Assessing Oral Test Anxiety and Its Proximal Variables

The present study primarily aims to investigate the relationship between oral test anxiety and its nine contextual/personal variables. 306 non-English majors in a Chinese university participated in a face-to-face oral English proficiency test and then a questionnaire survey which involved 8 variables selected on the basis of previous research and a preliminary study. It was revealed that students’ average score of general test anxiety as measured by TAI was 37 and they experienced medium degree of oral test anxiety. Correlational analysis demonstrated a positive significant correlation between oral test anxiety and three factors – general test anxiety, perceived test difficulty and examiner impact. Five variables including oral test performance, self-efficacy, previous oral testing experience, preparedness, perceived test difficulty, perceived time constraint were found to relate inversely to oral test anxiety. Gender was shown to have no significant association with the dependent variable. According to the results of the stepwise regression, six of the nine independent variables contributed to the prediction of oral test anxiety. General test anxiety made the greatest contribution, followed by perceptions of difficulty, self-efficacy, examiner impact, oral test performance and preparedness. This study sheds light on the possible sources of anxiety in oral English tests.