Foreign language student teacher anxiety

This study aimed to find out the level and sources of foreign language student teaching anxiety experienced by Turkish EFL student throughout the teaching practicum and to investigate the relationship between language proficiency level of foreign language student teachers and the level of anxiety they experience was examined.405 student teachers participated in the study. The research tools were the Student Teacher Anxiety Scale (STAS) developed by Hart (1987), the Foreign Language Student Teacher Anxiety Scale (FLSTAS), developed for this study, diaries kept by student teachers, and semi-structured interviews.The quantitative analysis of the data revealed that student teachers from different majors of study experience a moderate level of anxiety both at the beginning and towards the end of the teaching practicum and there was a significant difference between the anxiety levels of the student teachers from different majors of study at the beginning and at the end of the practicum. Moreover, the level of anxiety experienced by student EFL teachers was distinguishable from the anxiety experienced by student teachers teaching in other disciplines. A significant decrease in the overall anxiety levels of the foreign language student teachers from the beginning to the end of the teaching practice was also found. The results of the study indicated no significant relationship between language proficiency and foreign language student teacher anxiety. Finally, the analysis of the qualitative data revealed six main categories as the sources of foreign language student teacher anxiety: students and class profiles, classroom management, teaching procedures, being observed, mentors, and miscellaneous.