Examination of the relationship between lower secondary school students' metacognitive awareness and foreign language learning anxiety

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between 8th grade students' metacognitive awareness and foreign language learning anxiety. In addition, students' metacognitive awareness and foreign language learning anxiety were discussed in terms of variances such as gender, school type, education level of parents, study time and academic performance. The study was designed in accordance with the correlational survey, which is one of the quantitative methods. The study was carried out with the participation of 538 lower secondary school students in Kuşadası district of Aydın province, in 2020-2021 education year. The data were obtained through "Personal Information Form", "Metacognitive Awareness Scale" and "Foreign Language Learning Anxiety Scale". The obtained data of the research were analysed with descriptive statistics, comparative statistics, and multiple regression analysis. As a result of the research, it has been found out that metacognitive awareness of the students is at high level. Students' metacognitive awareness does not show significant differences in terms of school type and education level of parents whereas it differs significantly in terms of gender, study time and academic performance. Foreign language learning anxiety of the students is at moderate level. Students' foreign language learning anxiety shows significant differences in terms of gender, school type, education level of parents, study time and academic performance. The results also show that there are a lowlevel and negative relationship between metacognitive awareness and foreign language learning anxiety. It is determined that the knowledge of cognition, which is the dimension of metacognitive awareness, predicts foreign language learning anxiety at a low-level both in general and on the basis of sub-dimensions. Keywords: metacognitive awareness, foreign language learning anxiety, lower secondary school students