A Study on English Language Anxiety among Adult Learners in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM)

Abstract

This research was carried out to investigate English (second) language anxiety among adult learners in UTM SPACE as well as to study the factors influencing the level of language anxiety. Three demographic factors namely gender, age and years of learning English were used as the variables. Besides, another three contributing factors of language anxiety described by Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope (1986), which are communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation and general feeling of anxiety were also be examined. The respondents of this research consisted of 132 UTM SPACE students. The instrument used was adapted from Horwitz (1983) likert scale, the Foreign Language Classroom Scale (FLCAS) which was changed to English Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (ELCAS) since the focus of this research is on English language. A number of statistical analyses were employed in order to analyze the data including descriptive statistics, Pearson Correlation and Multiple Regressions. The results obtained indicate that there is a significant relationship between language anxiety and years of learning English, while no significant relationship was obtained regarding gender and age. Finally, the Multiple Regressions analysis revealed that UTM SPACE students predominantly experienced a general feeling of anxiety in learning English.