Differences In Anxiety Levels In The Strategic Learning Of A Foreign Language According To Gender, Course And Type Of School

Anxiety is one of the affective factors that play a significant role in the acquisition of a foreign language (Brown, Robson and Rosenkjar, 2001; Hashimoto, 2002; Horwitz, 1986). Horwitz and Cope (1986) identified a specific type of anxiety in foreign language learning that is associated to the formal acquisition of linguistic skills in the classroom and considers the process of foreign language learning as an experience that may cause anxiety to people who are not normally predisposed to it. Most studies show that anxiety correlates negatively to performance (Dewaele, 2002; Hashimoto, 2002; Horwitz, 1986; Horwitz y Cope, 1986; Liu y Huang, 2011) and may cause problems related to self-esteem, self-confidence and to the ability to take risks which in the end hinder the capacity to communicate in a foreign language. The objective of this research is to determine whether there are differences in the levels of foreign language anxiety in males and females and also in different courses: Third and Fourth year of Secondary Education and First year of High School in public and private schools. The questionnaire FLCAS (Foreign Language Class Anxiety Scale) by Horwitz and Cope (1986) was applied to a sample of 564 subjects (309 males and 254 females) studying 3rd (41,030%) and 4th (28,597%) of ESO and 1st of Bachillerato (30,373%) in two different schools in the Community of Madrid (41,7%, state school and 58,3% private school). The instrument is composed of 33 items distributed in four dimensions: communicative apprehension, anxiety towards the processes and situations of foreign language learning, security in the use of the foreign language inside and outside the classroom and negative attitudes towards learning. The internal consistency is .93 and reliability .83. T student was used for the statistical analysis. The independent variable was gender or type of school and the dimensions of the questionnaire the dependant variable. For the differences in course ANOVA was used with course (three levels) as independent variable and the anxiety dimensions as dependant variable. Scheffe was used for the post-hoc contrasts. Results show that females present higher anxiety levels than males who feel more secure in the use of a foreign language inside and outside the classroom. High school students present higher levels of communicative anxiety and towards the learning processes and situations and consequently a negative attitude towards foreign language learning. Pupils in public schools show higher levels of foreign language anxiety than those in private schools.