Foreign Language Anxiety

To better understand why some language learners have more difficulty acquiring a target language, there has been a relatively recent increase in research into potential relationships between foreign language acquisition and affective variables (see Gardner, 1997). The present research utilises a case study design, drawing on multiple sources of information regarding the experiences of female college students in a private college’s English as a Foreign Language (EFL) programme in Saudi Arabia. A combination of factors – the importance of learning English, the changes in the educational system, and the conservative culture – create a unique and intriguing environment for researching anxiety related to studying EFL. To gain insight into the learner’s perspective of how foreign language anxiety (FLA) operates and to create a model of EFL learning that is consistent with the students’ experiences, questionnaires, individual and group interviews, field notes, and informal classroom observations were used. <p> The results of ten case studies, five from level 1 (novel EFL learners) and five from level 3 (more experienced EFL learners), are examined and compared. Finally, the implications along with suggested recommendations for EFL teachers and policy makers in Saudi Arabia, are discussed. <p&gt