Prediction of Foreign Language Anxiety and School Achievement by Family Characteristics in High School Students

Abstract

Many learners experience foreign language anxiety in our schools today. Reported consequences of being anxious toward foreign language anxiety include the avoidance of language learning and decline in language achievement. The aim of the present study is to predict foreign language anxiety and school success by family characteristics in high school students. The sample comprised 214 high school students from Ahvaz in academic years 2020 to 2021.  The Foreign Language Anxiety Scale (FLAS) was administered to the student’s group sample and family characteristics were explained by observable socioeconomic background such as age, education and income. The results revealed that among the family characteristics variables, only parent’s education had a negative correlation with foreign language anxiety and multivariate regression for this model revealed that a combination of age, income and education could be a good predictor for foreign language anxiety. The second part of results also exposed that parent’s income and parent’s education had a significant positive correlation with school achievement and multivariate regression for this model also revealed that a combination of family characteristics can be a good predictor for school achievement. The second part of results also exposed that parent’s income and parent’s education has a significant positive correlation with school achievement and multivariate regression for this model also revealed that combination of family characteristics can be a good predictor for school achievement.