Profiling English language learning anxiety among selected rural area secondary school students in Malaysia: a case study

• Main Authors: Idrus, Faizah, Tuan AB Hamid, Tuan Mohamed Hanif
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sciedu Press 2021
• Subjects: L Education (General); LB Theory and practice of education; LB1603 Secondary Education. High schools
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/88219/8/88219_Profiling-English-Language-Learning-Anxiety-among-Selected-Rural-Area-Secondary-School-Students-in-Malaysia.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/88219/; https://www.eajournals.org/wp-content/uploads/Profiling-English-Language-Learning-Anxiety-among-Selected-Rural-Area-Secondary-School-Students-in-Malaysia.pdf

Malaysians’ English proficiency is on a decline, and this phenomenon is extensively debated on its possible causes. With this come renewed interest towards English language anxiety as it is an internal factor of the learners which sometimes can be overlooked. An investigation was conducted on rural area secondary school students in Selangor, where the schools are already impeded by facility and resource deprivations. A total of 311 non-examination students from three different schools in Kuala Selangor, one of the rural areas in the state, were administered a questionnaire which adopted a composite of Foreign language anxiety surveys, measuring their level of anxiety towards the English language classroom according to the four language skills (reading, listening, speaking, writing). Results indicated students in the rural area secondary schools experience moderate to high levels of anxiety inside the English language classroom, in tandem with Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) definition and classification of Foreign Language Anxiety along with other pioneering works in the field. The result demonstrated the commonality of language anxiety across different demographic settings. By gauging the level of anxiety among rural area secondary school learners, targeted interventions can be implemented in order to reduce its effect on the students who already face limitations on learning resource and infrastructure.