Language Learning Strategies and Classroom Anxiety

Language Learning Strategies and Classroom Anxiety Mohsen Ghadessy University of Brunei Darussalam

Abstract A good deal of research in EFL/ESL in the last ten years has focused on language learning strategies and students’ anxiety when they learn another language. Two of the more popular measurement instruments for strategies and anxiety have been proposed by Oxford (1990) and Horwitz et al. (1986), respectively. The first instrument, Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL), consisting of six sets of “direct” and “indirect” strategies, includes only six questions, out of a total of 50, on anxiety under a set of “indirect affective st`rategies”. The second test, Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), includes 33 questions, all related to anxiety. Although both tests have been administered widely in relation to a number of factors such as sex and proficiency in English, there is no study to date of the correlation between the two sets of measurements. The purpose of the present study is to administer the two tests to a number of university students in Hong Kong in order to find out the relationship between language learning strategies and students’ anxiety for male and female students with the same or different English language proficiency levels. Implications of the findings for classroom teaching will also be discussed.