Secondary and High School Students’ Speaking Anxiety: A comparative Study

This study aims to explore the weather or not the learners in Erenköy Lychee experience foreign language classroom anxiety in the process of foreign language learning. The study involved a sample group of language learners who were studying both in secondary and high school of Erenköy Lychee. The Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (Horwitz, 1986) was administered to the learners. The outcome of the questionnaire provided quantitative and qualitative data. The participants involved 100 students who volunteered in 2013-2014 academic year. The study intended to investigate the level of anxiety experienced by foreign language learners at the Erenköy Lychee. In addition, the study considered the role of anxiety in language learning. The first research question intended to examine the level of anxiety experienced by students who were studying in Erenköy Lychee. Moreover, the study examined the factors which reinforce anxiety. In general the study intended to find out whether students in Erenköy Lychee feel anxious in communication activities or not. The second research question intended to investigate the major stressors which provoke anxiety. The third research question investigates how these factors affect speaking anxiety. The results obtained through the study provide some useful information for the second language research. The study revealed the following results, * The majority of the participants who were studying in high school were highly anxious about language learning. Whereas, secondary school students did not feel much anxious as high school students did. * For the secondary school students, their peers in the classroom are the most anxiety provoking factors but for high school students, communication activities are the major cause of anxiety. Keywords: language learning, foreign language anxiety, secondary school students, high school students, Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS)