Foreign Language Anxiety Experienced by the First-Year Ed Students of SWCU

Lembar Pengesahan tidak disertai tanda tangan dosen pembimbingForeign language anxiety (FLA) is a phenomenal issue and mainly a negative factor which can hamper foreign language learning (FLL). By knowing the fact that FLA has negative impact on the achievement of FLL, this study was conducted to investigate the level of FLA experienced by the first-year ED students, who attended ED, Satya Wacana Christian University in August 2011. This study was also aimed to know what type of FLA which was frequently experienced and how the students in each level experienced certain type of FLA. Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), proposed by Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986) which was translated to Indonesian, was used in collecting the data. The FLCAS covers three components of FLA, which are communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation. The questionnaire was administered to 43 first-year ED students. A descriptive narrative analysis was used to analyze the participants’ responses. The finding suggested that the existence of FLA was obviously clear. It was found that the participants experienced various levels of FLA, which were at “very relaxed� level (6.98%), “relaxed� level (37.21%), “anxious� level (39.53%), and “mildly anxious� level (16.28%). In addition, test anxiety was found as the type of FLA which was frequently experienced by the first-year ED students, followed by communication apprehension, then fear of negative evaluation. They also experienced FLA in terms of nervousness and confusion in speaking or answering questions in English. Also, they were afraid of being laughed or being less competent than their peers