Examining the level of enjoyment and anxiety among Turkish EFL students

Abstract

This research examines the role of positive and negative emotions in language learning. To this end, enjoyment and anxiety, which are widely studied emotions in field of language education, were chosen for the current study. A quantitative research design was adopted to provide a deeper understanding of learners’ language enjoyment and anxiety levels as well as the determinants of those emotions. 233 fifth grade students studying in secondary school participated in the study. The results indicated that participants experience higher level enjoyment and lower level of anxiety in the course of language learning. Anxiety and enjoyment levels of participants appeared to unaffected by gender differences. The difference between the three achievement groups for anxiety and enjoyment was significant. Further analysis showed that language anxiety was the best predictor of language enjoyment.