Foreign language speaking test anxiety and the investigation of potential underlying sources

This study aimed to investigate whether non-compulsory preparatory program students of Harran University experienced foreign language speaking test anxiety, and if so, what the potential underlying sources were. Besides, the study also aimed to investigate whether there were any significant differences between the students' foreign language speaking test anxiety and their genders and faculties. The study was conducted with 81 students who were enrolled in the Faculty of Science and Letters, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Agriculture. Both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods were utilized as to clarify the research questions of the study. Two different surveys were administered to the 81 students who participated in the study. The first survey was an adapted version of Wang and Liao's (2012) General English Proficiency Test Anxiety Scale; and it aimed to measure the existence and the level of the participants' foreign language speaking test anxiety. The second one was adapted from the survey utilized in Timina's (2015) study; and it aimed to investigate the sources underlying the students' speaking test anxiety. The data, collected through the both surveys, were analysed with the help of the version 23.0 of SPSS. Besides the surveys, 12 of the students were randomly selected as to have semi-structured interviews together to collect more detailed information regarding the sources of speaking test anxiety. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, translated and they were subjected to content analysis. The analysis results of the quantitative data collected through the first survey demonstrated that the participants experienced a moderate level of foreign language speaking test anxiety. It was also revealed that the female participants were significantly more speaking test-anxious than their male counterparts. However, no statistically significant differences were found between the students' speaking test anxiety and their faculties. The second survey demonstrated that the students' speaking test anxiety stemmed from personal, socio-cultural and performance-based sources. Some more detailed and diverse themes were obtained from the content analysis of the student interviews and these themes were put into categories. The categories were, later on, combined with the ones that were revealed from the quantitative analysis. As a result of the combination of quantitative and qualitative findings, it was concluded that the students' foreign language speaking test anxiety stemmed from six main sources: performance-based and instructional sources, socio-cultural sources, personal sources, physical environmental sources, fear of negative evaluation and perfectionism.