The prediction of undergraduates’ self-regulation strategies, motivational beliefs, attitudes towards English, and speaking anxiety on foreign language classroom anxiety

Abstract

Individual differences are considered as important factors in the language learning process. Apart from individual differences, affective factors such as attitudes and motivation of individuals and their anxiety levels which affect the individuals’ language learning directly or indirectly are also believed as significant impacts in this process. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to examine the relationship between self-regulation strategies, motivational beliefs, attitudes, speaking anxiety and foreign language classroom anxiety and to investigate the predictive power of these variables for foreign language classroom anxiety. The relational model was used in the current study. The research group included 320 male (65.6 %) and 168 female (34.4 %) English preparatory students at Istanbul Technical University. Attitudes toward English Lesson Scale, Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety Questionnaire, The Motivational Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, and Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale were used as the data collection tool. The statistical methods used for analyses were correlation and multiple regression. The findings indicated that there is a significant positive correlation between foreign language classroom anxiety and self-regulation, test anxiety, and foreign language speaking anxiety. Also, there is significant negative correlation between foreign language classroom anxiety and self-efficacy intrinsic value perception, and attitude towards English. Moreover, self-efficacy, test anxiety, attitude towards English, and foreign language speaking anxiety are predictors of the university students’ foreign language classroom anxiety.