Abstract
<p>With the increasing need to learn languages as a result of globalization there is a great demand on the part of the learners to communicate in a second/foreign language, which is also supported downwards by the governments and upwards by the parents. Among the many aspects of foreign language learning, affective factors are researched a lot as they are dependent on contexts, individual differences, cultural background, teaching methodology etc., which cause a variation in the results. The current research focuses on test anxiety as one of the major affective factors. Thus it aims to identify the level of test anxiety and its relationship with gender, grade level, and academic achievement. Moreover, the causes of test anxiety were investigated according to students’ own perceptions. A test anxiety scale and semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather the qualitative and quantitative data. The overall results showed that the participants had a moderate level of test anxiety. Females were found to be more anxious than males only in some aspects; low achievement scores provoked test anxiety with regard to a few items, and 9<sup>th</sup> graders were found to be more anxious than the 10<sup>th</sup> graders. According to participants’ own perceptions, test validity, time limit, teacher attitudes, test techniques, proctors, length of the test, testing environment and clarity of test instructions were the causes of test anxiety.</p>
Highlights
Internationalization and globalization are two accompanying terms for the world in recent years
Test anxiety is an important component of language learning, the number of research conducted on the issue is limited to make effective assumptions
Foreign Language Learning Anxiety (FLLA) is one of these affective factors that has a dynamic impact on this process
Summary
Internationalization and globalization are two accompanying terms for the world in recent years. This study incorporates to this gap in the literature by concentrating on test anxiety in an EFL context by underlying the need to develop more student appropriate assessment From this angle, designed as a mixed-method research, the current study aims at identifying the level of test anxiety among the learners of a state vocational high school in a large city in Turkey and investigating the relationships between text anxiety and achievement scores, grades and gender. Turkey is an exam-oriented country in which the Turkish learners experience test anxiety at different levels due to this context-specific situation This is mostly because of the high-stake examinations such as “University Entrance Examination” and/or “Transition from Primary to Secondary Education Exam” (Ergene, 2011) that students enter at the end of the secondary school and/or high school. To pass these high-stake exams is a life changing experience for the learners, they are mostly associated with the feeling of anxiety
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