The Role of Teachers in Reducing/Increasing Listening Comprehension Test Anxiety: A Case of Iranian EFL Learners

Abstract

Three components have been introduced for foreign language learning anxiety in the literature: Test anxiety, fear of negative evaluation and communication apprehension. This study teases out the first of the three components with special focus on listening comprehension test to investigate the correlation between listening test results and foreign language anxiety. More importantly, the study aims at questioning the role teachers can play in either alleviating or aggravating the anxiety which has been triggered in the listening test takers. For this purpose, a number of 60 intermediate-level EFL learners participated in the study. To measure the level of anxiety in the testees, a modified and translated version of foreign language class anxiety scale (FLCAS) (developed by Horwtiz, Horwitz, and Cope, p. 1986) was used to be correlated with the testees’ scores in listening comprehension test. The results showed a moderate but significant negative correlation between FLCAS and listening comprehension (r=-.469). To answer the second research question, the high anxious participants underwent a treatment, which was designed to alleviate their foreign language learning anxiety. Immediately after the treatment, another listening comprehension test was administered to them to find out whether the treatment session can influence the test results. Using the statistical technique of t-test, the results showed that the high anxious informants had a significant improvement in the second listening comprehension test results due to the reduction of their level of anxiety in the treatment session. Finally, some suggestions were made to the teachers who seek to alleviate the amount of anxiety in their students.