A Study on Foreign Language Anxiety of College Students in an Intensive English Program

The purpose of this study is to investigate the Foreign Language Anxiety(FLA) of 127 undergraduate students in a four week Intensive TOEIC program and its relationship to changes in TOEIC scores. The participants’ TOEIC scores from their first week and after the program were compiled to measure their improvement. The students’ data were then assessed on the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) to explore the connection with TOEIC Listening Comprehension (LC) and Reading Comprehension (RC) score changes between different level classes. FLA is divided into six variables: communication anxiety, test anxiety, class anxiety, peer anxiety, instructor anxiety, and foreigner anxiety. The goal is to trace students’ FLCAS statistics and its impact on changes in student scores throughout the program. This study also included the instructors’ semi-structured interviews with students and their reflection on intensive programs. The study results reveal that FLA is correlated with the TOEIC score differently between the two different level groups, High TOEIC score Class (HTC) and Low TOEIC score Class (LTC). HTC showed less statistical difference in FLA variables while LTC indicated a stronger correlation of FLCAS variables with TOEIC achievement. The implication of the study discusses the necessity of the teachers’ consideration of the students’ level difference and FLA at the same time.