Modeling skill-based foreign language learning anxieties as a single construct and testing its predictive aspect on foreign language classroom anxiety

Abstract

The aim of the current study was two-fold: i) to investigate whether four skill-based foreign language anxiety scales used in the literature can be confirmed as a single construct, and ii) to explore to what extent this potential single construct can explain foreign language classroom anxiety. The participants included 385 Turkish EFL learners in a university context and data collection instruments were four skill-based anxiety scales and the foreign language classroom anxiety scale (FLCAS). The results of the correlated traits and second order analysis revealed that four skill-based anxieties were confirmed as a single scale, referred to here as the skill-based foreign language learning anxiety scale (SB-FLLAS), measuring a latent variable, foreign language learning anxiety (FLLA). In addition, the SB-FLLAS explained these four anxieties with a high predictive degree on the FLCAS at 88%, demonstrated through structural equation modelling. The current study presents this new practical scale, which could be used in the measurement of skill-based anxieties, and suggests several practical and research implications for foreign language anxiety.