Young learners' foreign language anxiety level and anxiety sources

The aim of the study is to investigate the Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA) among young learners by questioning the level of FLA among young learners and by explaining the sources of young learners' FLA. Anxiety affects language learners negatively during the foreign language learning process (Dewaele, 2009; Horwitz et al., 1986; Gregersen & Horwitz, 2002), and several language learners suffer from the FLA, causing failure in language classes; thus, this study focuses on what causes FLA among young learners, and what extent young learners' anxiety level differs in terms of age, gender, academic achievement, economic situation, parents' education level, parental expectation, and learning experience. It was designed as a mixed methods research to investigate the different perspectives drawn from both qualitative and quantitative data. The quantitative data were collected by the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) (Aydın, Harputlu, Uştuk, Güzel, & Çelik, 2017b), which was adapted for young learners from the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) of Horwitz et al. FLCAS (1986) while the qualitative data were gathered by semi-structured interviews. The universe of the study was Karasu and the sample of the study was 8 different public secondary schools which are located in the city center. The quantitative data were gathered from 380 students who study at 5th, 6th, and 7th grades, and semi-structured interviews were held with seven of the students who had a high level of anxiety according to results of FLCAS. According to the results, the young learners had a moderate level of FLA at the class and FLA effects of all the variables which are age, gender, academic achievement, economic situation, parents' education level, parental expectation, and learning experience were analyzed and discussed. It was found in the study that age, gender, academic achievement, parent's education level, and parental expectation had effects on young learners' FLA. Also, considering the interviews, suddenly asked questions by the teacher, not being able to answer the questions, having low marks, teachers, difficult subjects, writing long articles, and some classroom activities cause FLA among the young learners. In the study, all these findings were discussed in detail and suggestions were presented for the educators and language teachers.