Second language anxiety among year 5 primary school learners in SK King George V

Abstract

It is believed that learners learning English as a second language class are having difficulties where they tend to be more conscious and anxious during the learning and teaching process. Since anxiety can influence the second language learning and acquisition, it is necessary to increase the awareness of the problem. The effects might not too serious but it could disturb the learning acquisition of the language. This study investigates the second la language anxiety experienced by group primary school students while learning English. In particular, the study explores the level of language anxiety, the contributing factors to the anxiety, the significant correlation of anxiety between male and female students as well as the relationship of previous final examination grades with the feeling of anxiety of 74 primary school learners in Sekolah Kebangsaan King George V, Seremban. The instrument used in this study was a set of questionnaire adapted from Foreign Language Class Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) designed by Horwitz (1983). Among the factors investigated include Communication Apprehension, Fear of Negative Evaluation and General Feeling of Anxiety. The data obtained were analyzed by using SPSS 16.0. The descriptive statistics provided results in terms of percentage, frequency and t-Test. It is found that these learners have high level anxiety level. There are significant correlation of anxiety of gender and achievement in previous final examination.