Investigating the Relationship between Test-Taking Anxiety and Test-Takers’ Performance on the IELTS Test
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24903/sj.v4i1.282Keywords:
anxiety, test preparation, IELTS, high-stakes testAbstract
Although there is a growing body of research indicating that anxiety relates to foreign language learning, the correlation between anxiety and learners’ performance on a high-stakes testing context has not been fully explored. To date, studies investigating the relationship between test-taking anxiety and test-takers’ performance are not only limited in number, but also partial in nature as most of them only looked at one aspect of test-takers performance, i.e. listening, speaking, or writing performance only. This study is aimed at investigating the relationship between test-taking anxiety and test-takers’ performance with a holistic view, taking into account the test-takers’ performance on the listening, reading, speaking, and writing modules of the International English Language Testing System (IELTSâ„¢) test. The participants in this study were 15 government officials taking an IELTS test preparation program. Two instruments were utilized in this study: (1) a set of test-taking anxiety questionnaire items to measure the level of anxiety and, (2) the official IELTSâ„¢ test to measure test-takers’ performance. The results indicated that there was a weak to moderate correlation between test-taking anxiety and the test-takers’ performance across different modules of the IELTS test. These results corroborate the findings from previous studies.Â
References
Aida, Y. (1994). Examination of Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope's Construct of Foreign Language Anxiety: The Case of Students of Japanese. The Modern Language Journal, 78, 155-168. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4781.1994.tb02026.x
Chang, A. C. (2008). Sources of Listening Anxiety in Learning English as a Foreign Language. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 106(1), 21-34. doi:10.2466/pms.106.1.21-34
Criado, R. & Mengual, Y. (2017). Anxiety and EFL Speaking in Spanish Compulsory and Non-compulsory Secondary Education: A Mixed-method Study. Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies, 55, 13-35. Retrieved from http://www.miscelaneajournal.net/index.php/misc/article/view/515/239
Elkhafaifi, H. (2005). Listening Comprehension and Anxiety in the Arabic Language Classroom. The Modern Language Journal, 89, 206-220. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4781.2005.00275.x
Field, A. (2009). Discovering Statistics Using SPSS (3rd ed.). London: Sage Publications Ltd.
Golchi, M. M. (2012). Listening Anxiety and Its Relationship with Listening Strategy Use and Listening Comprehension among Iranian IELTS Learners. International Journal of English Linguistics, 2(4), 115-128. doi: 10.5539/ijel.v2n4p115
Hatch, E. & Lazaraton, A. (1991). The Research Manual: Design and Statistics for Applied Linguistics. Boston: Heinle & Heinle
Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M. B. & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 70, 125-132. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4781.1986.tb05256.x
Huang, D. & Hung, S. (2013). Comparing the Effects of Test Anxiety on Independent and Integrated Speaking Test Performance. TESOL Quarterly. 47(2), 244-269. doi: 10.1002/tesq.69
LaFlair, G. T., Egbert, J. & Plonsky, L. A Practical Guide to Bootstrapping Descriptive Statistics, Correlations, T Tests, and ANOVAS. In L. Plonsky (Eds.), Advancing Quantitative Methods in Second Language Research (pp. 46-77). New York & Oxon: Routledge
Larson-Hall, J. (2012). How to run statistical analyses. In A. Mackey & S. M. Gass (Eds.) Research Methods in Second Language Acquisition: A Practical Guide (pp. 245-274). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Larson-Hall, J. (2015). A Guide to Doing Statistics in Second Language Research Using SPSS and R (2nd ed.). New York & Oxon: Routledge
Phillips, E. M. (1992). The Effects of Language Anxiety on Students' Oral Test Performance and Attitudes. The Modern Language Journal, 76, 14-26. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4781.1992.tb02573.x
Plonsky, L., Egbert, J. & LaFlair, G. T. (2015). Bootstrapping in Applied Linguistics: Assessing its Potential Using Shared Data. Applied Linguistics, 36(5), 591-610. doi:10.1093/applin/amu001
Rodriguez-Sabiote, C., Serna-Quiles, L., Ãlvarez-RodrÃguez, J. & Gámez-Durán, R. P. (2017). Do anxiety and English proficiency level affect writing performance in second language (L2) learning?. Journal of English Studies,15, 261-278. doi: 10.18172/jes.3151.
In'nami, Y. (2006). The effects of test anxiety on listening test performance. System, 34(3), 317-340. doi: 10.1016/j.system.2006.04.005
Saito, Y., Garza, T. J. & Horwitz, E. K. (1999). Foreign Language Reading Anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 83, 202-218. doi:10.1111/0026-7902.00016
Saito, Y. & Samimy, K. K. (1996). Foreign Language Anxiety and Language Performance: A Study of Learner Anxiety in Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced Level College Students of Japanese. Foreign Language Annals, 29, 239-249. doi:10.1111/j.1944-9720.1996.tb02330.x
Sarkhoush, H. (2013). Relationship among Iranian EFL Learners’ Self-efficacy in Writing, Attitude towards Writing, Writing Apprehension and Writing Performance. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 4(5), 1126-1132. doi:10.4304/jltr.4.5.1126-1132
Scovel, T. (1978). The Effect of Affect on Foreign Language Learning: A Review of the Anxiety Research. Language Learning, 28, 129-142. doi:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1978.tb00309.x
Serraj, S. & binti Noordin, N. (2013). Relationship among Iranian EFL Students’ Foreign Language Anxiety, Foreign Language Listening Anxiety and Their Listening Comprehension. English Language Teaching, 6(5), 1-12. doi: 10.5539/elt.v6n5p1
Sutarsyah, C. (2017). An Analysis of Student’s Speaking Anxiety and its Effect on Speaking Performance. IJELTAL (Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics), 1(2), 143-152. doi: 10.21093/ijeltal.v1i2.14
Tsai, Y. & Li, Y. (2012). Test Anxiety and Foreign Language Reading Anxiety in a Reading-Proficiency Test. Journal of Social Sciences, 8(1), 95-103. doi: 10.3844/jssp.2012.95.103
Turner, J. L. (2014). Using Statistics in Small-Scale Language Education Research: Focus on Non-Parametric Data. New York & Oxon: Routledge
Winke, P. & Lim, H. (2014). Effects of testwiseness and test-taking anxiety on L2 listening test performance: A visual (eye-tracking) and attentional investigation. IELTS Research Report Series, 3, 1-30. Retrieved from https://www.ielts.org/-/media/research-reports/ielts_online_rr_2014-3.ashx
Winke, P. & Lim, H. (2017). The Effects of Test Preparation on Second-Language Listening Test Performance. Language Assessment Quarterly, 14(4), 380-397. doi: 10.1080/15434303.2017.1399396
Woodrow, L. (2006). Anxiety and Speaking English as a Second Language. RELC Journal, 37(3), 308-328. doi: 10.1177/0033688206071315
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
