Anxiety in Foreign Language Learners: A Case Study of Kurdish Students

The study was carried out to investigate foreign language anxiety levels of high school students in grade 11th from a Kurdish setting in Kurdistan, Iraq, as well as to figure out the factors that are responsible for their anxiety. The sample population of this study consists of 87 students from two high schools in Irbil. All the participants in this study are native speakers of Kurdish studying English as a foreign language (EFL). The instruments used in this study are background questionnaire, Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), open ended questions and researcher’s field note. The results of this study show that public Kurdish high school students experienced language anxiety. The main factors causing anxiety in the context of this study are learners’ attitudes and beliefs regarding English language learning; classmates’ level of speaking ability; teacher-student interaction in class; the teacher’s questioning when students are not prepared; and unannounced pop quizzes; and the teacher’s explanation in class through explicit means. Among other significant factors are seeing others speaking better English; fear of being laughed at by others; others’ thoughts and reactions when they speak English. In this regard, the findings in this study are in line with those of previous studies, such as Chan and Wu (2004), Young (1991), Young (1994), MacIntyre (1995), Awan, et al. (2010). This study adds to the body of knowledge on the understanding of EFL learners' level of anxiety and factors that cause anxiety.