Student anxiety and the identification of its effect in the speaking compenent of a proficiency test

The aim of the current study is to investigate whether the preparatory school students at a university may have speaking test anxiety. Additionally, it was examined whether there are differences in anxiety levels among students according to gender and the students' departments. To collect data, 126 preparatory school students were given a GEPT (General English Proficiency Test) Scale consisting 3 categories. The 36 items in the questionnaire were subjected to Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) to determine the sub-categories of the scale. Moreover, 33 students were interviewed to get their opinions on how to overcome speaking test anxiety. Both quantitative and qualitative method design was applied to be able to answer the research questions. The data was analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences software (SPSS), version 17.0. The results showed that, preparatory school students were anxious during the speaking test. Also, it was found out that male students were much more relaxed during the speaking test comparing to female students. As for the departments, students in law department were more worried comparing to others. Students also believe they can overcome the speaking anxiety by doing speaking activities, making foreign friends, talking to their native teachers and going abroad. Those results were discussed within the context of relevant literature. Key words: English speaking anxiety, English speaking test anxiety