Foreign Language Teaching Anxiety of Non-Native Pre-Service and In-Service EFL Teachers

Mustafa Kerem Kobul,İrem Naz Saraçoğlu

doi:10.7596/taksad.v9i3.2143

Mustafa Kerem Kobul, İrem Naz Saraçoğlu

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.7596/taksad.v9i3.2143

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Abstract

Despite a robust body of literature on anxiety in language learning, as of yet, teacher’s aspect regarding anxiety seems to have received scant research attention. Apparently, absence of a valid and reliable measuring instrument impeded the empirical research on foreign language teaching anxiety. However, preliminary work well-documents that even teachers get stressed and feel teaching anxiety in their English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the level of foreign language teaching anxiety that non-native pre/in-service EFL teachers experience. The data were collected from 30 in-service and 60 pre-service EFL teachers in two northern cities of Turkey; Trabzon and Yalova. The Foreign Language Teaching Anxiety Scale (FLTAS) was used as the main data collection instrument. No significant difference was found regarding the participants’ gender. When the participants’ scores were compared by the department they were enrolled, it was found that English language teaching department graduate teachers had significantly lower teaching anxiety levels. Significant negative associations between foreign language teaching anxiety and duration of experience as well as graduation department were found. It is believed that the results of the study will be of great contribution to further research into teaching anxiety and have important implications for policymakers of teacher training programs.

Highlights

Anxiety, as a psychological or emotional construct, has driven an ever-increasing research interest in a wide range of disciplines, and extends from clinical psychology, through classroom to language classroom and, relatively new, to foreign language classroom
Thirty of the participants were in-service teachers working at various schools in Yalova and Trabzon while 60 of them were pre-service English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers studying in faculty of education and faculty of letters at Karadeniz Technical University
A onesample t-test was run to determine if a statistically significant difference existed between foreign language scores from the sample used in this study and the general population t(89), -8,74, p =,000

Summary

Introduction

As a psychological or emotional construct, has driven an ever-increasing research interest in a wide range of disciplines, and extends from clinical psychology, through classroom to language classroom and, relatively new, to foreign language classroom. Apart from a limited number of studies conducted mostly, if not all, with pre-service teachers in various disciplines (Bowers, Eicher, & Sacks, 1983; Ngidi & Sibaya, 2003; Wadlington, Slaton, & Partridge, 1998) apart from English language teaching such as mathematics teachers (Akinsola, 2014), agriculture faculty (Bernstein, 1983), even psychology teachers (Gardner & Leak, 1994), there is a palpable dearth of literature on anxiety in English as a foreign language teaching. The recent body of literature provides substantial evidence that there is a general tendency that as the teachers get experienced their anxiety levels decrease (Fish & Fraser, 2003; Gardner & Leak, 1994) while some others consider it as an ongoing problem (Bernstein, 1983). The teacher’s anxiety per se as such a vital variable in language teaching seems to have received little research attention, if not totally neglected

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