Foreign language learning anxiety of high school students in Kosovo

Second language learning is a complex process. Learning the vocabulary and grammar structures, even developing the necessary skills for communication may not be enough. You also need to learn about the culture of the foreign language. While this might be found enjoyable for some students, others might find the process threatening and may experience anxiety in the language classroom. Anxiety has a great negative effect on learning a foreign language. This study investigated the degree of foreign language classroom anxiety of Turkish High School Students in Kosovo. Moreover, it aims to find out if there are any differences between the anxiety levels of the learners in terms of their achievement in the foreign language, knowing more than one language and type of high school. This study was conducted with 169 learners of English in four different high school contexts; Technical High School, The High School of Economics, Medical High School and Science High School with 169 students. All of them were the first grade students. The data collected through Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) questionnaire were statistically analyzed to identify students' anxiety levels. The questionnaire was administered to the subjects in their regular class hours in different school settings. Their mid-term grades were gained from their class teachers to identify the relationship between their level of anxiety and their success measured by their course grades. The relationship between learners' anxiety and their language background and their education context was also analyzed statistically. The analysis of the results revealed that students learning English generally experience a moderate level of language anxiety. No significant relationship was identified between students' foreign language anxiety scores and their level of success, between being monolingual and multilingual. Their educational context and their level of anxiety did not correlate either. According to the results of the study, foreign language anxiety cannot be considered a negative psychological phenomena in Kosovo. Keywords: Foreign language anxiety, achievement, language background, educational background