The relationship between students' success and their level of foreign language anxiety and the primary sources of foreign language speaking anxiety

This thesis aims to examine the relationship between students' success in English and their foreign language anxiety level. For this purpose, 147 first year students in Mersin University were chosen as the participants. At the same time, the relationship between students' genders, departments and their foreign language anxiety level were investigated. The other purpose of this study is to investigate the primary sources of the foreign language anxiety in general and foreign language speaking anxiety in particular from students' perspective. In order to find out the sources, five students were chosen randomly among the 147 participants and they contributed the study with their own opinions and perspectives. For this study data were collected by implementing a questionnaire and applying interview questions to the participants. Moreover, the data collected from participants were analyzed considering variables such as gender and department. At the result chapter, the analysis were defined and discussed in order to be a source and a different perspective for the further researches. The findings of the study presented that students' genders and departments were not anxiety-provoking factors. There was a significant relationship between students' success and anxiety levels. The more success level increased, the less anxiety level decreased. The moderate negative correlation was found between them. Finally, the primary sources of foreign language speaking anxiety were found as fear of making mistake, lack of vocabulary, and teachers' manner as a result of this study.