Profiling english language learning anxiety of selected rural area secondary school students in Selangor :a case study

Abstract

This study investigated the phenomena of English Language Learning Anxiety among selected secondary school students in rural area of Selangor. It studied the relationship between two different anxiety English language skills; listening and speaking, and their correlations. A quantitative survey was administered on 311 students in rural area secondary schools by utilising a composite questionnaire of adapting multiple language learning anxiety scales, mainly the Foreign Language Anxiety Scale, English Language Listening Anxiety, English Language Speaking Anxiety, English Language Reading Anxiety and English Language Writing Anxiety. Descriptive analysis and Pearson Correlation analysis was utilised to extract required information regarding the English language learning anxiety among secondary school students in Selangor. The result showed the students in all three schools in the three different districts experience moderate to high level of anxiety in learning the English language inside the classroom. A positive correlation was also discovered between the English listening anxiety and English speaking anxiety from the data collected. These findings point to the fact that language learning anxiety occurs inside the classroom even in rural area secondary schools in Selangor, and it is debilitative to the students’ acquisition of the English language. The correlation of anxiety between the two language skills paves a way to formulating methods that can solve the problem simultaneously. This research is hoped to provide additional information to the existing literature by focusing on the rural area secondary schools, an area which needs more coverage in terms of English Language Anxiety.