Second Language Anxiety Among Undergraduate Learners of English Language in Sri Lanka: A Gender Based Study

Abstract

Second language anxiety is a common phenomenon among English language learners of different native languages. Beliefs regarding English language and learning English as a second language have been a major cause of anxiety for many language learners. The goal of the study is to identify whether gender of the learners has an impact on their anxiety levels when learning English as a Second Language. The secondary objective of this study is to investigate the causes of anxiety among the learners. To inspect whether learners’ beliefs in language cause second language anxiety, Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory (BALLI), introduced by Horwitz in 1983, was distributed among fifty female and fifty male first year undergraduates of University of Kelaniya. Twenty participants from each gender group were randomly selected for unstructured interviews, to gather further information regarding their English language learning experience. The findings of the study have been analysed through a mixed approach which consisted of both qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods. The analysed data revealed that the anxiety levels of female undergraduate learners and the male undergraduates have no substantial difference; however, it was also disclosed that female learners were more enthusiastic in learning English as a Second Language when compared with the male learners. The study reveals that the learners from the both gender groups possess a significant level of anxiety due to the requirements of the job market and as most of the courses in Sri Lankan universities are carried out in English.