Abstract
The present study focuses on the link between foreign language anxiety (FLA), self-perceived proficiency, and multilingualism in the under-explored English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context of Saudi Arabia. Ninety-six Arabic undergraduate college-level EFL students (56 males, 40 females) answered the Arabic version of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS – Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986). The analyses revealed that Saudi multilinguals suffered from low to moderate levels of FLA with female participants experiencing more anxiety than their male counterparts. Multiple regression analyses revealed that gender and self-perceived proficiency explained over a quarter of variance in FLA. Furthermore, the study did not find any role of experience abroad in predicting FLA.
Citation
Bensalem, E. (2019), "Multilingualism and foreign language anxiety: the case of Saudi EFL learners", Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: Gulf Perspectives, Vol. 15 No. 2, pp. 47-60. https://doi.org/10.18538/lthe.v15.n2.314
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018 Bensalem, E
License
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
Acknowledgements
Publisher's note: The Publisher would like to inform the reader that the article “Multilingualism and foreign language anxiety: the case of Saudi EFL learners” has changed pagination. Previous pagination was pp. 1-14. The updated pagination for the article is now pp. 47-60. The Publisher apologises for any inconvenience caused.