Mandarin Learning Anxiety and its Associated Factors among form 6 Students in Malaysia

Abstract

This study aims to examine Malaysia Form 6 students’ level of learning anxiety in learning Mandarin and identify the factors contribute to such anxiety. An online survey namely Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) which was developed by Horwitz et al. (1986) were adapted. Five points Likert Scale was adapted in this study to measure anxiety among Form 6 students in learning Mandarin. 227 students who currently studying Form 6 Mandarin in Malaysia were invited to participate in this study. The survey consists of two sections which are demographic profile of respondent and 31-item related to learning anxiety. SPSS 26 were employed to analyze data collected from online survey. Findings revealed that majority of Form 6 students experienced a moderate level of anxiety when learning Mandarin. The factors that contribute to Form 6 students’ anxiety while learning Mandarin were “Test Anxiety” which ranked the highest, followed by “Fear of Negative Evaluation”, “Anxiety of Mandarin Classroom”, and “Communication Apprehension”. The findings from this study serve as a base for Mandarin teachers as it could assist Mandarin teachers to have a better grasp of how they could help students to alleviate and debilitate anxiety in learning Mandarin.