Foreign Language Teaching Anxiety of Pre-Service English Language Teachers in Kurdistan Region of Iraq

Pre-service teachers‟ feelings of stress and anxiety while teaching English as a foreign language have been a source of debate and research in second (foreign) language studies. Even though the levels of foreign language pre-service teachers‟ anxiety have been explored, only some studies have tried to have a multifaceted view of anxiety in foreign language pre-service teachers. The purpose of this study is consequently to examine the level of anxiety amongst pre-service teachers majoring in an English department. In addition, this study attempts to recognize anxiety-distressing reasons for both third and fourth-year pre-service teachers. An overall of 80 third and fourth year students (30 students in third-year and 50 students in fourth-year) from Raparin University in Kurdistan region of Iraq participated in this study. This study employed Teacher Foreign Language Anxiety Scale (TFLAS) questionnaire which is designed by Horwitz (1996), and seven interview questions prepared by the researcher to find out about the most or least anxiety-distressing items. The outcomes revealed that both third and fourth-year students experienced parallel levels of anxiety. On the other hand, this study also investigated the connection between anxiety and gender. The results revealed that there was significant difference between females and males in terms of their anxiety level. Besides, as reported by the content analysis of the interviews conducted, eight different individual aspects for instance teaching in front of the students for the first time, teaching in a new environment, inadequate content knowledge, students‟ low proficiency level in classroom, teacher‟s insufficient preparation for the class, students‟ different level of proficiency in the classroom, inadequate classroom management, the pre-service teacher‟s shyness in the classroom were mentioned by students interviewed when they were engaged in teaching English. Finally, to reduce foreign language anxiety teaching, some pedagogical implications are recommended for English language teachers and English pre-service teachers so as to diminish English pre-service teachers‟ level of anxiety during teaching English. Moreover, this study recommended some suggestions for further study in this area. Keywords: Foreign language anxiety, Gender, English as a foreign language, Iraqi Kurdish pre-service teachers.