun olarak yapılmıştır. Araştırmaya 2014-2015 öğretim yılında Ondokuz Mayıs Üniversitesi, Yabancı Diller Yüksek Okulu'nda öğrenim görmekte olan 301 (211 kız, 90 erkek) öğrenci katılmıştır. Araştımanın verileri, Spielberger (1980) tarafından geliştirilen ve Öner (1990) tarafından Türkçeye uyarlanan Sınav Kaygı Envanteri ile toplanmıştır. 20 maddeden oluşan Likert tipi bu ölçek Kuruntu ve Duyuşsallık olmak üzere iki alt boyuttan oluşmaktadır. Araştırmanın sonucunda elde edilen bulgular Ondokuz Mayıs Üniversitesi, Yabancı Diller Yüksek Okulunda öğrenim görmekte olan öğrencilerin sınav kaygılarının her iki alt boyutta da düşük orta düzeyde olduklarını göstermektedir. Araştırmaya katılan öğrencilerin Sınav Kaygı Envanterinin Duyuşsallık ve Kuruntu alt ölçeklerinden aldıkları puanlar cinsiyete göre karşılaştırıldığında; kız öğrencilerin hem kuruntu hem de duyuşsallık alt ölçeğine ilişkin sınav kaygısı düzeyleri ile erkeklerin arasında anlamlı bir fark olduğu belirlenmiştir. Kız öğrencilerin erkeklerden daha kaygılı oldukları belirlenmiştir. Sınav kaygısı ile yaş arasında anlamlı bir ilişki saptanmamıştır. Ayrıca, zorunlu hazırlık sınıflarında okuyan öğrencilerin kuruntu değil ama duyuşsallık boyutunda hazırlık sınıfını isteyerek okuyan öğrencilere göre daha kaygılı oldukları belirlenmiştir. Sosyal ve sayısal alanlar olmak üzere iki ana başlık altında toplanılan bölümlere göre yapılan değerlendirmede sosyal alanlarda öğrenim görecek öğrencilerin sınav kaygılarının hem kuruntu hem de duyuşsallık boyutunda sayısal alanlarda öğrenim görecek öğrencilerden daha yüksek oldukları sonucuna ulaşılmıştır