A study on motivation and anxiety for english language learners

Date

2018-04-07

Author

Mutlu, Merve
Seferoğlu, Gölge

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Since scholars have discovered the importance of affective factors for language acquisition, anxiety and motivation has been frequently investigated in order to find how these concepts influence the success of a language learner. This study aims to investigate how the anxiety level and motivation level would affect the language learning process of a learner related to the learner’s gender, language proficiency level and major of study. The study was conducted in a School of Foreign Languages in a state university in Turkey. The participants were 206 English language learners studying at a compulsory English preparation school as a prerequisite for their university education. with different proficiency levels studying in different majors; English language teaching, medicine, engineering and economics. Quantitative measures were chosen for the data collection procedure therefore, the Turkish version of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) was administered together with the Language Learning Motivation Scale (LLMS) in order to investigate the phenomenon of inquiry. The results revealed a significant negative correlation between anxiety and the motivation level of the learners, the learners who experienced a higher level of anxiety tend to have a lower level of language learning motivation. Furthermore, it was seen that while the fear of failing the English course caused the highest level of anxiety for the learners, learning the language for their personal development and gaining prestige were the factors increasing their motivation to learn a foreign language. While investigating the effects of gender, department and proficiency level on both anxiety and motivation it was seen that while their gender and department had a significant influence on learners’ anxiety level, the proficiency level and department of the learners significantly affected the learners’ motivation to learn English. Results revealed that female participants experienced higher level of foreign language anxiety moreover, the learners studying medicine felt significantly less anxious to learn a foreign language than the learners studying economics and engineering. As for the motivation level the learners studying in the English language teaching department had significantly higher motivation compared to learners in other departments also the learners at the intermediate level had a significant higher language learning motivation than the other learners.

Subject Keywords

Anxiety, Motivation, Language learners, Affective factors

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/84001
https://www.cueltconferences.org/cuelt-2018

Conference Name

4th Cukurova International ELT Teachers Conferences , CUELT ( 2018)

Collections

Department of Foreign Language Education, Conference / Seminar

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Citation Formats

M. Mutlu and G. Seferoğlu, “A study on motivation and anxiety for english language learners,” presented at the 4th Cukurova International ELT Teachers Conferences , CUELT ( 2018), Adana, Türkiye, 2018, Accessed: 00, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/84001.