The relationship between foreign language anxiety and decision-making strategies among university students

Abstract

A growing number of researches have stressed the significance of foreign language anxiety in foreign language learning like Horwitz (1986), Conway (2007) and Elaldı (2016). However, these studies have generally demonstrated foreign language anxiety to be associated with foreign language achievement not with 21st century skills particularly decision-making strategies. Based on this, this study aims to identify the relationship between foreign language anxiety and decision-making strategies among university students Moreover, university students’ demographic information such as gender, high-school background, and exposure to English was also investigated.

 The study adopted a survey-based research method. First, a demographic inventory was provided to participants to collect certain personal details for research questions. Then, two scales, Turkish adaptations of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) (Şakrak, 2009) and Decision-making Scale developed by Zaimoğlu (2018) were conducted to students respectively. The results presented that FLA and Decision-making vary in terms of gender, language background, high school background and exposure to English levels separately. Furthermore, for students’ FLA and Decision-making strategies, a considerable negative difference was found. This study provides possible suggestions for future research, and makes implications for foreign language learning.