The Sources of Foreign Language Reading Anxiety of Students in a Turkish Efl Context

Abstract

In the recent years, why and how anxiety influences the acquisition of certain skills like speaking, listening, writing and reading have attracted the attention of many researchers. Among these skills, one area which little research exists is the relationship between reading in a foreign language (FL) and anxiety. This study aimed at finding the sources of FL reading anxiety from the students' perspectives. For this purpose, 50 first year students were taken as the subjects. Quantitative findings indicated that FL reading anxiety was a phenomenon related to, but distinct from general FL anxiety. Moreover, three main sources of FL reading anxiety were identified through qualitative analyses: the personal factors, the reading text and the reading course. As a result of the study some suggestions for dealing with the FL reading anxiety were proposed.