The relationship between the level of anxiety and oral and written performance

In this study, it is aimed to find out the level of anxiety that students experience in English which was learned and taught as a foreign language in Turkey, and it is also aimed to investigate the level of anxiety of students in accordance with different independent variables such as their gender, the level of their English, and also the correlation between the level of spoken and written anxiety. The participants are 242 students who were chosen with the help of simple random sampling from two state high schools in Bodrum, Muğla for the study. In order to be able to determine the level of their spoken anxiety, a 33-statement-questionnaire developed by Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) was used, and to determine the level of their written anxiety, a 22-statement-questionnaire developed by Cheng (2004) was used as the data collection tools. They are both 5-point-likert scale questionnaires. In the fallowing process, a placement test provided by Cambridge University Press was used as a data collection tool to determine the students' English level. On the basis of research objectives and hypotheses, the entire research analysis has been made for getting fruitful outcome. In the study it was found that female students are anxious than the male students during their written performance.The study also found out that that there is a negative relationship between English level of the students and both written and spoken anxiety, which means as the level of their English decreases, the anxiety they have in spoken and written performance increase. Hence, it is understood that more advanced students in English have less anxiety. And there is a positive relationship between their written and spoken anxiety which is understood that as spoken anxiety level increases, written anxiety level increases as well. As a result, it has been identified that the anxiety level, which high school students are having, affects their learning of foreign language in Turkey. Keywords: Foreign language anxiety, spoken and written anxiety, foreign language level, female and male learners